Hollywood and Jesus, part 3248598: "Soul Surfer"

I've often remarked about the scarcity of portrayals of real-live, identifiable, genuine, 3-D Christians in the movies.

Leaving aside even questions of truth — there are, well, let's see: dozens of Christians in America. Hundreds. Thousands. Tens of thousands. Heck, maybe even millions!

But in movies and TV? Not so much. Nary a one. Quick: name one major ongoing TV show with a continuing, positive character who is openly and verbally and consistently a Biblically-faithful Christian. Just one.

On the other hand, name a TV show with a sympathetic homosexual character. Ooh, you could do that one. Now, which is the higher percentage of the American population? In other words, which are you likelier to find in any random lassoing of a group of Americans? Homosexuals, or Christians?

Do the same exercise for TV or movies for a character who is an amoral person, an atheist, an agnostic, a humanist, a Muslim, a Wiccan, a non-practicing Roman Catholic, a political liberal. Easy, isn't it? But Christians? Ah, again, not so much.

One of my favorite creative minds in Hollywood, Joss Whedon, can write credible monsters, murderers, nutcases, humanistic nihilists... but either can't or has no desire to create one identifiably Christian character. (I wrote more fully on that here, in case you're interested.)

If you do see any religion of even distantly-Christian caste, one or more of these will obtain:

1. It will be Roman Catholic. Or, if not...
2. If he is a hearty believer, he will be insane, a murderer, a hypocrite, or all three.
3. If he is a good guy, he will be losing or seriously questioning his faith — or hopelessly vague about it.
4. If he's a good guy and a sincere believer, he will be unable to give any rationale for his faith, and will lose every argument or debate, no matter how kindergartenish.
5. If he prays, he will keep his eyes open, as if to signal that he isn't really talking to God.

Why is it so? Obviously, part of it is simply that Hollywood blends well with the world-system, and the world hates the real Jesus and His people, period (cf. John 7:7; 15:18; 17:14; 1 John 2:15-17; 3:13).

More charitably, I've simply wondered whether none of the big wigs and creative minds knows any actual practicing, card-carrying Christians. Maybe there isn't that presence simply because there just isn't that influence. That's my nicest thought.

So with all that, it's interesting to read this back-story about the making of the movie Soul Surfer. Evidently there were a number of fights during the filming, attempts to bar precisely those elements I single out above. Maybe the actors can be allowed to say "God," but they may not say "Jesus"; maybe they may quote from the Bible, but they may not say from where; and so on.

So you can't say Hollywood didn't want the story, and you can't say that Hollywood didn't have any direct, in-person Christian input. It was all there.

Hollywood just didn't want it.

Now, if it had been about some homosexual girl whose arm had been bitten off by a shark, how do you think her perversion would have been treated? It isn't a sure thing, but lesbianism is kind of "hot" today. Or if she'd been an abortion-clinic volunteer? Or Muslim? I think that would all have been different.

Meanwhile, I haven't seen the movie. It will probably be a Burger Night movie; Anna Sophia Robb is an incandescent actress, and the movie is doing well.

Have you seen it?

Michael Medved liked it... but, as Christian-friendly as he is, one of the things he liked about it was that the Christianity wasn't "in your face" (or some such expression).

Sigh.