Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Comments on Why Do Christians Not Enjoy Christian Movies?

Parent

Why Do Christians Not Enjoy Christian Movies? [closed]

+0
−0

Closed as too subjective by qohelet‭ on Mar 13, 2025 at 15:52

This question is subjective (i.e., opinion-based) and does not request a view from a specific Christian tradition or established hermeneutical method.

This question was closed; new answers can no longer be added. Users with the reopen privilege may vote to reopen this question if it has been improved or closed incorrectly.

Yesterday, I overheard a church goer tell me, "I don't like Christian movies. They're just not any good."

This isn't the first time I've heard those words.

What makes Christian storytelling challenging in modern cinematography, and how might those challenges be overcome?

Here are some examples of potential challenges:

  • Desire to be doctrinally true: This could foreclose a lot of story options (World Ending Bad Guys, witches, vampires, ghosts, ... ). However, I think this is a false dilemma : Tolkien, Lewis, and Baum were able to tell their tales of Middle Earth, Narnia, and Oz.

  • Desire to encourage Christian behavior: A desire not to have the hero be anti-virtuous, or to send any messages that "evil triumphs" or "good is dumb". The Anti-Hero is a popular main character template now. Someone profoundly broken who maybe isn't even doing the right thing for the right reason, but does it anyways. For example, the Clint Eastwood gunslinger here doesn't have to be a womanizer: he could be a widower.

What are the main reasons that some Christians do not enjoy Christian movies, and how might these objections be overcome in modern cinematography?

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

2 comment threads

Post edits (1 comment)
Chat is a more appropriate avenue for this (1 comment)
Post
+0
−0

I don't know about others, but I find these things annoying when I watch a movie or TV show or whatever when I expected to be entertained. I find it irritating when people preach at me or imply how I should act based on beliefs I don't share.

Note that this is different from a documentary. When knowingly watching a documentary, I'm expecting to be educated, not necessarily entertained. It can be interesting to see how various belief systems evolved and what they believe, but that's very different from a story where unfounded beliefs are taken for granted to be true. Or even worse, trying to convince me to I should follow the traditions of a belief system I don't subscribe to.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

1 comment thread

Respectful descriptions of belief systems (post edit) (4 comments)
Respectful descriptions of belief systems (post edit)
qohelet‭ wrote 19 days ago

FYI, I edited potentially disrespectful descriptions of belief systems in this answer. While sharing your perspective, it's important to remember that others hold different belief systems. Let's aim for respectful dialogue, even when we disagree.

Olin Lathrop‭ wrote 18 days ago

qohelet‭You are missing part of the point. What makes getting preached at about these belief systems so annoying is in part that they are made-up, and that they are structured in such a way to make testing their fundamental hypotheses impossible.

For example, I have several times encountered someone praying for a particular outcome, and when that outcome was realized, they presented that as "proof" that praying worked. Clearly, that's logical fallacy. However, such people seem to be largely immune to facts and logic.

qohelet‭ wrote 18 days ago

Thanks for clarifying, Olin. My intention here was to prevent any misunderstanding that you were implying any specific Christian (or non-Christian) beliefs are "silly made-up belief system[s]". However, this question itself is not constructive and calls for subjective speculation, so is going to be closed anyways.

Olin Lathrop‭ wrote 18 days ago

qohelet‭ I was, although I admit "silly" is arbitrary and emotional and I shouldn't have said that. However, "made-up" certainly does apply. When something has no basis in measurable fact nor presents any testable hypotheses, "made-up" is a fair description.