Cheese, real and imagined

G.K. Chesterton once remarked, "the poets have been strangely silent on the subject of cheese."  Apparently said poets have not watched any overtly Christian movies of late.  Why are they so high on the cheese factor?  Don't get me wrong, I love a good cheesy movie every so often, but those aren't the movies I like to watch time and again or that might change the way I think about things.  It is like a date with a goofy man, amusing for the moment but nothing you want to build a relationship on or even take seriously.  I am not talking about movies like 'Amazing Grace,' 'Son of God,' or 'Narnia' that have underlying christian themes or are actually depicting a biblical story but movies whose whole purpose seems to be proclaiming the gospel with a little bit of a story thrown on to make it palatable; much like putting peanut butter on a pill so your dog will eat it.  I think the former type of movie is far more powerful than the latter, with the latter, people know what you are trying to do and resent it, with the former, if the story is good enough they won't care and will let the story sweep them off whither it will.

The latest attempt (at least the one of my most recent viewing) is 'God's not Dead,' and while there are good parts to the movie, it is a bit of fun, and the characters might have been interesting had there been more time and better acting, overall I was disappointed.  There were too many characters to get to know any of them even remotely, much of the acting was rather unconvincing, there were too many story lines to keep the plot cohesive, and serious events in their various lives were tossed aside and became irrelevant when they accepted Christ, which is completely unrealistic!  If a story is not believable, it will not be accepted or liked by those who hear it and thus ineffective and a failure.  It was a fun movie overall, but not something I will likely own or watch again since it can't figure out which story it was trying to tell.  I especially liked the grumpy professor, but they spent too much time delving into other subplots to make much of his story or character, rather hurrying out a quick excuse and moving on.  I was appalled with how his tale ended, I never saw it coming because you knew no one would ever do that to a character in a 'serious' movie and yet they did.  I was blindsided because I didn't expect them to do something that stupid, and how the other characters reacted to it really made me wonder what was going on.  Something rather serious has just occurred and no one seems upset about it in the least?  Creepy!

The best 'christian' movies are those with a subtle, intriguing message that is intricately woven throughout a good story; not a billy club of a gospel message wearing a thin veneer of story.  That is how Jesus Himself proclaimed the gospel: using stories and parables to explain the mysteries of God and make people curious, to make them hungry, not hitting them over the head with it and demanding they repent and be saved.  Until we learn that, I am afraid the cheese will continue!  At least the poets will have time to rectify their topical oversight.