On the Edge or Over the Line?

          Can Christians make pornographic films? Of course not! We don’t need to think twice about it. It’s an obvious wrong. Some lines are easy to draw or clear to see. But in between the blacks and whites there are gray areas to navigate, and answers aren’t as clear. Several films made in the last year or so raise particular questions about how Christians should sail through (or around) them.

Obvious and Not So

         The kind of problem I’m talking about was experienced by Christians back in 2004 with the release of The Passion of the Christ. Christians who normally drew a line at R ratings were faced with an R rated film with gory violence. I personally never heard a story of any Christian who regretted seeing it. But the choice wasn’t immediately clear.
         The same is true for some recent films. At the easy end of the spectrum is The Blind Side. After I heard about it, I expected a film which shows what happens when Christians choose to do what they believe. I got what I expected. Sometimes there are pleasant surprises, like when I choose a secular film and find profound truth. In The Soloist, a newspaper reporter discusses with a friend his experiences with a talented musician who is crippled by mental disorders. When the musician listens to a rehearsal of a symphony orchestra, however, the reporter sees in him an understanding beyond the reporter’s own. He wishes he could describe to his friend the intangible joy the musician was experiencing which the reporter knew he was missing. The friend smiles and says, “It’s grace,” and the reporter leans back, throws up a hand of agreement and nods, “Yes, that’s it. Grace.” And, for this Christian, Ecclesiastes 3:11 comes singing through the words and actions on the screen: God “has set eternity in the hearts of men.” And we experience Him in the beauty of things in the world. Still there’s a Christian in this movie who’s portrayed as an idiot. Gray choices.

Christian Ultra-Violence?

          In a movie like The Book of Eli, I am faced with a question similar to the one I began with. Can Christians make post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, ultra-violence films? While I would tend to say “No,” I would have said the same thing about modern horror films until 2005 and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. A violent film I have recommended before, To End All Wars, is one of the most Christian films I’ve ever seen. But it’s not for children or people with sensitive feelings (though it was re-released in a director’s cut in August with a little less of the gruesome violence and a little more of the Christian material which didn’t make the original cut).
         The Book of Eli is more difficult. It’s a sci-fi action film with many fight sequences, lots of knives and guns, corpses, a near rape scene, the killing of a hairless cat with a bow and arrow, and references to cannibalism. At this point, those who have never seen the movie are rightly thinking, “This couldn’t possibly be a Christian film or a secular film which Christians could value.” But that title, Book of Eli, catches your attention, doesn’t it? Eli? Elijah, right? A book of a prophet? And then Christian friends told me the movie was worth seeing. So I watched a movie in which Eli is walking west through the dying earth carrying a large, leather bound book with a cross on it to a place he’s being led to by God. The villain of the story is looking for that same book because he knows he can use it to give people hope but then use that hope to control them.
         My experience, by the end of the movie was profound. Everything in me said, “A film worth seeing.” I’m not saying it’s a Christian film. At the end, for example, Eli’s Bible gets put on a shelf with a copy of the Torah and the Koran—a statement against the Christian belief that no one gets to God but through Christ. Nor am I convinced the film steps to the “line” without crossing it. But I’m convinced it has this one value: When people were attracted by adds to see this film in theaters or on DVD, they got exposed to a major truth. Though they were just out for some fun, they learned a lesson about a single book which in an imaginary future is as powerful and world changing as it has been for the last two thousand years.
         Be very cautious in considering whether to navigate through or around this film. I do not recommend it without strong reservations. But I am glad I watched it, and think I did so in faith.