{"id":18021,"date":"2015-02-21T09:43:52","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T16:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=18021"},"modified":"2015-02-21T09:43:52","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T16:43:52","slug":"why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18022\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18022\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/02\/Filmmaking.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18022\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/02\/Filmmaking.jpg\" alt=\"Making a film\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18022\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On a movie set<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There is much \u2014 very much \u2014 in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful. \u00a0Antithetical to my value and beliefs and opposed, frankly, to those of many people, Mormon and non-Mormon alike, in Hollywood\u2019s audience.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I wish that there were a strong tradition of excellent Christian film-making. \u00a0I even have hopes for a great Mormon cinema.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I think it sad and dangerous that there\u2019s so little faithful movie-making out there, that we\u2019re subjected, without much real recourse, to\u00a0a cultural diet of movies and music that is, as things stand, overwhelmingly at odds with the values that many of us profess.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t have to be so. \u00a0There are great stories to be told. \u00a0(For example, the 2006 film <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Amazing_Grace_(2006_film)\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Amazing Grace<\/em><\/a> was a good, solid effort.)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But, so far, both Evangelical\u00a0and Mormon\u00a0movies have been . . . uneven. \u00a0Some peaks, and a lot of terribly broad and deep valleys. \u00a0And please don\u2019t ask me about Mormon pop music. \u00a0(Of course, maybe it\u2019s improved since I decided, quite a few years ago, to make a more determined\u00a0effort not to hear it. \u00a0I hope so.)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This article, although it\u2019s focused on Evangelical film-making, suggests some of the outlines of the problem:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2015\/2\/15\/8038283\/christian-movies-bad-old-fashioned-fifty-shades\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2015\/2\/15\/8038283\/christian-movies-bad-old-fashioned-fifty-shades<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 There is much \u2014 very much \u2014 in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful. \u00a0Antithetical to my value and beliefs and opposed, frankly, to those of many people, Mormon and non-Mormon alike, in Hollywood\u2019s audience. \u00a0 I wish that there were a strong tradition of excellent Christian film-making. \u00a0I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; There is much -- very much -- in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful. \u00a0Antithetical to my value and beliefs and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; There is much -- very much -- in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful. \u00a0Antithetical to my value and beliefs and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-21T16:43:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/02\/Filmmaking.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-21T16:43:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-21T16:43:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"&nbsp; &nbsp; There is much -- very much -- in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful. \u00a0Antithetical to my value and beliefs and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"&#8220;Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?&#8221;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?\"","description":"&nbsp; &nbsp; There is much -- very much -- in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful. \u00a0Antithetical to my value and beliefs and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?\"","og_description":"&nbsp; &nbsp; There is much -- very much -- in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful. \u00a0Antithetical to my value and beliefs and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2015-02-21T16:43:52+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/02\/Filmmaking.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html","name":"\"Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-02-21T16:43:52+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-21T16:43:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"&nbsp; &nbsp; There is much -- very much -- in and about Hollywood that is, to put it mildly, distasteful. \u00a0Antithetical to my value and beliefs and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/02\/why-are-christian-movies-so-painfully-bad.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"&#8220;Why are Christian movies so painfully bad?&#8221;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}