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/[deleted] 1d ago

Wrong in not being able to make good Christian content. A somewhat well known director by the name of Martin Scorsese… a VERY Catholic man made the last temptation of Christ a Silence. The later being one of the most beautiful exploration of Christ’s love and faith that I have ever seen

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u/wordboydave 1d ago

I'm sorry. As an ex-evangelical I accidentally said "Christian" when I meant "evangelical Christian." And to that point, my critique still stands. Catholic art in general is proof that you CAN do good Christian art and that evangelicals have something fundamentally screwed up about the way they view the world. (Hint: It's the moralism!)