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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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Top Six Ways Christian Culture Is Just The Worst

Only Christian culture could be responsible for these six examples of “creativity.”
E. Stephen Burnett on Aug 17, 2017
13 comments

Christians are pretty terrible, and even worse because they make Christian culture.1

Let’s face it: Christians just aren’t very good artists. Instead of exploring truth, we make propaganda. Instead of chasing creative excellence, we rip off other stories. And sometimes we even make our version of “art” only so we can sell stuff to children and adults.

Don’t believe me? Don’t lie. Everyone already believes me, because you can find these kinds of written pieces everywhere on the internet! (Look, there goes another one.)

So what if we drop yet another un-creative, Christian addition into this creativity pool? It only fits with our theme, ironically! Let’s look at the top six ways Christian culture ignores the best of human creativity—truth-telling, originality, and artistic expression—and is just the worst:

1. This TV kids’ cartoon that is the preachiest and most religious ever

This cartoon ran during the 1990s. It featured a team of kids who get special powers. They’re aided by a messianic figure clad in suspicious attire. These kids travel the planet to preach the one true message of salvation that can stop evil and save the world.

Who needs their message most? Maybe it’s the villains who are so over-the-top ridiculous. They’re caricatures. They have no complex motives like you’d see in the best non-Christian storytelling. They’re just eeeevil! Well, with that kind of simplistic, shallow portrayal of other human beings, you know there must be Christians involved. Just the worst!

2. Blatant Pixar ripoffs that teach hilarious moralistic lessons

Some Christians can’t stand it when the world has better stories than them. But what can these subpar “creators” do? Why, rip off the world, of course. In this case, a bunch of unoriginal evangelical believers working in low-rent sort-of-animation studios just up and stole from Pixar films, such as Up, Ratatouille, and of course Cars.

The results are as terrible as you’d expect, by all internet accounts. Such as this one thing, made by Christians. Here a rebellious teen car runs away from home, smokes cigarettes, and learns valuable lessons about not doing those things, plus peer pressure.

Come on, Christians! Why can’t you do better?

3. Disney knockoffs that steal princesses and other movies just to cash in

The world creates great stories, but Christians are just the worst at original things. That’s why only Christians rip off famous movies such as Disney movies.

Here we see the wild Christian who just wants to push religious values, instead of valuing art. Instead of making his own culture, he appropriates Disney culture of princesses and fairy tales. These Christians can’t even release this shlock to theaters. They have to go direct-to-video.

Just the worst.

4. This terrible new movie with no story, only sermonizing

Sure, Christians are all about truth. But why do they talk about it all the time in everything they make? Why do they cut creative corners and drone on and on about their beliefs, even when no one is listening? Yet somehow they keep getting money for these new “artistic” projects that don’t care for story, but repeat the same boring sermons over and over.

With this example, you probably didn’t even know it had released to theaters even now. This kind of faith propaganda, over story, is worse than inconvenient. It’s just the worst.

5. Cutesy, kitschy, or even offensive products that don’t reflect reality

“Jesus junk” is altogether terrible. You’ve probably seen this stuff at your grandparents’ house, even if they’re not Christians. Usually it’s plastic or ceramic figures, called “collectibles” because “collect” is all you can do with them. They have these cutesy faces and/or some kind of tie-in to Route 66, Christmas, or Elvis Presley.

In fact, there are too many varieties to list here. So we can’t even share a photo. We also avoid showing examples, because some of these things repeat “retro” notions like sexism and racism. Clearly only Christian culture can be responsible for this sort of thing. But only other Christians eat this stuff up.

6. This kids’ movie with cute animals preaching their fake religion, and this YA movie series about a woman with no other personality or goals and so she only lives for the affections of a kinda-rapey monster man

7. BONUS: this breakfast cereal

Christians can’t leave well-enough alone. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes brand cereal is fine on its own. No one needs to come along with some kind of “Jesus”-ified improvement. It only turns out terrible, as you can see below (the cereal clearly made by Christian culture is at the far right):

Amazing. Christian culture is just the worst!

