Hollywood and Religion Worthwhile article about "Christian" movies. However, it leaves some things unsaid, In case anyone is interested here is my "take" : Hollywood, in common with commercial television, is clueless about the substance of religious faith, any faith, and habitually interprets religion as crass, one-dimensional, simplistic, and predisposed to many biases, some of which easily turn violent. In short just about everything Hollywood does by way of Christian films is an insult to Christian faith, and this includes some well known blockbusters like The Ten Commandments; almost the only (qualified) exception is Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ. There have been some non-Hollywood / non-network-TV movies about religion that have been very good. The 1950s era film Martin Luther, for example, or the made-for-TV independent studio movie about Dietrich Bonhoeffer which was broadcast on TV a few years ago. But I cannot think of a single made-by-Hollywood movie of similar value, not even one. The question is: Why not? The answer seems obvious. Who runs Hollywood? Who has the most influence on the final product ? Who invests money in cinema? First and foremost are "popular culture" types, people who have grown up as secular hedonists and never have studied religion (any religion) seriously and value superficiality in all its forms. They live for entertainment. Such people cannot comprehend the substance of matters of faith and cannot interpret religion in any terms but those that fit into a secular entertainment paradigm. Secondly, and not much of a secret, a good number of Hollywood moguls, are Jewish. To be sure, they are not religious Jews, they are non-observant and could care less about religion. Hence they don't make movies about Judaism, either, but when they turn to Christian themes, the subtext is disinterest in the core Christian message. What you get instead is focus on "other" issues, such as the narrow-mindedness of a certain type of believer, such as popular superstitions that survive in some populations, or you get quaintness for the sake of market niches (little old ladies with money to burn), or you get spiritual pabulum. Thirdly, there are the homosexuals who are mostly anti-Christian since, of course, they know that the Bible condemns sodomy. For the degenerates any and all references to Christian faith should be demeaning, emphasize dubious beliefs, and portray Christianity as backward. The result is what it is, a film industry that is anti-Christian and anti-religion to its core. Essentially we need an entirely new "Hollywood" that relegates just about the entire established movie industry to irrelevance. Which is NOT a recommendation that we need an "evangelical Hollywood." I have seen more made-by-Billy-Graham movies, or similar fare, than I have ever wanted, and all are bad jokes by way of movie quality. Just about everything is simple minded, traffics in Christian cliches, has "feel good" character with no sense of real drama, and wastes everyone's time. We can do better than that, far better. The point is that we need to do so. Hollywood as we have it is the enemy of religious faith. This harms all of our vital interests. We need a "new Hollywood." Billy ============================================= Salon Friday, May 2, 2014 12:30 PM UTC Hollywood’s cheap Christianity: Noah, Ben-Hur and a persecution fixation The current wave of Christian film portrays God’s faithful as deeply embattled. Here's why that's so revealing _Elizabeth Stoker_ (http://www.salon.com/writer/elizabeth_stoker/) Christian cinema is having a bit of a moment, with the release of “Noah,” Ridley Scott’s “Exodus: Gods and Kings” and Timur Bekmambetov’s soon-to-follow “Ben-Hur.” The genre is nothing new, of course. Consider Cecil B. DeMille’s early 20th century Christian epic trilogy, consisting of “The Ten Commandments,” “The King of Kings” and “The Sign of the Cross”: Epic in its proportions and daring in its subject matter, it spoke dramatically to a generation of Americans beset by the travails of unprecedented war and economic depression. For as much as Christian cinema repeats enduring Christian images and ideas – the same characters and stories are bound to reappear – it also tends to report on its target audience. This was true, for example, of 1973’s “ Godspell,” a film rendition of the Broadway musical that reimagines Jesus and his disciples as the few outcast hippies in a New York City full of urban apathy. And now, in the era of big budget blockbusters, our theaters are preparing to host a deluge of Christian-themed epic cinema, with “Noah” being the latest iteration. Set in the modern era, “God’s Not Dead” also follows in this vein. Unlike “Godspell’s” gentle, almost playful vision of Christianity, the current wave of Christian film portrays an image of God’s faithful as deeply embattled in a hostile world, playing on contemporary persecution narratives in what MGM executive Gary Barber called “the faith-based content space.” That persecution is the order of the day is clear not only from the selection of stories but also from their embellished retelling; “Noah,” for example, took a relatively short and simple tale from Genesis and reworked it into a large-scale us-against-them narrative concerning a single rustic and pure family versus an industrialized and brutal society. Critics noted the obvious environmental thrust of the contrast between the protagonists and their enemies, but the pitting of the rural and simple against the urban and malicious also brings to mind very recent events in the history of the American Christian persecution imagination – for example, the trumped-up controversy over anti-gay remarks made by “_Duck Dynasty’s” Phil Robertson_ (http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/19/ae-declares-war-on-duck-dynastys-chri stian-values/) at the end of 2013. ____________________________________
