Another Hollywood Tail

It has become trendy in church circles to gear at least a portion of a church’s ministry and outreach to popular films. The best known film that caused churches to salivate was, perhaps, Mel Gibson’s, “The Passion of the Christ.”

Banners, postcards, door knob hangers, and sermon series were all prepared to be offered as “The Passion” made its debut in theaters.

Other movies that churches have piggybacked on, and developed programs around, include “Narnia,” the upcoming “The Da Vinci Code,” and “End of the Spear.” It makes one wonder what in the world pastors preached before the advent of movie-making.

Sometimes, the unexpected happens, as in the case of “End of the Spear.” The film relates the true story of five American missionaries who were martyred in 1956 by a tribe in Ecuador. The families of the murdered men ultimately converted the tribe to Christianity and forgave and befriended their killers.

The film company, Every Tribe Entertainment, expected the film to inspire evangelicals with its message of redemption and grace as the original story had some 40 years ago. But, as they say, “The best laid plans of mice and men...”

In January, the Rev. Jason Janz, an assistant pastor at Red Rocks Baptist Church in Denver, took the filmmakers to task for casting Chad Allen in the lead role of one of the slain men and, later in the film, as the man’s grown son. Chad Allen, it seems, is an openly gay man and an activist for homosexual rights. Oops.

It’s not as though the filmmakers were caught off guard by the revelation. Jim Hanson, the film’s director, said, “We disagree with Chad about his homosexuality, but we love him and worked with him and we feel that’s a Biblical position.” Chad Allen related, before filming, that Mr. Hanson had told him that there would be people on both sides who would be unhappy with the decision.

Thus far, over 100 pastors across the country have signed a letter expressing disappointment with Mr. Allen being cast in the film’s leading role. The Rev. Janz said that Allen’s role in the film would be “like Madonna being cast as the Virgin Mary.”

Janz went on to say, “Mr. Allen’s homosexuality is not so much the problem as is his open activism for gay causes and that if a drunk who ‘promoted drunkenness’ had acted in the movie, I’d be just as mad.”

Mr. Allen, who is 31, is known for assisting troubled young gay men and lesbians and for speaking on behalf of same-sex marriages.

One has to wonder what those in positions of responsibility at Every Tribe Entertainment were thinking by knowingly casting a gay activist in the lead role of a film that was to have, as its target audience, evangelical believers and churches.

On the other hand, one has to ask, “What are churches and pastors thinking?” by allowing their ministries to get in the same bed with Hollywood filmmakers and actors.

True, there are evangelical actors like Kirk Cameron and actor/directors like Mel Gibson, who, while not an evangelical, is a devout Catholic. But, for the most part, what comes out of Hollywood is the product of secularists, atheists, leftists, and immoral or amoral people.

I am certainly not against movies (although there are some movies that no one should see), but films should always be approached with the certain knowledge that the worldview of Hollywood is decidedly “not-Christian.”

And, while I enjoyed “Narnia” and “The Passion of the Christ,” I have severe reservations about linking any church or ministry with the town whose filmmakers brought us “Brokeback Mountain.”

It seems to me that the church that started with The Twelve so long ago, and has since grown to 1.5 billion adherents around the world, did just fine preaching the simple Gospel of Christ long before someone thought it would be a good idea to link arms with Hollywood.