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Growing bigotry is seen in such films as THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST; THE HANDMAID'S TALE, and JESUS OF MONTREAL with a growing attack on Jesus and His Body by some of the media elite who run the entertainment industry. Christians have every right to be alarmed, since we are well aware of the religious persecution suffered throughout the ages by the church, especially in this century in countries such as: Uganda -- where Idi Amin tortured and killed thousands of Christians; Russia -- where millions of Christians have died in the Gulag and in Stalin's purges and famines; Germany -- where millions of Christians died along with the Jews in the concentration camps; Eastern Europe -- where thousands of Christians have been tortured for their faith; and, Indonesia -- where Christians are being slaughtered for their faith even as you read this article.
Growing bigotry is seen in such films as THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST; THE HANDMAID'S TALE, and JESUS OF MONTREAL with a growing attack on Jesus and His Body by some of the media elite who run the entertainment industry. Christians have every right to be alarmed, since we are well aware of the religious persecution suffered throughout the ages by the church, especially in this century in countries such as: Uganda -- where Idi Amin tortured and killed thousands of Christians; Russia -- where millions of Christians have died in the Gulag and in Stalin's purges and famines; Germany -- where millions of Christians died along with the Jews in the concentration camps; Eastern Europe -- where thousands of Christians have been tortured for their faith; and, Indonesia -- where Christians are being slaughtered for their faith even as you read this article.
Growing bigotry is seen in such films as THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST; THE HANDMAID'S TALE, and JESUS OF MONTREAL with a growing attack on Jesus and His Body by some of the media elite who run the entertainment industry. Christians have every right to be alarmed, since we are well aware of the religious persecution suffered throughout the ages by the church, especially in this century in countries such as: Uganda -- where Idi Amin tortured and killed thousands of Christians; Russia -- where millions of Christians have died in the Gulag and in Stalin's purges and famines; Germany -- where millions of Christians died along with the Jews in the concentration camps; Eastern Europe -- where thousands of Christians have been tortured for their faith; and, Indonesia -- where Christians are being slaughtered for their faith even as you read this article.
TEMPTATION OF CHRIST; THE HANDMAID'S TALE, and JESUS OF MONTREAL with a growing attack on Jesus and His Body by some of the media elite who run the entertainiDfnt industry. Christians have every right to be ala.nned, since we are well aware of the religious persecution suffered throughout the ages by the church, especially in this century in countries such as: Uganda -- where Idi Amin tortured and killed thousands of Christians; Russia --where millions of Christians have died in the Gulag and in Stalin's purges and famines; Germany - - where millions of Christians died along with the Jews in the concentration camps; Eastern Europe -- where thousands of Christians have been tortured for their faith; and, Indonesia - - where Christians are being slaughtered for their faith even as you read this article. Such persecution is usually preceded by ridicule and character assassination. Nero accused the Christians of setting the infamous frre he ordered which blirned so communist countries over the last 70 years. In Jerosalem, the Holocaust Museum has a room devoted to the National Socialist (Nazi) ridicule of Jews through films, I}ewspapers and cartoons prior to the announcement of the Final Solution which rationalized the gas chambers. These mass media attacks on the Jews created a climate of hate which prepared the German people to acquiesce in the slaughter of God's chosen people. This pattern of prejudice seems to be repeating itself today in Hollywoo<i with regard to the Christians. Christians are not only the last acceptable prejudice in our society as Commissioner Quello of the Federal Communications Commission noted some years back (no one would think of being bigoted against any other race or religion), but they are becoming the object of hate for many Hollywood movies from horror films like POLTERGEIST where the minister is the demonic killer to THE HANDMAID'S TALE where believers in the Bible are caricatured as the totalitarian tyrants (a grotesque perversion of tP.e Truth). J;D.uch of ancient Rome and spread " romors that the Christians were WHY ? ? ? cannibals because his spies did not understand the sacraments. Likewise, Marx's feverish Many Christian communicators writings against Christians and havde asked me lately, We need to God fueled the torture and un erstari.d the true llature ot tlie slaughter of Christian martyrs in problem before we can act as Page 16 June 1990 The Counsel of Chalcedon God's people to take every thought captive for Jesus Christ. To a large degree the church has created this monster. Christians usually forget that the church exerted a great influence on the entertainment industry from 1933 to 1966. For those halcyon