In Response: “Why Are Christian Movies So Painfully Bad?”

A response to the article by Vox news.

I’ll be honest, when I read this article, it made me angry, but not for the reason you might think.

This recent article by Vox News highlights a film I doubt most people have heard of, “Old Fashioned.” “Old Fashioned” is a Christian film, and a direct response to the recent release of the book series-turned movies, Fifty Shades of Grey. The film tells the story of a small-town, Midwest girl who meets a man named Mr. Walsh. In any other movie, this is where the romance would begin, right? Not so for Old Fashioned. In the movie, Mr. Walsh is depicted as an extremely conservative, old fashioned man with outdated ideas of romance and love. The plot centers around the relationship between the two characters, which is about as “sterilized,” as the writer from Vox News so aptly puts it, and lacking as any to hit the screens.

The entire premise of this film is that it is not Fifty Shades of Grey. And on some level, I have to commend the concept. Giving people another option to see on Valentine’s Day weekend is a great way to combat a film like Fifty Shades that focuses so much on sex and abusive relationships and has brought about news stories like this one:

USA Today: Student arrested after re-enacting “Fifty Shades of Grey” scene

There’s no doubt that Fifty Shades of Grey is dangerous, abusive, and sick. But should the Christian response to it be something to in-your-face and downright terrible?

Then again, there are some pretty awful secular movies out there too. So, then, why does this film get highlighted as the example of the Christian film industry?

The answer? Because while the secular industry produces mostly good movies, even a few great ones, along with a handful of really awful ones, the Christian film industry has done pretty much the opposite, with a handful of decent movies and a whole truckload of bad ones.

So why are these Christian films so bad after all? As children of the Creator, shouldn’t we be the most creative people on the planet? Shouldn’t Christians be the ones leading the charge?

The reason, I believe, that the Christian film industry, and “Old Fashioned” is a perfect example of this, is so bad is because the premise for making the film in the first place is all wrong. “Old Fashioned” was not written or created as an expression of art, or emotion, or to tell a story, as creative works should be. It was not inspired. The only reason this film was created was to start a fight, to spark a debate, and to paint Christians and the idea of “Christian romance” as something better, something higher than that of the world, with this holier-than-thou attitude that the world has come to associate with Christians seeping through every line.

And that right there is the reason this film makes me so angry. Because this is not the way Jesus would have reacted, by picking a fight. Jesus was never in the business of picking fights, and he was never in the business of attempting to guilt-trip those who were lost. While this film and far too much of the Christian film industry places itself up on a pedestal, far away from the “darkness” of the world, Jesus reaches down into the dirtiest part of humanity, into the grime and the soil and the root of all evil, and he gets his hands dirty with it. He walks alongside those whom society hated, and through his loving example, perhaps they grow and change.

Why are Christian movies so painfully bad? Because the heart behind them is all wrong. Because instead of reaching out in compassion and love, with hearts wide open and ready for faith or rejection or whatever may come, Christians are instead drawing back, in fear, protecting their hearts so fiercely that absolutely nothing can get through to them. If Christian films are going to get any better, and if they are ever going to make a difference in this world, then it’s time we climbed out of our protective little bubble, and start being vulnerable to the world.

It’s time we stop pretending that we can protect ourselves from the big, bad, world out there, or protect out kids from it. The world will get to them no matter what we do. And the best way to prepare them for that is to expose them to it. To teach Christians not to be afraid of the world, but to reach into it, to become a part of it. Because lights shine brightest in the darkest of places.