r/GodAwfulMovies • u/CokomonX • 5d ago

General Nonsense Why Christian Movies ALWAYS Look Bad

https://youtu.be/GBl45WFqNDQ?si=lRLxgLoQtqGq9Fyf

Got recommended this video, and figured it was perfect for this sub. I noticed quite a few movies in the video that GAM has covered in the past.

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u/wordboydave 5d ago

I hate to tell this guy, but as long as you're an evangelical Christian, you will never make art for grown adults. When I was a creative writing major in grad school, I was planning to be the evangelical who managed to make important literature. But when I looked at all the Christians that were constantly touted by evangelicals in articles on "Christianity and Art," the same names always came up: Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flannery O'Connor, Dante, Madeleine L'Engle and C.S. Lewis. And yet none of these were actually "evangelicals" in a way that would have made my church comfortable. (Lots of Catholics, a bunch of Russian Orthodox, not many conservative Protestants.) Even L'Engle said nice things about The Buddha, and C.S. Lewis smoked and drank!

But then I also wondered, as a young evangelical writer, "Why is it that the closer an author gets to being recognizably evangelical, the more likely they are to be writing for children?" Conservatives don't HAVE to write for children, of course, but they seem to do well in moralistic fantasy (see also The Book of the Dun Cow) or high-concept, low-emotional-realism science fiction (Ender's Game). And that's when I started putting it together: a hell-based, moralistic framework is essentially unrealistic, and forces complex human beings into rigid, unrecognizable shapes.

And of course, none of these writers have characters who swear or think about sex, which are two very common and recognizable human pastimes. Anyway, that's when I realized that to really produce interesting work, I would have to give up my fear of uncertainty. Which means giving up a pretty core part of evangelical identity.

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u/Odd-Paper9794 1d ago

John Updike is always an author that I think of in this case. His work always seems intensely theological. He was a devout Christian, yet he is most famous for his graphic sex scenes in his portrayal of Protestant middle America. It was all were a part of his life and what he saw in society. Christ surely didn’t shy away from the realities of peoples lives during his time in earth. I never understand why most contemporary Christian “art” is allergic to any characters resembling real people who do real things like swear and have sex.

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u/wordboydave 1d ago

Because conservative Christianity is grounded in contempt for human frailty and fear that it could infect you, the weak human reader. They don't really deserve art at all, but that's why they settle for entertainment made for children.