What Does An Increase in Christian Media Prove About Today’s Audience?
By Movieguide® Staff
Over just the past few years, the number of successful, faith-based projects have begun to break into mainstream media; despite Hollywood’s aversion to Christian content.
THE CHOSEN, a fully crowd-funded TV series about the life of Jesus Christ recently made a successful box office debut with several episodes from its third Season.
Ahead of Easter, their are more movies and shows adapting the Biblical story of Christ’s saving work on the cross than ever before in the history of cinema.
Check out Movieguide®’s Top Ten Resurrection Day movies here: Top Ten Movies To Watch This Resurrection Day
However, as mainstream media continues to try to promote immorality on the big screen, streaming, and on social media, why are Christian shows prevailing?
According to Father Mike, the host of the popular podcast, “Bible in a Year,” the influx of audiences enjoying Christian content is due to unanswered questions about spirituality, faith, life, and death.
“We’ve lost a biblical worldview. …There’s this sense and this hunger in people that says, not only do I want to understand life, I want to understand reality, but also I want to understand what God has to say about this,” Fr. Mike said on a podcast conversation with Father Schmitz.
“So there’s a certain level of excellence being brought to this content. At the same time, I think that there’s also a level of rawness or authenticity,” Schmitz added.
THE CHOSEN, and other TV shows and movies from Christian creatives have reached a level of quality that has been lacking since Mel Gibson’s 2004 masterpiece, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST.
At the time, the box office hit was a welcome surprise among both Christian audiences hungry for content that promoted their values found in the Bible, and non-Christian critics who recognized the movie’s technical quality.
Last week, the first trailer for the sequel to THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, RESURRECTION, was released. However, RESURRECTION will no longer be a lone Christian movie in a sea of immoral movies full of excessive sex, violence, and foul language.
“Why did it resonate? Well, it was a pretty powerful story. I was just trying to be as true to the gospel as I could, yet, interpret them with my eye and through the eyes of art that I’ve witnessed over the years, some music and everything else,” Gibson told The Daily Wire of THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. “I think it was a very potent story and seen from an aspect that I don’t think anyone ever saw before, was the degree of suffering. And the willingness to do that, which is, again, total humility. It worked on that level because I think it gave people a new understanding of what they’re involved in when they go to worship or when they think about God.”
Gibson hopes that RESURRECTION can build off the success of its prequel, and now, a long list of faith-based content that does not sacrifice morality or quality.
“I really do think these are signs of hope, these are signs that God’s not done. He’s not done with our culture. He’s not done with our country. He’s not done with us. And, yeah, that gives me a lot of hope,” Fr. Mike said.
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