Comments on Why Do Christians Not Enjoy Christian Movies?
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Why Do Christians Not Enjoy Christian Movies? [closed]
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.
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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:
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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.
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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?
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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.
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