Monday, November 4, 2024

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

 

It is the 4th of November 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

A very happy Monday to you- a new month, perhaps the time changed for you- I feel like I’m “back” after being away and sick, and now I get to bear down for the end-of-the-year fun here on the Almanac. I have some Weekend Editions being planned now, and one recent question ties into it. It is a question from Derrick in Kenton, Ohio. Kenton… not far from where my family lived around the time of the Civil War. It was home to Walt Slagle- get this: he was a lifelong minor league baseball player who ended up playing with the old Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels. Slagle was called up to the majors for one game- president William Howard Taft (big baseball guy, he invented the ‘first pitch’ business) came to the game, but with two teams in St. Louis, he went to half of a Cardinals and half of a Browns game. By the time Slagle pitched his one inning- the only inning in his career, the president was gone. But that’s ok- it was a bad inning- 3 walks and one hit batsman.

Derrick from Kenton asked about the relationship between Christians he calls “evangelicals” and the movie industry and how they have related to one another. Now, Derrick, I am currently working on another show listing more famous fictional clergy and have been digging into this question: how have Christians used media and entertainment to teach, inspire devotion, etc… 

The early church was pretty uniform in its denunciation of the entertainments- theatre and the like they saw as far too pagan.  

In the Middle Ages, we see much of the “religious” or “Christian” art being done by traveling bands of actors- not officially sanctioned but popular.  

It is in the Early Modern era, and the era that saw the birth of the “evangelicals,” that we see mass media come into play- and, you probably know the story: it was the use of media and art to teach and inspire devotion, etc… that helped birth the Reformation.

But Derrick, in his email, alluded to the “evangelicals” or “fundamentalists” (not the same thing) and their “disdain” for movies. And yes, that has been the case with some.

In the early days of motion pictures, you had two prominent Christian responses to film. One was to reject it completely and the other was to regulate it.

Many fundamentalists rejected the medium altogether, whereas those more comfortable fighting culture wars (in the 20s to 50s, this was the Catholics more than most in America). It was the Catholic Church and the delightfully named Catholic League of Decency that worked with others to uphold the “Hays Code,” a technically voluntary list of what could and could not be done in film.

What is interesting about both Catholics and then Evangelicals distancing themselves from the Fundamentalists is the reaction to the change in American culture in the 1960s.  

The Evangelicals following the likes of Billy Graham and the Catholics who followed Vatican II sought to engage culture more than combat it. And so we see the rise of different kinds of American Christians, who used to be opposed to certain media and entertainments, are now trying to engage- and this is part of a coming weekend edition because there are- it seems- 3 ways in which Christians try to engage the medium of film.

The first is to have Christianity on film. That is, the Christian story told in film. This has been done as long as there have been films- “The Passion of Jesus Christ” is a 1905 silent French film, and then, of course, we have everything from the Ten Commandments to the Passion of the Christ. Christianity on film can be a mixed bag- trying to tell the story.  

Then you have Christians behind the camera. That is, Christian screenwriters, directors, and actors who may not be telling the truth “Christian story” on film but want to tell stories that reflect nature, humanity, and redemption through film.

And then finally, you have Christian productions- full film studios, think Mark IV or Cloud Ten productions that are making self concisely “Christian Movies” or at least “Christian friendly.”

The question has to do with mediums and art and engagement versus cultural combat. We are going to be doing a second “best fictional Christians” show as well as some deeper dives into some movie companies like the aforementioned Mark IV (they gave us ‘A Thief in the Night’ and other peculiar classics).  

Do you have a favorite “Christian” movie? OR a movie with a “Christian” theme that might not be explicitly Christian (whether intending to be or not?) I’d love to hear from you- email me at danv@1517.org with those movie ideas, favorites or other questions- thank Derrick from Kenton, Ohio.

  

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and Romans 13:

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.  The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

  

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 4th of November 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man what reminds you that while McGee and Me was supposedly a Christian film, the Buttercream Gang is not- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man reminding you that McGee and Me was Focus on the Family while Mac and Me was a weird E.T. rip-off funded by Macdonalds- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.