“Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?”

There is much — very much — in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful.  Antithetical to my value and beliefs and opposed, frankly, to those of many people, Mormon and non-Mormon alike, in Hollywood’s audience.

I wish that there were a strong tradition of excellent Christian film-making.  I even have hopes for a great Mormon cinema.

I think it sad and dangerous that there’s so little faithful movie-making out there, that we’re subjected, without much real recourse, to a cultural diet of movies and music that is, as things stand, overwhelmingly at odds with the values that many of us profess.

It doesn’t have to be so.  There are great stories to be told.  (For example, the 2006 film Amazing Grace was a good, solid effort.)

But, so far, both Evangelical and Mormon movies have been . . . uneven.  Some peaks, and a lot of terribly broad and deep valleys.  And please don’t ask me about Mormon pop music.  (Of course, maybe it’s improved since I decided, quite a few years ago, to make a more determined effort not to hear it.  I hope so.)

This article, although it’s focused on Evangelical film-making, suggests some of the outlines of the problem:

http://www.vox.com/2015/2/15/8038283/christian-movies-bad-old-fashioned-fifty-shades