  1. Note: satire. ↩
E. Stephen Burnett
E. Stephen Burnett creates sci-fi and fantasy novels as well as nonfiction, exploring fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com and cohost of the Fantastical Truth podcast. As the oldest of six, he enjoys connecting with his homeschool roots by speaking at conferences for Christian families and creators. Stephen is coauthor of The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ from New Growth Press (2020, with Ted Turnau and Dr. Jared Moore). Stephen and his wife, Lacy, live in the Austin area, where they help with foster parenting and serve as members of Southern Hills Baptist Church.
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  1. Tamra Wilson says:
    August 17, 2017 at 8:02 am

    Bravo! You had me fooled there for a sec!

    Reply
  2. DeWayne Ruggles says:
    August 17, 2017 at 10:46 am

    It took a sec. That’s what I get for skipping the intro and just browsing through the items in the list.

    Reply
  3. Donna Darling says:
    August 17, 2017 at 4:29 pm

    True, Christians aren’t the only ones guilty of this. Still, we should know to do better.
    We ought to be doing our best in all things to glorify God. Or, in the words of the immortal DC Talk: “If its christian, it ought to be better.”

    Reply
    • Audie says:
      August 18, 2017 at 11:01 am

      I don’t know if I can completely agree with that, especially considering that DC Talk is the source for the idea. A non-Christian musician may simply be more talented than a Christian musician, and that may apply across any skills and work. If we set up a standard of “Any Christian needs to be better than anything non-Christian”, then we may well be putting a burden on Christians that they may be unable to bear. Should a Christian guitar player hang up his guitar, because he can’t play as well as Hendrix or Clapton? Should a Christian writer give up on his or her writing, simply because it may never be as good or as popular as Harry Potter, or Twilight?

      Reply
      • Donna Darling says:
        August 18, 2017 at 3:42 pm

        First of all, the DC Talk quote was a joke friend. I was remembering a better quote by a Christian scholar, but having trouble finding it, so I reverted to humor. My point was that, considering our command in Scripture to do all to the glory of God (I Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:17), Christians should simply try their best, rather than being lazy or frankly…strange…like some of the Christian media I’ve seen. So, yes, maybe you aren’t the best artist in the world, but your work ought to have more heart, passion, and effort put into it because you have the most beautiful story in the universe to tell.

        Reply
        • Donna Darling says:
          August 18, 2017 at 3:45 pm

          (By “you” I mean the hypothetical artist we were talking about, not actually you.)

          Reply
      • notleia says:
        August 19, 2017 at 8:09 pm

        I was with you right up until you implied Twilight was good. Take it back. Right now.

        But I’m in that conflict all the time. We don’t have to be freakin’ Shakespeare to be able to write something worth reading, but I’ve read quite a bit of twaddle whose authors are walking lessons in the Dunning-Kruger effect.

        Reply
        • Audie says:
          August 19, 2017 at 11:55 pm

          Well, I also said “popular”, and whether we like it or not, Twilight is popular.

          Reply
        • E. Stephen Burnett says:
          August 20, 2017 at 7:22 pm

          I made no such implication, nor would I ever. 🙂

          Reply
    • Steve says:
      August 19, 2017 at 10:04 pm

      DC Talk is immortal?

      Reply
  4. Steve Smith says:
    August 17, 2017 at 9:32 pm

    Franky Schaeffer’s Addicted to Mediocrity written back in the 1980s was the first exposure I had to this as a new Christian.

    Reply
  5. Audie says:
    August 18, 2017 at 10:55 am

    I can think of one time something “Christian” was ripped off in pop culture. Some Christian music people started doing compilation disks called WOW, pretty much a “best of” for the previous year. A bit after those started coming out, I noticed someone in pop music was doing collections called NOW, which were “best of” collections of pop music from the previous year.

    Reply
    • Ruth Mills says:
      August 19, 2017 at 6:28 pm

      That is true. You observed correctly 🙂

      Reply

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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