Why Christian Movies are BAD | The Problem with Christian Media – Part 2
Why Christian Movies are BAD | The Problem with Christian Media – Part 2
As Christians who believe in a limitless creative God, should we demand better films or settle for what is given to us because its Christian? This video will discuss the problem with christian movies, their impact on christianity, and why christian movies are bad on a multitude of levels.
CHRISTIAN MOVIE BOX OFFICE VIDEO:
REVIEW ANALYZING THE LEGALITIES OF GND2:
ARTICLE DEBUNKING GND CREDIT CASES: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/04/08/lets-debunk-the-christian-persecution-court-cases-that-inspired-the-gods-not-dead-films/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/josh_keefe/
The Last Temptation Of Christ is by far the most well made movie on Christ. Just my opinion and unless you have seen it, you can’t have an informed opinion.
My favorite Christian movie has to be The dark knight
I totally agree with this video. I am a Christian and as a Christian I feel and I know that I should do my best for God. GND does not display any creativity. Because God deserves our best, we need to find a way to create real and unique art for God while still getting His message across.
12:11 The problem are extreme Christians, who are misinterpreting their own bible and hating LGBT and people from abroad. These films are propaganda. They are preaching only cherrypicked statements from their book and even inventing statements. Nowadays, is it always about discriminating minorities as their "god-given" right? Like refusal of service and products. We are humans after all. All humans deserve to thrive. I have seen the awful treatment of Leelah Alcorn. Conversion therapists are still out there doing bad things to LGBT in the name of Christ. There is no proof that Christians are prosecuted in the western world.
Maybe the problem develops from conservative American "holiness" ideas in PureFlix. I have been to a European Christian art festival which showed more edge and mystery and I remember one American commenting about how it was suspiciously too worldly. I suppose that It is hard for a Christian to learn good directing and filmmaking without being exposed to a sordid world of ideas. In any case, Christianity works best in the local church (adore God, love one another and preach the Word) not on the silver screen. I like the historical films best – based on true stories (Amazing Grace on William Wilberforce was great but Freedom was a disappointing follow-up).
I think we need more movies like The book of Eli and hacksaw ridge.
i think they help making my faith stronger
As an atheist, it was truly refreshing to listen to a self-professed Christian who is actually reasonable, logical, and well-spoken about these matters. You nailed pretty much every point, including how most atheists feel when we see these films.
At this point, most of us who have been atheists a while have thick skin because we deal with this kind of thing so often, but it can be hurtful that people still feel this way about us (even though the movies themselves do usually end up being unintentionally hilarious, just like Reefer Madness and the like). It’s an added dose when they don’t realize the hypocrisy at play as most of the time, the atheists they portray seem like caricatures of a lot of prominent and powerful christian figureheads and celebrities more than they do any fellow atheists I know.
While there are extremists, just like any group, the vast majority of us genuinely just want people to have the freedom (REAL freedom, not the "christian nation" idea of "freedom") to live how we choose without religion influencing our lives if we don’t want it to. We don’t want to take people’s Bibles away, or make belief in religion illegal, we just want to be treated fairly and live in a society where our government isn’t a theocracy.
Anyway, I’ve rambled enough. lol. Thank you for posting this video, it was very interesting and like I said, I really appreciate your honesty and objectivness. It was definitely refreshing and even though it probably doesn’t mean much to you, you gained my respect. 🙂
I liked the shack…
Omg…. Thank you for having the courage to say what we’re all quietly thinking!
0:15 to 0:22 I was alughing my ass off
I am Christian i a couldn’t agree more with you , we need better Quality films
This was truly very interesting. ..Thanks 4 sharing. .
These Christian movies aren’t made to spread the love and understanding of God and Jesus; they are made to make Christians feel good about being Christian (this is coming from a Christian and film lover)
I don’t like most Christian movies for a lot of these reasons. They are honestly insulting to people’s intelligence, and some of them flat out lie. Even as a child I could tell they were disingenuine and full of hooey.
