The Gospel is better than Technology and Celebrities!

The Gospel is better than Technology and Celebrities!

Over the past few weeks we have seen much discussion over God and Hollywood. There was the release of the new Movie “Son of God” and Matt McConaughey thanking God in his Oscars acceptance speech. It seems to me that maybe we are missing the big picture in both of these instances.

American Christianity seems desperate for a celebrity to make serving, loving and obeying God cool. We want writers, pastors, actors, musicians, etc. to become popular enough that the mainstream world will accept them, and by default accept Christianity. If the church today is waiting on the world’s approval, maybe it is time we wake up and realize that it isn't coming.

I am not really a huge fan of movies based on the Bible, mainly because I study the Bible (I am a Christian and a Pastor) and it drives me crazy when they get the story wrong (full disclosure: it makes me just as crazy when they do this to other books as well). Did the script writer intentionally skip a detail, or was that detail too hard to film or convey? In most Christian movies, I am usually left asking, "What happened to the Gospel?" 

I hear several arguments that about Christian films that go along the lines of “we just want to get the conversation started.” We should be looking for ways to get people talking about the Gospel, but I am not convinced that watching a movie that messes up the biblical narrative and makes Jesus this wimpy, emotional character helps the discussion. After people watch these movies and they come to church, how much to do we have to un-teach about the Bible (this is assuming the church they attended afterward even preaches the Bible)?

I don’t want to fault Matt McConaughey for talking about God in his acceptance speech, I have no idea what he knows about God and the Bible, and who knows where his heart is. But I do want to take to task some of the Christians that came out afterward all fired up that we got a Christian in Hollywood. I would rather someone thank God than not mention Him at all, but thanking God and living for God are two vastly different things. In a world where we are desperate for celebrities to endorse us, maybe we should teach our kids who our real heroes should be. Men like Hudson Taylor, Jim Elliot, David Brainerd, Charles Spurgeon and John Calvin. Read about some people who believed the Word of God and not only was their life changed, but so were the lives of the world around them. Sadly, most Christians today don’t have spiritual heroes and neither do their kids.

In a world where people rely on technology and celebrity endorsements to complete their lives, Christians should be cutting against the grain and putting all our emphasis on the Gospel. After all isn't the Gospel better than them both?