Monday, October 27, 2014

Should Movies Be Used to Change Worldviews?

No one will argue that wordless art can convey powerful messages.  Think, for example, of Pomp and Circumstance, or Da Vinci's The Last Supper.  How much more powerful then are movies, combining the power of story, music, and (an ever changing) "painting"!  The Hollywood elite are very aware of the power they possess to shape culture, and they wield it with skill.  They have actually created a system in which people pay them money to get brainwashed.

But should Christians use film to fight back?  Should Christian movies be produced to change worldviews?  God could have arranged things so that Jesus was born and lived and died in a time when there were video cameras.  Why did He choose to convey the story of Jesus in writing instead?

Here's why I am thinking about this.  A friend sent us a link to a good short movie, Crescendo.  I'll try not to spoil it for you, other than to say it is designed to change minds about the topic of abortion.  The movie is rather creepy (as a movie about abortion should be) so I don't recommend it for children.  But (if you're not a child) have a watch now, before you read further.  You might even want to watch it twice so you can catch the clever nuances of the opening conversation, which seems rather bewildering the first time through.
Now that you've watched it: how would your reaction to the movie have been different if the child had been named Adolf instead?  Do you see how the same medium (film) could have been used to produce an equally compelling argument in favor of abortion?

Which leads to my final question.  I have an answer in mind, but I want to hear your thoughts first.  Since non-Christians can use film with power to "convert" people to their worldview, is it a waste of our energy and money to use film to try to convert people to ours?  Should we exclusively use other means of proclamation that non-Christians are unable to duplicate?

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