College Union

A great movie always works as a default date for me and my wife. At best it happens at least once a month - I absolutely believe in the good stewardship of sneaking Twizzlers in - and if you can succeed at walking off the street with a Coke or a burger and fries, then I believe you’re on your way to sanctification! I also love the sound of someone opening a can in the movie - my heart is strangely warmed when fellow moviegoers are good stewards.Besides a quality historical film (for this blog I’ll choose Glory Road rather than The Davinci Code), an attention grabbing documentary (like Why We Fight), or a mystery (like Inside Man), I am a sucker for a chick-flick (all we saw this year was The Lake House). And I often wonder why chick-flicks are assigned to the fairer gender since I am the one sitting there gushing tears while my stone-cold wife does nothing but wipe tears off my face - which actually occurred this year at a football movie rather than a romance.

Christendom has found a new platform in recent years at the box office - from the grandeur of The Passion of the Christ to the Georgians courageous shoe-string production of Facing the Giants. While the Christian mainstream raves of these movies to its own kind, several more profound movies slide into the background - movies with strong implications for the kingdom.

The movies whose content make declarations about the faith take center stage, while several movies that deal with social action take a side stage. For people following Jesus the movies that make Christian declarations on center stage may stir internal inspiration - but several of the movies on the side stage (that get less attention) have the ability to challenge us toward personal change and call for social action in response. In 2004 this difference can be illustrated by comparing The Passion of the Christ and Hotel Rwanda.

As green consciousness has gained ground in evangelical circles, our stewardship of the planet needs to be shaped by flicks like An Inconvenient Truth.

Another recent film which received meager attention is Invisible Children. This social action movie highlights the thousands of orphaned children in refugee camps in Uganda. A significant documentary called Born into Brothels was released in 2004 that follows children born to mothers in the red light district of Calcutta.

To read more about films that can inform our missiology, check out this article from Sojourners magazine:

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0611&article=061123

The article quotes former studio head Jack Warner as saying, “If you want to send a message, call Western Union.” A new season of movie making appears to have arrived which is not bashful about phoning Western Union. Yet I am left with this question…

Why do the movies making statements about Christianity attract the masses (at least of the Christian subculture), while movies that inspire social justice and mission are left to compete for meager crowds?

Greg Haseloff
Greg is the Director of the Texas Tech Wesley Foundation

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