Let’s Hold Hands and Sing Kumbaya.

I don’t like Christians in movies. They spend the majority of the time judging others and pretending their lives are perfect. It is obvious that Christians have a bad reputation for being stuck up and two faced in the media. Why? Why does it have to be that way? The answer is a rather simple one, it is funny and relatable to inflate stereotypes in films and one method is blowing up the Christian role. Yes, we are not perfect human beings and definitely need to work on our approaching skills. Apologetics is something we all need to work on if we want our bad reputation in the media to get better.

The movie that comes to mind when I think about Christians in the media is Easy A. Here is the trailer in case you have not seen it:

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Lots of exclusivity right? Kids are growing up being brainwashed into believing that Christians are like that, or complete doormats. Strong Christian roles are considered to be taboo. And why? Because aside from Passion of the Christ, there really has not been a good quality Christian movie with strong Christian morals that influenced as many people as it did. In the article titled New Survey Examines the Impact of Gibson’s “Passion” Movie, Barna Group did a survey on 1,600 people. Every 6 out of 10 people listed off movies that made them reflect on their faith said that The Passion was one of them. That is about 59%. So it still is a good amount of people, but the thing is, you cannot measure how long lasting that feeling is. Once you walk out of the theatre, temptation and sin is still very much present.

Atheist Jeff Freethunk, the writer of Freethunk, a blog dedicated to unbelievers in a what the bio calls a “growing Christian pop culture”, wrote a review on ChristianCinema.com’s view on Easy A. His points throughout the article called ‘Easy A’ Christian Bashing brought up a reasonable argumentation about the movie. When Christians watch it, they can relate to the other characters simply because they have met people like that. There are Christians who are sadly misled. Although, I do think that the media upholds stereotypes that are not altogether true about Christians who really do follow the Lord.

How can these roles be fixed? The only cure is to prove to the world that Christians can be better than that. Yes we all fall short, but what is wonderful is grace. And grace is something I think we could all use in our lives a bit more frequently. Especially when it comes to judging others. We sometimes forget that it is not our place to judge someone. This does not mean we have to comply with the culture’s every whim, but it does mean that we do not have to participate in it if we think it affects our own relationship with God.

I see this as a wake up call to followers of Christ. The media is simply showing what we Christians need to fix. Yes, they are doing it in a rather influential manner that harms instead of helps, but there is an underlying theme here that is overlooked. This is a cry for us to understand that we have the obligation to change how people view us. It turns people off when we are extremely brash and judgmental toward them, it causes a negative light towards the Christian faith. That should scare us, especially when our entire purpose for being on Earth is to bring others to God.

So when I see roles like in Easy A, I have to remember that this is how the secular culture views Christians. Well, the only way to make it better, is to work on me being better at who I am, and what my purpose is. Be in the world, not of the world.