years, the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Film Office evaluated each movie in terms of the Motion Picture Code. If the film passed the code, it received the Motion Picture Seal and was distributed. If it didn't pass, the theaters would not screen it. During that period, there was no. sex, violence, profanity, or blasphemy in movies. Also, films did not mock a minister of religion or a person's faith. For the most part, movies communicated traditional values as required by the Motion Picture Code. Then, in 1966, the churches voluntarily withdrew from the entertainment industry. Many of the media elite bemoaned the retreat of the churches. One prophesied, "If the salt is removed from the meat, then the meat will rot." He was right. ABANDONED TO SIN ... When the churches retreated, the :MPAA instituted the rating system to take the place of the Code. This was like letting the fox guard the hen house, and the results were predictable. Furthermore, radical groups who had been waiting for the church to abdicate its position of control quickly rushed in to fill the void left by the closing of the church film offices. In fact, in 1966, Anton LeVey of the Chruch of Satan opened an office in Hollywood the very year the National Council of Churches closed the Protestant Film Office. Today, scripts are read by every activist group (i.e., feminist, Marxist and homosexual) except Christians. As a result of the influence of these groups, movies and television programs have become purveyors of immorality, blasphemy and rebellion, and have influenced many viewers to mimic the evil they see on the screen. Already, the United States is considered by many the most immoral country in the world. Movies are often re-edited to include more sex and violence when released in the U. S. market. For instance, in Australia the movie RETURN TO SNOWY RIVER had the hero and heroine get married, whereas when it was released in the U.S. the hero and heroine went off to live with each other without marriage. As Ken Curtis, one of the best Christian producers of quality broadcast television programs and films notes: "We abandon a field almost entirely to unbelievers because we think it is somehow unscriptural, and then complain about the field being run by non- Christians. Talk about wanting to have your cake and eating it too!" It is particularly heinous for Christian ministries to use Hollywood as a whipping post to raise money if they have no intention of solving the problem by the simple plan wh1ch gave the church a voice in movies and later television programs in the first place -- the plan which the left has copied to get to the position of prominence they occupy today. SPIRITUAL IMMATURITY Not only does the left lobby and disciple the Hollywood media elite to produce their perverse worldview so contrary to the Word of God, but also these very elite, who seem so blind in their politcal, economic and spiritual pronouncements, are merely sinners who are quite frankly blind to the Truth (even though it is staring them in the face in most instances). They have an adolescent spirituality, and they see us, the church, as inhibiting their fun when we tell them not to do all the things that they feel will give them pleasure. There is no doublt that these pleasures are fleeting and that they lead to self- destruction but, blind to the Truth, the media elite see these pleasures as the rewards which life has to offer. It is amusing to note that Marx suffered from the same adolescent disorder and that Lenin hit the nail on the head when he wrote his book LEFf WING COMMUNISM: AN INFANTILE DISORDER for communism itself (or socialism as the Fabians call it) is an adolescent disorder. As Alan Aida has noted, for a Hollywood movie to appeal to an adolescent audience it must include: the destruction of property; rebellion against authority; and immorality. Karl Marx in THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO said that communism has four goals: the abolition of property; the abolition of the family; the abolition of the national or ethnic group; and, the abolition of religion and morality. These goals coincide with the worldly lusts of the adolescent moviegoer and describe a spiritually immature person who is seeking pleasure by destroying the old while indulging his sexual appetites. REBELLIONS ... Of course, the church, well aware that the wages of such activity are death, says "No!" Thus, engendering a cry of anger and frustration from the repressed sinner who does not accept the Sovereign Law of God. This rebellious attitude is symbolized in the Garden of Eden by the Serpent's call to rebel against God so Adam and Eve could "Be as gods." The same rebellious voice can be heard down through the ages not only in the writings and other communications of the ancient empires who perished due to their indulgence in gratifying their wanton lusts and rebellions; but also in the words of God's chosen people who rebelled against His Law. Hitler's hate for the Jews stems in part from his pagan drive to throw off the chains of biblical morality, since he was blind to the fact that only when God has written His Law on our hearts is there perfect freedom. Many of the media elite in Hollywood remember the influence of the church through the Motion Picture Code and, (although they are aging fast physically), since they are spiritually immature, they resent those years of imagined . repression. Arthur Krim, chairman of Orion Pictures and one of the elder statesmen of the movie industry, chafed under the restrictions of the Motion Picture Code and now distributes movies which attack Christians (such as THE FIRST POWER and JESUS OF MONTREAL) and promote immorality whenever possible even though he himself is about to meet his Maker. The Counsel of Chalcedon June 1990 Page 11 In this regard, it is interesting that Ella Kazan, a former communist says that he made his best movies (like A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE) under the Motion Picture Code because he had to exercise imagination iil communicating his worldview. When the Code was dropped, he said that his movies suffered because he no longer had to discipline his creativity. SPOILED ... A large number of the media elite are not just spirtually immature, they are spoiled by success. As former convict Robert Mitchum entitled his autobiography, IT BEATS WORKING, and acting does beat working when you are making millions of dollars and being pampered on the job (of course,. only a very few make it to the top while most actors live close to the poverty line). Often, stars and other media elite do not know why they have succeeded, as Charles Bronson admitted when he was the biggest box office draw in Hollywood, so they tried to justify their stature by tyrannically dictating their views to a world which looks up to them as heros. Or, they become dependent on sex and drugs. Or, they become slaves to money. And, inevitably, on top of all these props, they seize on trendy causes to help . alleviate the guilt they feel for succeeding far more than their effort justifies. Bronson confesses to all these symptoms of being spoiled by success, while Bob Evarts, former head of production at Paramount Pictures, lay in a fetal position for almost a year crying and wondering why he had fallen from grace. REVENGE ... Quite a few of the media elite . come from poor and even broken backgrounds. Neal Gabler in his Tmportant book AN EMPIRE OF THEIR OWN (New Yo:rk: 1988) notes that with regard to the first generation of Hollywood moguls: All had grown up in destitution. All, with the exception of Zukor, who had no father at all, had 'luftmenshen' for fathers, men who shuttled from one job to another, from one place to another place. Driven, they "lucked'' into success or stardom with excessive sataries and really that anyone could snap their fingers, think and grow rich. Furthermore, they feel guilty about the underdog, but not enough to actually invite one of the street people into home as Marty Sheen made It .all too clear last year when he was the unofficial mayor of Malibu, marching for the homeless, but unwilling to personally aid a homeless person who came to him for help. This hypocritical underdog mentality is compounded by the fact that many felt ostracized by the Christian community as children, a point they continue to make in their autobigraphies, Kirk Douglas' autobiography is a good case in point showing just how much resentment he feels toward the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant community, even though theW ASP community is in itself largely a Hollywood myth. Kirk Iiot only vented his anger at .the Christian community, but he relates his sexual exploits with WASP women to show his superiority. Gregory Peck expresses the same type of resentment against the Christian community, as do many of the other big name stars in Hollywood. Now, these media elite are in the driver's seat and they can get their revenge by portraying Christians as neo-N azi killers in their movies and television programs: Page 18 June 1990 The Counsel of Chalcedon What is the answer? The question is how should we act toward the Hollywood media elite. Sirice they are no worse than the Romans who were feeding thousands of Christians to the lions, it might be advisable for us to look in the New Testament at the way the church acted toward the pagan world. Clearly, we need to stand for the Truth even if it costs us our lives. Moreover, we to take that stand in love, understanding that it is not against flesh and blood that we wrestle, but against powers and principalities. Thus, we need not be offended by their blindness and bigotry, but we need to go to them in love as ambassadors in Christ to preach the Gospel and disciple them. Furthermore, in love, we need to rebuke the adversary - rebuke evil and take every thought captive for Jesus Christ. We need to expose the fruitless works of darkness so that Christians can stand together for the good and against the bad, and so that the world will be convicted by the Gospel to repent and come to know Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Light Most of all, we need to use the wisdom and the weapons that Jie, has given us to free them from spiritual disorder so that together we can redeem the values of the mass media. This is exactly what we are doing at Good News Communications with MOVIEGUIDE and the other parts of our seven-step plan to REDEEM THE VALUES OF THE MASS :MEDIA. Please join us to make a difference. There is no reason why we should abandon His Kingdom to a defeated Adversary, for in Christ Jesus He has made us more than conquerors. (THIS ARTICLE IS REPRINTED FROM A RECENT ISSUE OF MOVIEGUIDE, A BffiLICAL GUIDE TO MOVIES. FOR INFORMATION WRITE TO TED BAEHR, PO BOX 9952, ATLANTA, GA 30319)