It must have been January last year, because when I pulled up to the church around 6:00 AM the air was cold enough to wake up my coffee. That morning the men’s group watched one video from a series discussing manhood. I felt well prepared for the course because the month or two before I had seen 3:10 to Yuma, I Am Legend, and Children of Men . The self-sacrificing heroes in these films had me ready to lay down my life for a greater cause. Despite the fact all three of these films end with the hero sacrificing his life in an attempt to save others, the speaker on the DVD denounced Hollywood for destroying the male role model by portraying men as either little more than sex obsessed apes or feminized weaklings. Apparently he hadn’t been to a movie theater in a while. I checked the DVD and found it was outdated by at least a couple years. Still, it seemed this guy must have been living under a rock since 9/11.
Like me, I am sure you have grown accustomed to hearing from pulpits, on blogs, or in conversation how self-indulgent, morally lax, and feminized the males in America are. On a personal note, this bothers me because I am none of those things and neither are many of the men I know, both Christian and non-Christian. The standard attack goes something like this; Hollywood is playing a major role(and potentially a pre-mediated one) in the destruction of American culture by omiting or destorting male role models in films. And yet this summer I witnessed Marcus Wright(played by Sam Worthington) in Terminator Salvation and George Kirk(played by Chris Hemsworth) in Star Trek both willingly give up their lives in order to save others. Not only that, up to the point of their sacrifice they had acted with dignity and compassion.
The stories a culture tells reveals volumes about the people who live in it. It is clear the people of America are hungry for heroes. Don’t be trapped in the Hollywood hatred rhetoric any longer. I can’t think of one time, and correct me if I am wrong, that Jesus Christ ever criticized the theater? In fact he quoted it when he confronted Paul on the road to Damascus. “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” was a line from the Greek theater.
The five films I have mentioned in this newsletter could easily be used to discuss Christ’s heroic sacrific for all mankind. After any of these films just start a discussion around John 15:13, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends“. If you stop listening to the criticism long enough to watch, you’ll see Hollywood is putting Christ in the mainstream.
Heroes
It must have been January last year, because when I pulled up to the church around 6:00 AM the air was cold enough to wake up my coffee. That morning the men’s group watched one video from a series discussing manhood. I felt well prepared for the course because the month or two before I had seen 3:10 to Yuma, I Am Legend, and Children of Men . The self-sacrificing heroes in these films had me ready to lay down my life for a greater cause. Despite the fact all three of these films end with the hero sacrificing his life in an attempt to save others, the speaker on the DVD denounced Hollywood for destroying the male role model by portraying men as either little more than sex obsessed apes or feminized weaklings. Apparently he hadn’t been to a movie theater in a while. I checked the DVD and found it was outdated by at least a couple years. Still, it seemed this guy must have been living under a rock since 9/11.
Like me, I am sure you have grown accustomed to hearing from pulpits, on blogs, or in conversation how self-indulgent, morally lax, and feminized the males in America are. On a personal note, this bothers me because I am none of those things and neither are many of the men I know, both Christian and non-Christian. The standard attack goes something like this; Hollywood is playing a major role(and potentially a pre-mediated one) in the destruction of American culture by omiting or destorting male role models in films. And yet this summer I witnessed Marcus Wright(played by Sam Worthington) in Terminator Salvation and George Kirk(played by Chris Hemsworth) in Star Trek both willingly give up their lives in order to save others. Not only that, up to the point of their sacrifice they had acted with dignity and compassion.
The stories a culture tells reveals volumes about the people who live in it. It is clear the people of America are hungry for heroes. Don’t be trapped in the Hollywood hatred rhetoric any longer. I can’t think of one time, and correct me if I am wrong, that Jesus Christ ever criticized the theater? In fact he quoted it when he confronted Paul on the road to Damascus. “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” was a line from the Greek theater.
The five films I have mentioned in this newsletter could easily be used to discuss Christ’s heroic sacrific for all mankind. After any of these films just start a discussion around John 15:13, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends“. If you stop listening to the criticism long enough to watch, you’ll see Hollywood is putting Christ in the mainstream.