Is It Unproductive to Hate on Christian Films?

Scene from “War Room”

The most surprising thing about the recent release of War Room, the latest faith-based film made for Christian audiences, is not the critical drubbing it’s received from reviewers (Christian and mainstream alike), but how well it’s done at the box office. To the chagrin of its critics, in it’s second week of release, War Room secured the number one box office spot. Of course, some explain this as a marketing and logistics issue.  A”religious drama explicitly pitched to religious moviegoers with a history of turning out for movies of this nature” and opening “at the tail end of the summer without any other competition of note”was a recipe for success. Still, the reviews have been scathing. And the film’s box office receipts only rub salt in the critic’s wound.

Some, like this review from Christianity Today, while offering constructive criticisms and alternative fare, still charge the film with being “a sermon illustration, not a movie,” having “lazy writing,” and offering “easy fixes” to life’s problems (i.e., just pray really hard). Others go deeper, faulting the filmmaker’s theology. In Genie Jesus and the War Room Problem, John Mark Reynolds concludes,

Let’s be blunt: this is not so much a Christian film as a perversion of Christianity driven by a consumerist American heresy. We have reduced God to wish fulfillment and a person created in God’s image. Genie Jesus is not part of the Holy Trinity and if he exists then he is whimsical and unworthy of worship. Genie Jesus answers some prayers (Did the person pray hard enough? Use the right words? Screw up their faith to the sticking point?) while he ignores others.

…Sadly, most “faith based” films are the products of a theologically impoverished Christianity that produces bad art. One suspects the profit motive is as great as the prophetic motive: sincere people will accept inferior films in the name of the message. That we turn of[f] a generation and make our non-Christian neighbors less likely to be Christian matters little. (bold, mine)

This reviewer flat-out calls the film’s (and filmmakers’) theology “heresy.” Then there’s this vitriolic, profanity-laced, rant/review in The Stranger:

The surprise box-office hit War Room is bad. Not just bad in the acting and the dialogue and the story line. It’s bad in the greater sense of good and evil, light and dark. This movie is bad and dangerous and wrong, and it should not exist. I’m angry that someone made it, and I’m angry that I watched it.

…This movie should offend any person, especially any Christian, who believes that God is a loving God. This is not what love looks like. And this is not what faith looks like. If any movie could make one lose faith in God, this would be it.

For the record, I’m not a big fan of contemporary evangelical films. Or “Christian art” in general. In fact, I’d probably share many of the sentiments of these critics, especially the idea that “theologically impoverished Christianity” inevitable “produces bad art.” Nevertheless, as a Christian artist and as someone who wants to see more Christian artists at work in the arts, I find myself conflicted about cinematic efforts like War Room. On the one hand, cheesy art is a terrible witness. And if, as some of these critics assert, unorthodox or heretical beliefs are at its core, that problematic witness is exponentially compounded. Yet in a purely pragmatic sense, giving Christian artists room to grow, room to ply their craft, room to make mistakes and develop, and room to compete in the pop cultural marketplace, is in the long-run a good thing.

In this sense, I wonder if the critical drubbing War Room has received from Christian critics will lead to better films made by Christians or just more of the same.

A similar debate occurred with the release of the last big Christian film Courageous. Author and cultural commentator Andy Crouch’s take about that film (and Christian critics’ responses)  has always stuck with me. I think it’s applicable here. Crouch wrote:

I’ve seen neither FIREPROOF nor COURAGEOUS. My friends who know movies are pretty skeptical of their artistic merits (to say the least). For my part, I suspect they are pretty thin artistic efforts (like an awful lot of stuff that passes for cultural creativity from Hollywood itself). But I celebrate them, for two simple reasons.

First, it is better to create something worth criticizing than to criticize and create nothing.

Second, one or two Christian kids with real talent somewhere in this vast land are going to see these movies, get the sacred-secular dichotomy knocked out of them at an early age, move to LA, work their tails off, dream, fail, and try again . . . and one day make truly great movies. These movies are significant not for their own excellence but for the door they open to cultural creativity that the church never should have lost. (emphasis mine)

This is a gracious response, and frankly, it’s a response I often lack. It’s also a response I see lacking in many of my Christian brethren regarding War Room. It seems to be becoming trendy to slam Christian films. I mean, what better way to elevate your cultural cred and distance yourself from those whack evangelicals than by hating on the cheesy films they make? However, does it help anyone — either Christian artists or consumers — to sit in judgment of such efforts?

Many would say “no.” Who are you to determine what’s excellent anyway? they’d retort. People are inspired, lives are changed, by Christian films like Courageous and Fireproof. That’s proof enough of their effectiveness. So why nit-pick over technicalities? Hollywood has a good share of its own crap. Besides, the Gospel is getting out there.

Hard to argue with that. War Room will inspire and change some people’s lives. God can use anything He chooses to reach, save, and inspire people… even bad movies.

Please note: Crouch is not dismissing artistic mediocrity, but seeing it as part of a growth trajectory toward excellence. This is an important distinction and one that, I believe, is a watershed in the discussion. Is our criticism of efforts like War Room inspiring Christian artists toward artistic excellence? Indeed, if the issue is less about good art and more about sound theology then that problem is not so much addressed by discussions of art and cinema as it is related to grassroots evangelical culture. And in the case of War Room, both craft and theology are on the table.

Either way, as Andy Crouch suggested, I believe it’s helpful to see films like War Room, Courageous, and Fireproof as brave, even necessary stepping stones towards Christian excellence in cultural creativity. Yes, we should hold Christian artists to higher standards, both technically and theologically. Nevertheless, we must give Christian artists grace to grow. Who knows but that films like War Room might motivate some aspiring Christian filmmaker to begin blazing a trail to wildly creative cinematic excellence. Or as Crouch put it, “These movies are significant not for their own excellence but for the door they open to cultural creativity that the church never should have lost.”

My question is whether our posture towards War Room is one of grace or simply elitist condescension. It’s possible to be critical of the film and its theology while still seeing it as part of a trajectory toward excellence. However, I wonder that some of the responses from Christian critics will actually quash future efforts of Christian artists rather than encourage them. I’m hoping we can accomplish both.