1990 Issue 5 - Why Hollywood Bashes Christians - Counsel of Chalcedon

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 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)