The normal reaction to Christian movies comes with the words, "The acting's terrible." Well, maybe so; but is that the real problem, or is that problem caused by something we don't notice? To get an understanding of the "something else," let's backtrack way back to ancient history.
The authors wrote the New Testament in Koine ("koy-nay") Greek, that is, "common Greek." It was the language of the man on the street, fishermen, merchants hawking their wares, women drawing water from wells, children writing to parents, parents writing to their children, and families at the forum buying goods and services and gossiping. It was the language of the Roman Empire along with Latin. Most people were bi-lingual back then; that's why Paul could write to the Roman Christians in Rome in Koine Greek. Real writers writing to real people in a language of the earth, earthy.
A comparison would be good old Anglo-Saxon English, the speech of the longshoreman tying stevedore knots with gnarled hands in "On the Waterfront," as compared to the language of an English professor standing in his classroom, lecturing on the cognate accusative.
The dialogue in Christian movies is like that of the English professor--flat, stilted, delivered with perfect grammar, with no stumbling over words. Its dialogue is that of a writer, using words like "hoary" instead of "old," "animus," instead of "hate," and expressions like, "rough-hewn though he be." The problem is that nobody talks that way in real life (except academics and pastors). It doesn't come across as "real." The dialogue of the Christian movie gets close to what we hear when people recite the prayer, "Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies and our bodies to thy service," as well as, "Forgive us wherein we have failed thee."
It's like the Christian movie is taking place in a Potemkin Village.
THE POTEMKIN VILLAGE
"For Catherine's 1783 tour of new Russian possessions in the Crimea, a man named Potemkin endeavored to show her the best face of the empire. As the
story goes, pasteboard facades of pretty towns were set up at a distance
on riverbanks. At stops, she'd be greeted by regiments of Amazonian
snipers or fields set ablaze with exploding rockets
spelling her initials; whole populations of serfs were moved around and
dressed up in fanciful garb to flaunt a prosperity that didn't exist
(later precipitating famine in the region). Therefore, a "Potemkin
village" signifies any deceptive or false construct to deceive both those within the land and those peering
in from outside." (From "Time Magazine," Aug. 6, 2010)
Here's a script (with stage instructions to the actor) from a Christian movie which takes place on a baseball diamond:
Gerald: Why, John, why do you keep running away?
John: I'm not running away. (Slurring his words.)
Gerald: There's a beer can in your hand, John. You're drinking so you'll forget how your career has consumed your life and ruined your chances with Karen.
John: That's ridiculous. (At this point, the script asks for a close-up of John who's to show "big emotion on his face")
Gerald: But John, you're not just running away from yourself . . . you're running away from God.
Now you might be thinking, "But wait. I've heard people talk like that." You might have, but I'll bet the place you heard it was in a sermon or in church, not in a normal conversation on a baseball diamond. "Your career has consumed your life . . .," who talks that way on the ball field? How stilted is, "You're not just running away from yourself; you're running away from God"?
So, maybe it's not substandard acting; maybe it's the dialogue, a dialogue so wooden, so predictable, that even the most accomplished thespian would gag on it.
BUT THERE'S SOMETHING MORE FUNDAMENTAL
Asking presuppositional questions is like expecting a fish to ask, "Oh, my goodness, why am I breathing water?" We rarely ask them. Those involved in making and those involve in viewing Christian movies are like the fish; they don't ask the presuppositional questions, such as . . .
"Should a Christian film industry exist?" That's an important question, in the light of what we've talked about in an earlier article, where we asked, "Is film a proper venue to communicate the propositional truths of Christianity?" If the answer is "Yes," then what's the purpose? Evangelism? But we've seen that film is a poor venue for conveying the propositional truths of Christianity. That's because the gospel has to be explained. Movies are great at showing, but not explaining. A movie demands action, but a conversion is by its very nature passive. Once a movie starts explaining, especially with formal, stilted, and predictable dialogue, it gets preachy.
Or is the purpose of the Christian movie to get into the wallets of the Christian public? Not exactly a lofty motive.
Nor do we ask, "Should we copy Hollywood?" By doing so, are we not aping the world-system? That's something we're told NOT to do in Romans 12:1-2 and Colossians 3:2. The Christian movie maker and viewer want the Christian movie to walk like Hollywood, talk like Hollywood, and look like Hollywood, but, at the same time, not be like Hollywood. How do you do that?
Nor do we ask the question: "Why should we expect Christian movies to look
like Hollywood’s?" Have you ever seen a Christian movie, a church production, that out-Hollywoods Hollywood?" Impossible.Yet we expect it to do so, and we're disappointed, even critical, when it doesn't.
The above question has a spin-off question: "Why should we expect the non-Christian to admire the Christian movie and give it both accolades and awards? The world-system finds the gospel offensive. It often beats, imprisons, kills, and ridicules those who bear the message; it doesn't give them awards.
Look at this review of "Fireproof" by Entertainment Weekly:
"["Fireproof" is] a low-budget evangelical movie jam-packed with heartfelt tips for men
about how to save your marriage. Steps like: Order flowers for your
estranged wife — and good ones, not a bargain bouquet. Make her dinner
and light some candles. Accept Christ as your personal savior. And do
the dishes once in a while, will you? (In no particular order.)" That reviewer would give it no awards.
LAZY BONES
The Christian movie is the dream come true for the lazy, fearful Christian who's scared to take a risk.
"If I can just tell him to go see the movie, that will do the trick," i. e., "that will convert him," we think. More often than not, the Christian who's urging another to see the movie is like a person trying to get his overweight friend on a diet--he never tells the person, "Big boy, You're fat and need to lose the stomach, so get your biscuit hooks off the pizza, fries, and donuts."
Instead, he touts the diet as "giving energy" and various health benefits. The Christian recommends the movie as something other than it really is--a tool of evangelism. He doesn't tell his co-worker that the movie is a trap; he hides the agenda, which goes unrealized until the unsuspecting have bought their tickets and are sitting in the dark. It's only then that they realize, "We've been played." (One wonders how many unsuspecting husbands were tricked into watching "Fireproof.") Of course, that's not the movie's fault (unless it advertises itself as something other than it is); it only creates the opportunity for deception by deceptive people.
THE END OF THE CINDERELLA SERIES
The impression left us by the New Testament concerning evangelism is one person dialoguing with others in the milieu of life: sitting by a well, in a conversation at night, sitting in a chariot with an open Bible, in a jail cell, in a home, by a riverbank, in a rented room, in a rented hall, or in an ancient city's forum. At times, there were also discourses to crowds, sometimes large crowds, as in Acts 2.
There were plays in those days, a popular form of entertainment inherited from the Greeks, but the New Testament never says the early Christians ever wrote, produced, or acted in one to disseminate the good news.
Paul wrote his brothers and sisters in Christ a prayer request: ". . . that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should."
Whether film can "proclaim it clearly" is an neglected question.
____________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both available on Amazon.com.
A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is
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Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:
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