Biblically straight sound Christian movies (even with a large budget) will never become culture pleasers simply because of the message. We all have broken God’s law (sinned) and God hates sin and will judge each person. Therefore we all deserve God’s judgment and without deliverance/way of escape only provided by God Himself, we would all be doomed to hell. Not exactly a popular message even if it happens to be true.
i thought god’s not dead 2 was one of the best made movies i’ve seen. i liked it so much, i watched it twice at the theaters and bought the dvd. i thought that movie gave a very good narrative and described a very real contemporary problem.
I’m a Christian and I avoid Christian movies like the plague for this very reason. While not all Christian moves are stereotypical a lot of them are. I feel like they are afraid to step out and explore more creative topics. Instead we keep getting a cookie cutter scenario of Christian getting discriminated against due to an atheist or difference of opinion. Not only that but the portrayal of non Christians is downright harmful and stereotypical as well like all atheists have Christians or fight over ethics. That’s not loving that’s harmful and embraces stereotypes. Also, a lot of Christians are dissatisfied with Christian movies yet a lot of people don’t want to speak up and say they are bad because they’re afraid of not supporting something that spreads the word. The problem is Christian movies are made for Christians by Christians so they don’t have to get creative if they know people will support a family friendly film.
You expect a Christian to want to teach someone to think for themselves?
While I agree with most everything in this video, you seemed to be doing a lot of ye same belittling and assuming that you talked about in the video. It’s not like PureFlix represents the Christian faith, or even Christians for the most part, so saying that “Christians are hateful and bigoted” based on these movies and one bad experience is wrong and illogical
Admittedly I feel like I’m on the extreme opposite end (although I haven’t seen any Christian films myself) because all I’ve ever really heard about Christians in my life is about how they want to control peoples’ thoughts, scare them with threats of eternal damnation for who they are and just generally be the most insufferable self-centered hypocrites ever. Films like these aren’t going to change my mind on that, Although the general political climate (See Alabama) is going to make me even less likely to change my mind on that opinion.
And the acting is bad and over the top.
Keefe your low key a prophet
I would be impressed if a "Christian Film" was able to spread their message’s without mentioning Christ or God as a gilt trip tool.
For example their was this one film i saw that was trying to spread the message that abortion is bad. So of course God or Jesus shows up to say don’t kill it and it shows a bunch of side characters who are deliberately their to make abortion look bad (Their acting greedy or rude or look ugly by design.) This is bad film making because it sounds like a cheap advertisement stretched of a unpleasantly long period of time.
But you could have a interesting sy-fi instead like a rom-com where two couples get together wonder what’s in their futures, travel there, and see how happy one couple is with a family and how the other is broken up cause they couldn’t get past a piety deference like Where to live after marriage. This could include romantic moments bits of time travel mishaps and the resalution comes when the troubled (NOT BAD, TROUBLED) couple sents it aside for the sake of a future baby.
There! not one moment of hammy forced Bible talk and I already want to sign up to make this type of film. It’s not impossible to make a Christian film It’s just hard to leave god out of it.
The only good Christian movie I’ve ever watched is The Shack
– a Christian
As a Roman Catholic I am disgusted by the fact that these “Christian movies” portray atheists as evil. These movies do the complete opposite of what Jesus showed us. Most of my friends are atheist and agnostic and that’s why I find these movies to be really really bad. I’m someone who love to make short film and compose music it really pains me to see such movie. In no way should these movies represent my faith. Yet they say they do even though they don’t.
Did you really compare Inherit the Wind to God is Not Dead….
The way you explained this is absolutely perfect and exactly how I feel as Christian for awhile now, I thought I was the only one who felt like this and felt guilty for having these feelings about the “Christian entertainment industry”… I’ve been so frustrated about this for a long time and my creative mind could absolutely do better and reach people in a deep, raw, real way to the unsaved.. These movies and music are so “fake”, too cookie cutter and prideful. ONE DAY GOD WILL USE SOME PEOPLE TO SHOW OFF HIS GLORY AND REALNESS
Propaganda tells the audience
Film shows the audience
I fail to see your so-called argument. You do not sound like a Follower yourself but some Poindexter. Your review admits the films are sermons and yet it bothers you that atheists are misrepresented; not as angels. You sound like you went to one of those crappy "Catholic" schools, like Loyolla. Good luck.
