Blog on the Lillypad
Monday, March 15, 2004
BJU publishes a statement on The PASSION
In another phase of the "My how things have changed" era at Bob Jones University, Bob Jones III has released a statement giving a pretty even handed commentary on The Passion of the Christ, which he has, admittedly, not seen. He relies on the narratives and reviews of others to offer some brief comments that are accurate as far as they go.
Two points about the press release stand out. First, while I respect his heartfelt conviction that prompts the statement, "I cannot encourage Christians to see it in the theaters; it will be released on DVD soon enough," I am also struck by the irony of the same statement. While I agree that he should not do what he thinks is wrong (encourage Christians to go to theaters to see it), I cannot reason out how he concludes that going to a theater is wrong but watching a movie release on DVD is not wrong.
Perhaps soon, as modern events continue to point out the outdated structures of barely-pertinent Fundamentalist distinctives, Dr. Jones will recognize that the standards of a bygone era no longer even apply. You can buy very little these days that does not put money in the pocket of some major company that also gains earnings from Hollywood. Internet connections, cell phones, DVD players, televisions, and computers are all part of the same industrial conglomeration of many pieces, many pies, but only a few bakers. And Gibson's film was made entirely outside of the Hollywood elite studios and production companies. Mel Gibson footed the bill. So while seeing the movie will support theaters willing to show Indy films (and by that profit you will hinder---to a small extent---the profits of the big studios), most of your money is paying back Mel Gibson for the huge risk that he took.
The second item to note in the statement seems to have missed other commentaries on it. Dr. Jones, being true to his convictions, which I believe are heartfelt and very well stated, writes, "I look at the production of an occasional good film from Hollywood the same way" [as having good peanuts in a tavern]. But the great irony is that Bob Jones University, with a film studio of its own, a film crew that has shown a lot of talent in the past (at least in technical work if not in screenplay structure) has never produced anything nearly as compelling or thought provoking as The Passion.
BJU films are tame, bland, and predictable, though beautifully shot and immaculately produced. After a couple decades of feature length films, they steadily trimmed and trimmed product length, and I don't know what they produce now. But they had half a century to get their act together in film making, get a single creative vision, take huge risks to boldly assert the dignity, glory, and redemptive work of Christ, and they never did. Granted, they produced a lot of tame stuff that was okay. But as has always been true of Christian Fundamentalism, they never seized the beauty [and the terror] of the truths we believe in order to make a bold artistic statement. If, after over fifty years of failure to produce a cornerstone Christian film, BJU has seen the task carried out better (though not perfectly) by a Roman Catholic film maker, then neither God nor the papacy nor Mel Gibson are to blame. Why, I ask, did Mel Gibson have such a determination to show the starkness, horror, and scope of the passion of the Savior that no Christian Fundamentalist has ever equaled?
The yoke on Fundamentalists is a heavy yoke that binds them to people of limited scope and limited vision. I hope that someday people with the skills and resources to make great books, great movies, and great music will shake off the restraints of a provincial conservativism too often confused with godliness, and step out in faith to boldly proclaim through every medium that Jesus Christ is the Savior.
In another phase of the "My how things have changed" era at Bob Jones University, Bob Jones III has released a statement giving a pretty even handed commentary on The Passion of the Christ, which he has, admittedly, not seen. He relies on the narratives and reviews of others to offer some brief comments that are accurate as far as they go.
Two points about the press release stand out. First, while I respect his heartfelt conviction that prompts the statement, "I cannot encourage Christians to see it in the theaters; it will be released on DVD soon enough," I am also struck by the irony of the same statement. While I agree that he should not do what he thinks is wrong (encourage Christians to go to theaters to see it), I cannot reason out how he concludes that going to a theater is wrong but watching a movie release on DVD is not wrong.
Perhaps soon, as modern events continue to point out the outdated structures of barely-pertinent Fundamentalist distinctives, Dr. Jones will recognize that the standards of a bygone era no longer even apply. You can buy very little these days that does not put money in the pocket of some major company that also gains earnings from Hollywood. Internet connections, cell phones, DVD players, televisions, and computers are all part of the same industrial conglomeration of many pieces, many pies, but only a few bakers. And Gibson's film was made entirely outside of the Hollywood elite studios and production companies. Mel Gibson footed the bill. So while seeing the movie will support theaters willing to show Indy films (and by that profit you will hinder---to a small extent---the profits of the big studios), most of your money is paying back Mel Gibson for the huge risk that he took.
The second item to note in the statement seems to have missed other commentaries on it. Dr. Jones, being true to his convictions, which I believe are heartfelt and very well stated, writes, "I look at the production of an occasional good film from Hollywood the same way" [as having good peanuts in a tavern]. But the great irony is that Bob Jones University, with a film studio of its own, a film crew that has shown a lot of talent in the past (at least in technical work if not in screenplay structure) has never produced anything nearly as compelling or thought provoking as The Passion.
BJU films are tame, bland, and predictable, though beautifully shot and immaculately produced. After a couple decades of feature length films, they steadily trimmed and trimmed product length, and I don't know what they produce now. But they had half a century to get their act together in film making, get a single creative vision, take huge risks to boldly assert the dignity, glory, and redemptive work of Christ, and they never did. Granted, they produced a lot of tame stuff that was okay. But as has always been true of Christian Fundamentalism, they never seized the beauty [and the terror] of the truths we believe in order to make a bold artistic statement. If, after over fifty years of failure to produce a cornerstone Christian film, BJU has seen the task carried out better (though not perfectly) by a Roman Catholic film maker, then neither God nor the papacy nor Mel Gibson are to blame. Why, I ask, did Mel Gibson have such a determination to show the starkness, horror, and scope of the passion of the Savior that no Christian Fundamentalist has ever equaled?
The yoke on Fundamentalists is a heavy yoke that binds them to people of limited scope and limited vision. I hope that someday people with the skills and resources to make great books, great movies, and great music will shake off the restraints of a provincial conservativism too often confused with godliness, and step out in faith to boldly proclaim through every medium that Jesus Christ is the Savior.
