UPDATE: Christianity Today Critiques Movieguide's "Hollywood Stimulus Plan"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a display of uncharacteristically poor judgment, The Wall Street Journal has published the "Report to the Industry" by Movieguide's Ted Baehr and Tom\" \/>\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\/lookingcloser\/2009\/02\/christianity-today-critiques-movieguides-report-to-the-industry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UPDATE: Christianity Today Critiques Movieguide's "Hollywood Stimulus Plan"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a display of uncharacteristically poor judgment, The Wall Street Journal has published the "Report to the Industry" by Movieguide's Ted Baehr and Tom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2009\/02\/christianity-today-critiques-movieguides-report-to-the-industry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Looking Closer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-19T20:50:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-03-28T18:22:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey Overstreet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey Overstreet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2009\/02\/christianity-today-critiques-movieguides-report-to-the-industry\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2009\/02\/christianity-today-critiques-movieguides-report-to-the-industry\/\",\"name\":\"UPDATE: Christianity Today Critiques Movieguide's \\\"Hollywood Stimulus Plan\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-19T20:50:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-28T18:22:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/2675c6d9f6401acd7568e32160e5374e\"},\"description\":\"In a display of uncharacteristically poor judgment, The Wall Street Journal has published the \\\"Report to the Industry\\\" by Movieguide's Ted Baehr and Tom\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2009\/02\/christianity-today-critiques-movieguides-report-to-the-industry\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2009\/02\/christianity-today-critiques-movieguides-report-to-the-industry\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2009\/02\/christianity-today-critiques-movieguides-report-to-the-industry\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UPDATE: Christianity Today Critiques Movieguide’s “Hollywood Stimulus Plan”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/\",\"name\":\"Looking Closer\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/2675c6d9f6401acd7568e32160e5374e\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey Overstreet\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a7727373cd5b470d66842ecf5cc007?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a7727373cd5b470d66842ecf5cc007?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Jeffrey Overstreet\"},\"description\":\"Visit Looking Closer for Jeffrey Overstreet's latest writing on art, faith, and film. 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{"id":65942,"date":"2009-02-19T12:50:11","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T20:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.org\/?p=65942"},"modified":"2013-03-28T12:22:36","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T18:22:36","slug":"christianity-today-critiques-movieguides-report-to-the-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2009\/02\/christianity-today-critiques-movieguides-report-to-the-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Christianity Today Critiques Movieguide’s “Hollywood Stimulus Plan”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In a display of uncharacteristically poor judgment, The Wall Street Journal<\/em> has published the \u201cReport to the Industry\u201d<\/a> by Movieguide\u2019s Ted Baehr and Tom Snyder.<\/p>\n

Did the editors there actually read the flimsy claims being made?<\/p>\n

Film enthusiasts and critics everywhere, Christian and otherwise, went\u2026 huh?!<\/p>\n

Mark Moring at Christianity Today<\/strong> has posted a response today,<\/a><\/p>\n

but not before these had appeared:\u00a0Dan Savage<\/a>,\u00a0 Jim Emerson<\/a>, and\u00a0 Glenn Kenny.<\/a><\/p>\n

Granted, some of those mainstream critics are just going to use this as another excuse to bash Christians. But if Christians keep putting nonsense like this out as our response to culture, I say we deserve the ridicule. If we want to participate meaningfully in the arena of art and culture, we\u2019ve got to speak more truthfully, more accurately, more thoughtfully, than many of those voices that have been representing \u201ca Christian perspective on movies\u201d to the rest of the culture.<\/p>\n

NOTE: If you are glad CTMovies decided to address the Baehr\/Snyder article, please let them know<\/strong> by posting a comment on that blog post or writing a letter to the editor. That might help them cope with the lashing they\u2019re sure to take for daring to question Movieguide.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a challenge to respond to such incompetence with the necessary reproval and yet to show grace. We must speak the truth, and sometimes that calls for strong language. But we are also called to speak the truth in love.\u00a0We need to hold each other to high standards, and not stoop to the level of cheap shots that the rest of pop culture tends to take. (That\u2019s why I posted this<\/a>, after seeing the widespread celebrity mockery spreading onto Christian pop-culture websites without any pause to question its propriety.)<\/p>\n

(Earlier: Testimonies from folks who used to work at Movieguide were included in one of my reader-response posts<\/a> a few months back.)<\/p>\n

What bothers me most about the focus of Baehr and Snyder is they are trying to encourage cleaner, more family-friendly fare by baiting Hollywood with money, by focusing on the box office, as if the box office has ever had anything to do with excellence.<\/p>\n

Since when does \u201cWhat Audiences Want\u201d point to what is good, excellent, honorable, and worthy of praise?<\/p>\n

If I based my diet on what food sells best, I\u2019d be dead in a week.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: <\/strong>Screenwriter\/playwright\/former-Movieguide-employee Sean Gaffney responds to the article<\/a> by Ted Baehr and Tom Snyder that run in The Wall Street Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"