All religions have been proven false.
The funny thing is that most Christians do the exact opposite of what they portray to be
Is it too far to suggest that another problem with Christian movies is bad, lazy theology as well? If you’re theology is stupid, you’re probably not going to be inspired to find super-creative ways to express it.
Christian “movies” are an insult to art, intelligence, and basic human compassion. Not surprising on the last one. My experience is Christians are the least compassionate people on the planet, while pretending and demanding that everyone else pretend they are the most compassionate and righteous.
I’m a Christian and I can say that I despise so-called “Christian” movies. They take scriptures out of context, give us drivel instead of truth, and sometimes go as far as blasphemy. The trailers I see for Pureflix are appalling. And Christians just continue to consume it all without any discernment. May God open our spiritual eyes to truly see.
Hacksaw ridge
Prince of Egypt
Passion of Christ
Miracles are real
War room
The Chosen
The Risen
This is the only movies that are authentic Christian movies that are just lit, others are just not relatable or simply unatural? I donno.
Anyway as long as my Lord Jesus is being glorified, I’m happy 🙂 cuz it will reach thousands of people to Him.
I pray that change comes to the movie industry. Everything you said was so correct! In my life, I just call myself a child of God. And reason is because, it’s a reflection of the open mindedness I have on the world. My lifestyle is a lifestyle of LOVE in everything I do 🙂
Bruh you stole this from center row
It’s a shame Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw ridge was not mentioned, it is far better in my opinion than Martin Scorsese Silence.
Thats the guy from good luck charlie
I have seen so many movies that have hundreds of millions of dollars for a budget that are awful and i have seen short films with a budget of 100 bucks that are amazing
As the screenwriter of a number of PureFlix films, I could hardly agree more with your perspective. I grew up watching indie films of the 80s and 90s, those filmmakers managed to make art with small budgets because they had a passion for the medium. It’s not the budgets. It is a disregard for the art of filmmaking. And faith films will not get better until the audience demands something better, but they tend to evaluate films solely on the message itself. As for the counterproductive hatred of atheists and other non-believers, I tried to buck that trend. In Hidden Secrets, the first film produced by PureFlix (but its second release), my co-writer and I sought to create a fuller, more sympathetic portrayal, and, if the following review is any indication, we succeeded:
"But don’t dismiss Hidden Secrets as The Big Chill rewritten from a Christian perspective. It has the nerve to make one of its most appealing characters, a stem-cell researcher played by John Schneider, an atheist and the least appealing a scripture-spouting hypocrite. While its proscriptive tendencies might not sit well with some moviegoers, it does strive to distinguish between sinner and sin. Even the death merchant and the homosexual – played by Arkansan Corin Nemec – are worthy of love and respect; it’s their actions that God despises."
Nowadays, however, the audience reward films that fight the Culture War for them. It is easier to generate anger than compassion. I have no interest in that.
As for the muddled purpose of Christian films, I think you will appreciate my recent blog:
http://seanpaulmurphyville.blogspot.com/2017/09/building-faith-based-film-ghetto.html
Damn man!!really love your perspective,and way you edit the video.i want to see more,somehow it felt joyable
I think the other problem with christian movies is that most of those movies would work better as psychological movies if they weren’t talking about Jesus or Christianity. Not because this is bad but because it just doesn’t fit to the situation presesnted in movie. For example, if characters from movie "When Marnie was there" started talking about how Jesus saved the world it would lose its value. Not because people don’t like Jesus but because this movie is about feeling different from the other people and questioning "Is Marnie real or is she just main character’s imagination?". This is also why christian movies are bad.
I’m an atheist activist and filmmaker. Your insights are spot on. Very well done! You might want to check out my short film here on YouTube called, “The Bourne Again Identity.”