____________________________________ It seems likely that “Exodus” will feature a similar dynamic, with Christian Bale set to lead as Moses in a “_very Old Testament_ (http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/christian-bale-says-to-expect-shocking-stuff-from-ridley-s cotts-moses-epic-exodus) ” handling of the famous liberation story. “ Ben-Hur,” meanwhile, being fictional rather than expressly biblical, is an example of the Christian persecution narrative par excellence; it will doubtlessly tap right into the favorite tropes of the persecution story, from false accusation to isolation and outcasting to noble suffering and eventually triumph, all set to the backdrop of those very themes in the life of Christ. It’s possible to imagine that these stories simply reflect persecution themes and that retelling them without that emphasis would cut out something crucial; but the reality is that contemporary conservative American Christian culture is enjoying something of an unprecedented martyr complex. As scholar and Notre Dame professor Candida Moss _noted in a 2013 interview_ (http://www.irishrover.net/?p=2880) related to her book “The Myth of Persecution” : Practically speaking, the use of the category of persecution to describe the experience of American Christians—be they “progressives” or “ conservatives”—obscures and dilutes the experiences of those facing real violence. To give but one recent example: on January 26, 2012, the day that Newt Gingrich stated in a debate that he had entered the race for the Republican nomination in order to fight the “war on Christianity,” a report emerged of 35,000 Christians being forced to flee their homes in Nigeria. The Christians were forced to leave, it was reported, by the Islamic group Boko Haram. In media reports the mass exodus of thousands of people in Nigeria received considerably less attention than Gingrich’s reference to the war on Christianity. This is in part the result of the American media’s (and people’s) lack of interest in national affairs, but at the same time it demonstrates the extent to which the rhetoric has trumped reality. Moss’ take on the American Christian imagination of persecution seems especially prescient given that Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgent group is _still on the loose_ (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/29/nigeria-sambisa-forest-boko-haram-hideout-kidnapped-school-girls-believed-to-be-held) , most recently allegedly forcing some 230 kidnapped schoolgirls into marriage. Nonetheless, the American Christian consciousness still lingers on trying to figure out which set of Christians _has been victimized_ (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/30/thousands-of-christians-organize-against-sarah-palin-af ter-waterboarding-joke-mocks-baptism/) by which other set of Christians via Sarah Palin’s ill-timed and badly conceived “waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists” comment at a recent National Rifle Association convention. Picking up the persecution narrative for silver screen adaptation tells us something, therefore, about the type of story American Christians are interested in hearing refracted to them through the prism of familiar stories, but it also tells us something a bit more calculated: what studio executives expect will sell. As Moss points out, persecution stories bring in viewership and attention, so it’s no great wonder that Hollywood bigwigs have homed in on the trend. Nonetheless, this makes for a rather bizarre alliance between the Christians who feel compelled by persecution stories and the media moguls they usually accuse of perpetrating the persecution. “Noah,” for example, was charged with forwarding an “_Al Gore set-up_ (http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2014/march/noah-application-for-chri stians-and-hollywood.html) ” by prominent Christians, stirring the furor of a potential boycott; the existence of a “_Christian Oscars_ (http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/shocker-christian-oscars-stun-hollywood/) ” speaks volumes of a population that is simultaneously served by the Hollywood industrial complex while _deeply resentful of it_ (http://www.charismanews.com/culture/43228-god-s-not-dead-star-speaks-out-against-hollywood-s-christian-stigma) . It appears, then, that the self-image of victimhood the Christian right has long maintained in relation to Hollywood and culture at large is now being sold back, with predictable flair and fine special effects, wrapped up in a tremendously cheapened Christian message. (http://www.salon.com/2014/05/02/hollywoods_cheap_christianity_noah_ben_hur_and_a_persecution_fixation/) -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
