People of
faith and values are concerned about the collapse of culture. Recent
polls from Cornell University and Barna Research note that only 1 out of
10 children keep the faith and values of their parents. Further studies
have shown that is because parents are not engaged in teaching their
children cultural wisdom.
The mass media
is teaching children their values, and even when these values are not
inflaming lust, greed, violence, ambivalence and envy, they are all too
often undermining Christian values. And, too often, caught up in the
publicity machine of the entertainment industry, the church and its
associates such as Christian magazines, radio and television are
promoting the movies and entertainment that undermine true faith and
values.
Much has been
said about post-Christian culture. Europe is a sad example. There are
more Muslims in Europe than there are Protestant Christians. Why does
this matter? If we truly love our neighbor, then we do not want him or
her lost forever. According to surveys, fewer and fewer children
understand this.
Although we
don’t want to be hard on the film characters Bruce and Evan, it is clear
that the view of salvation and the view of God presented in the movies
featuring "Bruce Almighty" and "Evan Almighty" do not adhere with the
truth. Salvation is found in none other than Jesus Christ. When God
became one of us, it is only as Jesus Christ. When God appears to Moses
or anyone else, it is as Jesus Christ. He is the Truth. And the Hebrew
word for Truth means "to reveal." Jesus reveals completely and totally
who the almighty God is.
These winsome
movies and many others scrupulously avoid this Truth, who is Jesus
Christ. They present God as a clown of a thousand faces or as just one
of us in a manner that is reminiscent of Henotheism at best and Buddhism
and Hinduism at worst.
The writer and
director of Evan Almighty acknowledge their Catholic Christian
background, but they don’t adhere in these movies to the Christian
doctrine that Pope Benedict so faithfully defends. In fact, they
graciously give warm kudos to other religions, and the watered down view
they present of God contains more non-theistic religion than the clear
representation of the Truth.
That said,
people who know the Truth will not be hurt by this, but children of all
ages may buy the lie that God is just a sweet old man. Witnessing to
them may not get at the root confusion, and therefore too many of them
will fall into the 90 percent of children who drift away from the Truth
that can save their eternal souls.
It is
interesting that movies don’t mind using the word "God," "Buddha,"
"Mohammed" or the names of the saints, but they carefully and
politically correctly avoid the positive mention of Jesus, unless, of
course, they are taking His name in vain, even though they would never
take the name of Buddha, Mohammed or others in vain. What significance
does this have? It shows the almighty power of the name of Jesus,
because it is only in the name of Jesus, through his death and
resurrection, that anyone and everyone can be saved.
Therefore,
while we appreciate allegory, incarnational theology, Jesus types and
Christ types, the true story that the church should shout from the
housetops and proclaim in every media is "Jesus Almighty".
After all,
there is no other God and no other name through which we can be saved.
"The Word
became flesh and made his dwelling among us," the Bible tells us in John
1. "We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from
the Father, full of grace and truth. … No one has ever seen God, but God
the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known."
Ted Baehr is
founder and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, on
the Web at www.movieguide.org.
