1. I was waiting for this post! Good job highlighting the challenges. Love it!

  2. Julie D says:

    14 is a really good question. If a movie is just an evangelism tool, then of course it won’t be needed in heaven. But I can think of several movies that should. The LOTR trilogy, of course, but also films like Mary Poppins, The Princess Bride….

  3. Paul Lee says:

    Points 12 and 13 are well made.

    What evidence is there that there is only one Christian subculture? We can’t really band together and decide to be only one united Christian subculture, because that puts the definition of Christian subculture before the fact. The “headcanon” of what Christian subculture actually looks like could be different in every person’s head—regarding these movies we’re all taking pot-shots at the “health and wealth” charismatics, but other stereotypes exist even within the stereotypical image of American Evangelicalism.

    Can subculture really be engineered — not only in the sense of being made by people’s interactions and ideas — but actually coordinated, planned, and directed? I think probably not.

    • That’s a very good point–thus my wording about a/the “evangelical subculture.” But here I will err on the side of critiquing other Christian subcultures. They aren’t the ones making the successful subculture movies.

      For example, the Christian subcultures with which I am arguably most familiar–some call them the “young, restless, Reformed”–are not making movies. We’re only critiquing these movies. And in some cases YRR leaders and bloggers are even warning against this kind of “worldliness” (with or without that word) because after all shouldn’t we just be preaching the Gospel?

What do you think?