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The Problem with Christian Entertainment

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  • The Problem with Christian Entertainment

    Why do we not appeal?

    Link

    ------

    Why do we not impact people in the entertainment industry? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

    Yesterday I saw a post on Facebook, and whether it was sarcastic or not, I don’t know, about why Christians shouldn’t watch The Office. Now I have never seen an episode of the show. The most I know about it is I understand a lot of memes on Facebook are from it and I know about the Owlkitty video of it. That’s it.

    This led me to thinking about something else. I know we all realize it, but for the most part, Christian entertainment sucks. It’s often just boring and preachy. There are some exceptions, but it’s nothing the world wants to see. I remember when Fifty Shades of Grey came out that the same day, a counterpart movie called Old-Fashioned came out. You might have never even heard of it. There’s no way it could compete with Fifty Shades.

    If there is one clear exception to this, it is the Chronicles of Narnia. Yet do you see Christianity explicitly spelled out in that? No. There’s a lot of symbolism in the books of course that points to Christ and so there is also in the rest of Lewis’s fiction, but many atheists can even enjoy reading C.S. Lewis.

    Christians don’t have anything in the way of entertainment. We think you have to spell it out explicitly. It’s not fun. If we make something for the purposes of entertaining, our aim should be that the product is actually entertaining. That doesn’t negate we do it for Jesus, but people won’t want to watch Christian entertainment or play Christian video games or read Christian books for fun if they are not, well, fun.

    Back in the days of the NES, I remember getting the Bible games from Wisdom Tree. They were alright games, but the only reason I got them was that they were Bible games. That’s it. They honestly hardly even worked on the NES at times. Bible video games are often some of the worst games that they are.

    Many of us who are Christians don’t like it when we see a series and the politics is out there in front and everyone knows it. We think we are being preached to, and in essence, we are probably right. I know a lot of people have complained about the newest Star Trek series thinking that it’s going on. They could be right. If we don’t like it, why think unbelievers will like it?

    What would be good is if we had a series come out on TV that was actually entertaining or a movie at the theater that was actually entertaining or a book or a video game or whatever it is and people wanted to play it and then find out later on that it was a Christian series. I know some of you will disagree, but on my podcast I have had John Granger on to discuss the Harry Potter series as a Christian series from a Christian viewpoint. Even if you don’t agree with that, if it is true, that is something powerful. That is having it done right.

    When we think things have to be explicit, we also assume our audience is stupid. We assume that they have to state it outright or else no one will get it. That insults our audience. No one wants to be assumed to be an idiot.

    I don’t know if you should watch the Office or not, but I know the reason we debate this is because we don’t have our own entertainment that’s good. You may enjoy watching Pureflix, but how many people do you know who are non-Christians who are buying it? This is not to knock them at all, but if we are wanting to reach people, it doesn’t help that goal if people aren’t interested in our method of outreach.

    God gives us all things richly for our enjoyment as is said in 1 Tim. 6:17. Shouldn’t we do something for the enjoyment of our fellow neighbor? If we want to show Christianity to them in a way that is something they will want, shouldn’t we show them something they would want to have and something they can actually enjoy? This isn’t to say fun is the main goal of the Christian life, but fun is the goal of entertainment. If you sit down to watch the Office, you likely aren’t doing it to study theology or philosophy. Rightly or wrongly, you’re doing it to have fun.

    We’re also meant to be creative people in the footsteps of the creator. Our creator created some very fun things for us here. I’ve seen our cat running around here playing some tonight. The animal kingdom is a testimony to the fun of the creator in many ways. Yes, nature is red in tooth and claw at times, but it’s also very fun in many other ways. Shouldn’t we be creative that way? Shouldn’t we make music and TV and movies and video games and books that unbelievers even will want to live?

    Let’s do better.

    Then maybe we won’t have to debate the Office because not only will we be watching our own great material, but so will everyone else.

    In Christ,
    Nick Peters
    (And I Affirm The Virgin Birth.)

  • #2
    Somebody on that post made an interesting point. He sughested that as Christians, we tolerate too much. He suhgested that even **The Andy Griffith Show** is offensive because they tell little white lies and do other antinChristian behavior. Maybe our standards are too low. After all, the early Christians refused to go to the theater.
    "I am not angered that the Moral Majority boys campaign against abortion. I am angry when the same men who say, "Save OUR children" bellow "Build more and bigger bombers." That's right! Blast the children in other nations into eternity, or limbless misery as they lay crippled from "OUR" bombers! This does not jell." - Leonard Ravenhill

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    • #3
      What would you recommend be done?
      sigpic

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      • #4
        Make entertainment just to be entertaining and if you are a Christian, that will come through anyway.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Apologiaphoenix View Post
          Make entertainment just to be entertaining and if you are a Christian, that will come through anyway.
          I like your style.
          sigpic

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Apologiaphoenix View Post
            This led me to thinking about something else. I know we all realize it, but for the most part, Christian entertainment sucks. It’s often just boring and preachy. There are some exceptions, but it’s nothing the world wants to see. I remember when Fifty Shades of Grey came out that the same day, a counterpart movie called Old-Fashioned came out. You might have never even heard of it. There’s no way it could compete with Fifty Shades.

            If there is one clear exception to this, it is the Chronicles of Narnia. Yet do you see Christianity explicitly spelled out in that? No. There’s a lot of symbolism in the books of course that points to Christ and so there is also in the rest of Lewis’s fiction, but many atheists can even enjoy reading C.S. Lewis.
            VeggieTales also comes to mind. I have seen atheists say they enjoy VeggieTales.

            Originally posted by KingsGambit View Post
            Somebody on that post made an interesting point. He sughested that as Christians, we tolerate too much. He suhgested that even **The Andy Griffith Show** is offensive because they tell little white lies and do other antinChristian behavior. Maybe our standards are too low. After all, the early Christians refused to go to the theater.
            I'm not sure what "that post" you refer to is, but in regards to the condemnations of the theater in writings of some of the early Christians, the reasons they gave for why Christians should avoid it were primarily (1) how affiliated and intertwined it was with Roman and Greek idolatry, and (2) the frequently obscene material presented. The first point, of course, is essentially irrelevant to us now. One could level accusations of the second point towards some modern entertainment, but it would seem even the most salacious aspects of The Office would not appear to measure up to what the Roman theaters supposedly could contain.

            It should also be noted that the connotations of "theater" they had likely did not seem to match up with our own. To us, accustomed to modern theater (which had little to do with the early Roman theater), we think of it as going to see a full-length dramatic play like Hamlet or Twelve Angry Jurors. And while there were of course some full-length Roman dramas, a few of which still survive, apparently by the time of the early Christian period those had largely been relegated to the role of literature, and the performances that occurred were mostly the mime plays. Augustine, in fact, appears to draw this distinction in City of God, where he writes (in the middle of a criticism of the theater):

            "Of these plays, the most inoffensive are comedies and tragedies, that is to say, the dramas which poets write for the stage, and which, though they often handle impure subjects, yet do so without the filthiness of language which characterizes many other performances; and it is these dramas which boys are obliged by their seniors to read and learn as a part of what is called a liberal and gentlemanly education."
            (City of God, 2.9)

            Augustine clearly considered these sorts of plays to be much less offensive, and these are much closer to modern ideas of plays.
            Last edited by Terraceth; 08-31-2020, 10:49 PM.

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