Due to the success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, movie studios are developing a new market for “faith-based” films. I don’t particularly care for this term as all of the films tend to be Christian based. There is nothing wrong with Christian films but Christianity does not encompass all faith so the term is kind of a misnomer.
Lionsgate, known for releasing indie films such as , American Psycho, House of 1000 Corpses and Fahrenheit 9/11 among others, has teamed up with Thomas Nelson Books, a Christian publishing company, while the Weinstein Company is teaming with Impact Entertainment, a Christian movie company. Some of these releases will be direct to DVD while others will be theatrical releases.
Religious-themed films are not new. The Ten Commandments was released in 1956, Ben-Hur in 1959 and Jesus Christ Superstar in 1973. But there is something about this new crop of films that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The Weinstein Company will release a movie based on the writings of Joyce Meyer, a TV evangelist who owns five homes and has all of her utilities paid for by Joyce Meyer Ministries, not out of her own pocket. Lionsgate is releasing a film version of the Lee Strobel book The Case for Christ in which Strobel, a Christian apologist and former investigative journalist and lawyer, seeks to prove that Jesus was God’s son by using the methodologies of a journalist/lawyer.
Here is my problem: I’m not a big fan of proselytism. I love faith, I love people of faith, but I also see faith as first and foremost a personal relationship between the individual and the divine (whatever that divinity may be). These films strike me as God propaganda. The audience in mind is not the believer, but the unbeliever who “needs to be saved”. From the perspective of the movie companies, however it is sound business decision. They will make money off the faith of others. Everyone gets a little salvation in the end.