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As an independent screenwriter-producer, I write and produce faith-based films. I’ve prayed for the day when biblically based feature films would be finely crafted, well financed and plentiful. There was an era when Hollywood studios made big budget Christian themed movies with big name actors.

Movies that played at my neighborhood theater in decades past included Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, The Robe, Samson and Delilah and The King of Kings. Every time a trickle of Christian-oriented films hit the big screen I’m hopeful that my prayers are being answered and a new era of faith-based filmmaking is dawning.

There have been several Christian-themed films in the American film market of late. Thankfully, we seem to have progressed past the cringe-worry Bible films that mostly went straight to DVD. They were poorly conceived, poorly written and had barely-existing budgets. Most of those films were not only cheesy but literally preached to the choir.

They were more or less video sermons. The protagonist and other supplemental characters took turns dramatically quoting Scripture and exposing sinners. They were more preachy than artsy. They didn’t attract large audiences and weren’t profitable.

Today Christian films are more diverse. The production values of some are on par with their independent secular counterparts. Some of them have studio backing, mega budgets and huge ad campaigns. But are these big-budget “Christian” films really Christian?

Recently there’s been Son of God, an abridged version of the TV mini-series, The Bible and Noah, starring Russell Crowe. Noah received much criticism by film critics and Bible scholars alike. Key elements of the biblical story were missing or perverted and fictional storylines were added. Many were convinced that it wasn’t so much a Christian film as it was a film light on Christian precepts.

Soon to come are Exodus: Gods and Kings (in 3D no less) and Mary Mother of Christ. One can only hope that they at least reflect fundamental biblical principles. I fear it’s too much to hope that Christ’s sacrificial and substitutionary atonement on the cross will be depicted.

While I’m encouraged by the influx of “Christian” themed feature films, I’m disheartened by their convoluted and fanciful storylines. I’m not sure that taking huge liberties with the story of salvation, that crimson redemptive theme than spans from Genesis to Revelation is progress.

I also feel that the lack of ethnic diversity in the films is disingenuous. The Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit, contains 66 books by about forty authors from the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe over a period of nearly two thousand years.
However the characters in movies about the Bible are for the most part ethnically homogeneous. In these films, Adam and Eve and the family of Noah are all depicted with a dearth of color. They represent the ancestry of every racial group with multi-colored hues, but they look the same.

It can be argued that the physical appearance of the progenitors of the human family, and Jesus, the Son of God aren’t important in a spiritual sense. Fair enough. But it apparently matters to the majority of filmmakers who consistently depict them as fair Europeans who in many instances speak with British accents.

The films I’ve produced and the screenplays I’ve written are all set in the metropolitan Philadelphia area, but I have a dream to write and produce a film that illustrates the true redemptive story in all its spender and glory. It’ll begin with Adam and Eve and will climax on the day of Pentecost when the disciples of Jesus begin to turn the world upside down by spreading the gospel.

It may not matter to some, but this film will feature multi-ethnic characters who physically resemble the populations in the area from which they hail. I may just realize this dream before a bold era of accurate Christian filmmaking dawns


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