To produce or protest

I have had numerous people ask me why I don't follow the normal Christian paradigm of lambasting the latest anti-Christian movie/book for its mere existence. If you want my answer boiled down to one sentence, here you go: If Christians spent more time producing and supporting good quality art and less time protesting and lamenting bad art, we would see more of the good and less of the bad.

I look back at two movies, one in theaters and one just out on DVD, that show me that Christians would rather send out emails warning about the athestic agenda of The Golden Compass than one supporting the pro-life, pro-faith message of Bella and Amazing Grace.

Bella, currently in theaters, has brought in just over $6.25 million. It had an opening weekend of $1.3 million with a $8,000 per screen average. Those are really good numbers for an independent film, but how much more would it have been if Christians spent time emailing their friends or talking about it. (I will write a review for Bella soon - one where I will balance my exceedingly positive review with my wife's negative one. We disagree on the storytelling of the film, not the message, which served as a foundation, but not a bludgeon.)

Amazing Grace did somewhat better in theaters. It earned over $21 million with a $4 million opening weekend, but it was pushed by bigger studios and had Ioan Gruffudd as the lead, coming off his performance as Mr. Fantastic in The Fantastic Four. (Rent this movie - right now. Open up a new tab or window and get it from Netflix, Blockbuster or just buy it from Amazon.)

This is how Hollywood knows Christians - a fickle, unpredictable audience. They refuse to market to us because they have no idea if we will show up to buy tickets. They know we will show up with boycott signs if they make anti-Christian films, which is one of the reasons why The Golden Compass has been stripped of much of its atheistic agenda (not some conspiracy theory of making the books more acceptable to Christian parents and atheism more acceptable to their kids). They don't want to offend Christians, but they don't want to appeal to us either. It's yet another case of Christians being known more for what we are against than what we are for.

That's not to say we should not stand against things - we should. I won't be going to see The Golden Compass. My sons won't be reading the books. It's good to be educated about things that come from a worldview contrary to ours, but I'm afraid were really good at discerning the easy ones (Golden Compass, Last Temptation of Christ) and less so about the other more subtle and by extension more dangerous ones and even worse at finding and supporting those things that affirm our values.

I don't know for sure the eternal impact picketing The Last Temptation of Christ had. I'm not sure what lasting value will come from letting everyone know that The Golden Compass is an atheistic fairy tale. Maybe there is some, I honest don't know. But I do know that an eternal impact has been made by films like Bella and Amazing Grace. They inspire me to live more for Christ and do the things that will both make a difference in the lives of many and just one.

Even if it never impacted my life or any other movie goers life, Bella has already made the most significant contribution to society possible - it saved a life.

The movie certainly has filled that life-affirming role. About 18 months ago [Eduardo] Verastegui [lead actor and one of the producers] learned of a young man in Miami whose girlfriend was pregnant and had made an appointment to get an abortion. Verastegui talked them into canceling the appointment, went to Miami and showed them an early version of the film. The woman decided to keep the baby and named it "Bella."

"Even if 'Bella' doesn't sell one more ticket,” Verastegui said, “I rejoice in the Lord for Bella and for many other babies … who are around because of this film."