This weekend, I decided to watch a couple of movies that have been somewhat controversial (at least in conservative Christian circles). The main argument surrounding both movies is that they are somehow sacrilegious. I’m not quite sure I’d go that far. 

The first movie I watched was the documentary Religulous by Bill Maher. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Maher. I think he is quite arrogant and annoying. And, throughout the film he only proved my generalized judgment of him to be correct. However, in the film, he brings up some very important questions that the church needs to wrestle with. He basically went to speak with fundamentalist Christians, Jews, and Muslims to ask them why? Why believe in God? Why have faith? Why have your particular faith? It was very interesting, thought-provoking, and challenging.

My only complaint would be that he was very wise in choosing those he interviewed. He made sure to interview people who would have difficulty in providing thoughtful answers. He really went to extremists in all circles. As a Christian, I would have loved to have seen him interview someone we’d all be familiar with…Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Shane Claiborne…heck, even Driscoll, Osteen, or TD Jakes would have been better at providing decent answers. But, he knew what he was doing.

At the end of the film, I found myself thinking…”Yep, these are the questions people are asking.” And, “do we have any answers?”

Last night, Emily and I viewed the second of the so-called sacrilegious films. That’s right, last night we watched Hamlet 2. It was entertaining. It was funny. The “sacrilegious” part (Rock Me Sexy Jesus) was actually hilarious and bared some truth. The whole idea was that if Jesus wanted to make a difference in the world today, he would have to use different methods to get his point across. I find that line of thought not to be too far removed from all of the “new” stuff out there in the church. Also, let’s just think about some of the latest contemporary Christian hits…they aren’t all that different from Rock Me Sexy Jesus. 

It was funny. And, we have to be able to laugh at ourselves sometimes. I’m awfully cynical and liberal….So, I found myself wondering, “What’s the big problem with either of these movies?” If it’s offensive to you…don’t watch it!

Maybe as Christians, we should spend less time getting upset about movies that seem sacrilegious and spend more time living out the lives that Jesus calls us to. Maybe we should spend less time standing against things and more time standing up for something.