![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1057\/2012\/05\/film-strip-image.png\" "\\"Film")
<\/a>\nSome of you might be groaning already at this post\u2019s title. It\u2019s okay, I know what you\u2019re thinking. Read on.
\nLately I\u2019ve become more and more irritated as I watch how Christians react and respond to film. It seems to me that Christian moviegoers are dividing into two rough \u201cbranches,\u201d or groups. Not everyone falls into one of these groups (myself included), but from a big picture perspective, this is what I see:
\n1. On the one side, hyper-conservative Christians who will watch pretty much nothing. I don\u2019t just mean that they have standards for their families (I\u2019m all in favor of that), but they will insist that mature Christian viewers who watch something they consider \u201cworldly\u201d are allying themselves with the flesh and the devil. They have no sense of perspective and (usually) a very shallow sense of excellence and art.
\n2. On the other side, Christians who will watch pretty much anything, because they claim they can find \u201credemptive themes\u201d in pretty much anything, from the innocuous to the horrific. They\u2019ll go see something no Christian has any business watching and come back saying, \u201cWell God spoke to me in a powerful way through this character or that plot twist, and I realize this film isn\u2019t for everyone, but all stories are part of the Great Story and I can see the gospel in dark places too,\u201d etc., etc., etc. Now, I\u2019m not saying there aren\u2019t movies that would fit that description, and even movies where I think reasonable Christians could differ on questions of appropriateness. The problem is that these people apply it to films that, as I said, no Christian has any business watching.
\nTo illustrate what I see as the \u201cseed\u201d of this perspective, I\u2019m going to start with a film from the innocuous side of the spectrum: The Avengers.<\/em> I read a column<\/a> by pastor and Gospel Coalition member Mike Costner in which he was trying to do a \u201cgospel reading\u201d of the film. Using the superheroes\u2019 weaknesses as his central theme, he does his best to wring profound meaning out of a decidedly not profound piece of art. He winds it up thus:<\/p>\n
In the strange world of the Bible, we know that weakness comes before strength. The mustard seed becomes the mighty tree. The shepherd becomes the king. God himself becomes a baby, suffers in every way like us, and dies a criminal\u2019s death, yet that death becomes the catalyst to the liberation of countless captives of sin\u2026<\/em>
\nInevitably, a satisfying hero story will always involve a great, gospel-like reversal, where the odds seem insurmountable and the heroes seem overcome. But the tide turns, the heroes rebound, and evil retreats a universe away. Somehow, that story never gets old.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nNow when I read a phrase like \u201cgreat, gospel-like reversal\u201d in this context\u2026I just sort of chuckle. I know what Costner is trying to get at, and earlier in the column he does discuss one scene in the film that could be an interesting conversation-starter about how Satan tries to tear us down with our own sinful past. But I feel an overwhelming urge to respond, \u201cShucks, lighten up. It\u2019s a comic book movie<\/em>!\u201d No more, no less. I\u2019m not going to tell my fellow Christians they\u2019re being worldly by watching The Avengers<\/em>, because I have a sense of perspective and I recognize that it\u2019s just harmless popcorn fluff. But I don\u2019t insist on taking away something deep and meaningful from every movie I watch either, and I certainly don\u2019t insist on finding \u201ca reflection of the Great Story\u201d (as people will sometimes put it) in every smaller story. That\u2019s just wooden and shallow. We should enjoy everything in its proper place and not to try to make it more than it really is.
\nI was encouraged to see that Frank Turk of Pyromaniacs gets it on this point, and he left some comments on the Costner piece that capture my own thoughts very well. This paragraph sums it up nicely:<\/p>\nThe Avengers are more like a walking book of Proverbs than they are an exposition of the Gospel, a kind of piecemeal manual on how to live, than aspects of the greatest hero of all time, the son of a carpenter and of King David and of God, who conquered death by dying for the lost. They tell us about ourselves, and if we miss that, we do the art itself a disservice.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In further discussion, he pointed to various heroic\/virtuous actions that are played out in Avengers<\/em> and other comic-book films like Captain America<\/em> and said that while we can appreciate them as heroic\/virtuous actions, this doesn\u2019t necessitate that we read them as \u201cGospel-esque.\u201d This is particularly a strain when the makers aren\u2019t remotely Christian. And it can just become downright silly. \u201cWell, at the end of The Dark Knight<\/em>, Batman takes the blame for Harvey Dent\u2019s crimes for the good of the city so that Dent\u2019s reputation can remain clean while he becomes an outcast. Sort of reminds you of someone else who was rejected for crimes he didn\u2019t commit\u2026\u201d See what I mean?
\nBut here\u2019s the thing: I think often these attempted Christian readings of innocuous material are just the beginning. They\u2019re indicative of a certain mindset, a certain approach to art that extends much further up the spectrum. If you do enough of these \u201creadings,\u201d you begin to think of yourself as this very profound, insightful sort of person. And when you go to apply this approach to something that is not innocuous, but unlike The Avengers<\/em> is posing as serious art, you justify it to yourself by saying, \u201cI could even get something gospel-esque out of The Avengers<\/em>, so I shouldn\u2019t have a problem getting something gospel-esque out of this.\u201d That\u2019s an excellent way to become worldly, really <\/em>worldly. Worldly in the sense that you allow the world to shape your standards and your perspective, to the point where you\u2019ll make excuses for just about anything. And this is where we return to my point two.
\nI have lots more to say on Christian movie-watching, but for now, I think this has been a good way to set up my approach. I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts\u2014do you agree or disagree?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of you might be groaning already at this post\u2019s title. It\u2019s okay, I know what you\u2019re thinking. Read on. Lately I\u2019ve become more and more irritated as I watch how Christians react and respond to film. It seems to me that Christian moviegoers are dividing into two rough \u201cbranches,\u201d or groups. Not everyone falls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3595,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,37],"tags":[328],"class_list":["post-8576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith-and-culture","category-movies","tag-movies"],"yoast_head":"\n
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