Christianity vs Documentaries
Christianity has a problem succeeding in documentaries. It’s hard to find a documentary out there that really seems to put Christianity into a good light. Whether it’s what’s being said, or inability to answer questions, reliance on only the Bible, just being a whack-a-do, or whatever the issue, in the fight Christianity vs Documentaries, I think Christianity gets knocked out in the first round. Quite often.
It honestly, and sadly, doesn’t take long to find a whack-job with a notion about Jesus who wants to be on TV. There’s even some that get paid to be on television, parading their twisted view of the scriptures in a multitude of ways. Whether it’s about God just making you wealthy, burning Bibles, white-supremacy, God telling people to murder… there’s a ton of people riding on a facade of Christianity.
Borat was one of the first movies to “expose” some of Christianity’s “best and brightest”… Yes, I saw the movie. No, I don’t condone it.
At one point in this mockumentary, Borat goes to a revival and gets saved. He’s more than willing to run in there, pick up on whatever emotions and craziness going on and multiplying it with his character’s ridiculousness.
I can’t blame documentaries for finding the weirdos and featuring them, or taking sections of an interview out of context because it wouldn’t be the first time that anyone did that. In the elections, speeches are scrutinized, looking for those few words or phrases to piece together to tie Obama to a hate-mongering-Commy-witch doctor.
Frankly, that’s how persuasive arguments are taught. You find something that someone said that agrees with your point, no matter how small, quote it with ellipses and move on.
I recently watched Expelled with Ben Stein about the exclusion of Intelligent Design from teaching, and I thought it was a great documentary. Let me just say that it was NOT A CHRISTIAN MOVIE. Granted, Christians are some of the biggest proponents for Intelligent Design, but it wasn’t all about how God made the world in six days. (More of that for another post)
I also watch Jesus Camp. It was about a Christian summer kids camp. It was very interesting, and I think it portrayed the event very well. They do their best to remain unbiased, and I think they accomplish their goal. They don’t have commentary over top of what’s happening on screen, so you’re left with your own thoughts of what transpires. I thought this was interesting because it actually challenged me, and my memories of my youth group experiences.
I have three documentaries that I want to see: Religulous, Jesus Save Us from Your Followers, and COLLISION. I hope they will challenge my faith and in doing so grow my walk deeper with God, and I’ll let you all know how that all goes.
But, what do you all think? Am I being mean? Are things taken out of context? Have you seen a documentary where Christians didn’t come off looking like a bunch of crazies? Let me know!
