Battling Babylon
KARNICK, S.T.
Battling Babylon Why Christians should be watching, not boycotting, movies. by S.T. KARNICK Christians and Hollywood have usually been at odds with each other, and given that the American movie...
...As another contributor notes, "In poll after poll, the esteemed sociologist George Barna reaffirms Christians go to the movies at the exact same rate as the rest of the country...
...Given the attitudes prevalent among Hollywood's film industry, that seems an unlikely prospect...
...No press conferences...
...Hence, another argues, "the only way to change the product coming out of Hollywood is to change the hearts of the people producing them"— by Christianizing them, as it were...
...making shows for them...
...No boycotts...
...The events depicted in a film are not all-important...
...Given that Christians already go to films as regularly as the rest of the population, an increase in attendance—and greater sophistication in choosing which movies to support— would surely have an effect...
...That, as Bock notes, would be good for everybody...
...As one contributor astutely notes, Christians' criticism of the film industry has been counterproductive, as executives "see Christians as negative people who . . . won't watch no matter what we make, so why bother S. T. Karnick is an associate fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research...
...Even sympathetic treatments, such as NBC's recent series The Book of Daniel, seem to take pains to be as edgy and snide as possible in their depiction of all things Christian...
...Bock is certain that this is possible because, according to the Gallup Poll, 43 percent of Americans attend church every Sunday—over 120 million people: "Christians are a gigantic, if unreliable, market...
...Hence, as another contributor acknowledges, Christian art need not be explicitly religious in content— which should be an obvious point but has been largely underappreciated in contemporary believers' encounters with the arts: A television show doesn't need to have an angel in the cast to be about mercy...
...Behind the Screen makes the practical, intellectual, and theological case for such an effort...
...Unfortunately, for a serious investor to gain a foothold in the entertainment industry would require a minimum of $10 billion, because a firm cannot survive in the modern international market unless it holds the same sort of vertically and horizontally integrated components as the current conglomerates...
...Christians' well-known complaint is that Hollywood films and TV programs generally disparage Christianity and promote immorality...
...One astute contributor holds up GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, as a model for how to engage Hollywood: Contact producers, studios, and programmers directly to call attention to gratuitous offenses, and then offer positive suggestions—"in a non-confrontational tone"—about how future media products could be made more authentic and more sensitive to Christians...
...Bock correctly notes that Christians are "of the lineage of Michelangelo, Raphael, Shakespeare, Lewis, Tolkien, and Caravaggio," and that "there was a time when Christians were the undisputed masters of art and literature...
...KARNICK Christians and Hollywood have usually been at odds with each other, and given that the American movie and television industries turn a tidy, regular profit, it has become clear to many Christians that they will have to be the ones to mend the breach...
...This is absolutely correct: Christians should become more attuned to the real, often subtle, meanings behind various works of art and should be far quicker to praise the persons responsible for these good works...
...No marches...
...Bock points out the benefits Christians can expect from a better relationship with Hollywood: more respectful treatment in movies, as producers make sure not to offend a serious cash cow...
...The attempt to build a parallel Christian culture during the past couple of decades has only reinforced that impression...
...Moreover, it has failed aesthetically because the quality standards have been too low, and it has not succeeded in pulling Christians away from Hollywood fare...
...On the whole, contributors say, Christians have been too negative, too philistine, and too unsophisticated in their approach to the entertainment industry...
...The authors here accept that premise but tend to blame Christians for the problem...
...Since the 1960s, Hollywood has frequently gone out of its way to characterize Christians and Christianity as narrow-minded, foolish, and dangerous...
...The conflict between Christians and Hollywood will be solved not with the pen or the sword, but with our seats...
...what counts is what they mean...
...The world does not need a 'Christian cinema' so much as it needs more Christians in cinema," writes one contributor...
...Following this line of thought, several contributors (whose own careers show that Christians can make it in Hollywood without compromising their faith) provide invaluable insights into how those so inclined might follow that path...
...Sometimes," another writer observes, "it will serve the Truth to have the bad guys get away with murder...
...If we begin attending more films, we will become the largest moviegoing market in the world...
...Concentrating such efforts on younger denizens of Hollywood, however, shows promise...
...As the Christian public relations expert Jonathan Bock notes in his essay, the way to "change the culture for the betterment of everyone" is to "go to more movies...
...Of course, the best way to influence Hollywood is the old-fashioned way: Buy your way in...
...A film doesn't have to quote Scripture to put the Gospel in people's hearts...
...As many Christians have withdrawn into a "safe" religious subculture, "Mainstream culture has moved on without us, and the world of entertainment has coarsened in our absence...
...Clearly, Christian leaders' complaints about the industry are falling on deaf ears, even among their own followers...
...The authors are largely correct in that assessment, though there is more to the story than that...
...There is a good reason for this...
...For outsiders, however, gaining influence remains difficult...
...In that regard, Christian media critics can be immensely valuable—and to increase their influence, they should make every effort to push themselves into mainstream media outlets...
...Of course, few Hollywood writers see that as their mission, because "the principal reason for the moral confusion that ends up on the screen is the paucity of happy, well-catechized believers in the entertainment industry...
...and "perhaps most significant, over several years our labors will reintroduce the church to mainstream culture...
...Christians' bashing and boycotts certainly haven't changed Hollywood's ways...
...Another long-term approach that seems likely to work is for more Christians to go to Hollywood and work hard to succeed there...
...That is the real tragedy of the war between Hollywood and Christianity, and although Christians have by no means been the worst offenders in the fight, the contributors to Behind the Screen are correct to suggest that there is much we can do to end it...
...After all, Scripture itself depicts numerous horrible actions...
...Christians who criticize the media, a contributor notes, tend to count up the number of images they don't like in a film while failing to see the real meaning of the stories...
...In the meantime, there is something useful all believers can do to effect change in Hollywood...
...I want to write so that the Good News is so entwined in the muscle of what I am writing that it can't be stripped away, can't be disregarded...
...more of the movies we like and less of the ones we don't," as producers chase a large market...
...If the world will know us by our fruits, then by our cop shows and romantic comedies and thrillers they can know us too...
Vol. 11 • July 2006 • No. 40
