c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) On the heels of the death of Jerry Falwell, the man who came to see evangelicals as a political niche, comes news of Jonathan Bock, who is promoting a new film, “Evan Almighty,” starring Steve Carell as a modern-day Noah, because he sees evangelicals as a film-going, ticket-buying niche.

Given the depths of spiritual gems to be gleaned from Carell’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” one can hardly wait to explore the rich themes of his newest film. But before getting to “Evan,” let’s take a quick look at the players in the multifaceted relationship between Christians and Hollywood:

1. The Boycotters. Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” brought many evangelicals to a boiling point. Fueled by books like Michael Medved’s “Hollywood Versus America,” they believe major film studios are “at war with traditional values.” They have no interest in supporting even the films that are labeled “faith and family” friendly.

2. The Nostalgics. This crowd yearns for the days of the G-rated family films that avoided sex, violence and coarse language. They crusade against the “filth” splashed on today’s screens, and urge the faithful to send a message to Hollywood by rejecting typical weekend fare.

3. The Sermonizers. These evangelicals scour movies for clips that can be used on Sunday mornings to illustrate a timeless truth. The twin message is that their church aims to be culturally relevant. Richard Corliss, in a Time magazine article about “Spider-Man 3,” says the two sides “are not only meeting; they’re also sitting down and breaking bread together.”

4. The Creators. Recognizing the filmmaker as today’s prime storyteller, some conservative Christians are trying to create the stories by making the films. Evangelical colleges and groups like “ACT One” offer training and mentorship to develop the next generation of Christian filmmakers. Evangelical Phillip Anschutz is producing films through Bristol Bay Productions and Walden Media and owns the distribution powerhouse, Regal Cinemas.

5. The Bridgers. This brings us back to Bock, who heads Grace Hill Media. Since the success of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” Hollywood has been looking for ways to exploit the “religious audience.” Enter Bock, who points out that about two-thirds of the country attends church at least once a month. “That’s not a little niche audience,” he says. Bridgers are the ambassadors between Hollywood and the ticket-buying religious community _ they speak both languages and interpret each to the other. (By way of disclosure, I know Bock, and know him to be a decent, intelligent, hard-working sincere follower of Jesus.)

But what exactly qualifies as a project worth bridge building, and who gains what in the process? When I asked a faith-and-film theologian, who also knows Bock well, I was not comforted by his reply. “Bock,” he said, “is making tons of money.”

Evangelicals have always been adept at marketing, something Hollywood is just discovering. They’ve joined hands on faith-friendly films like “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Bruce Almighty,” “Elf,” “Signs” and “A Walk To Remember,” to name a few.

Does “Evan Almighty” deserve evangelical attention? As New York Times reporter Sara Ivry observes, the film would seem an “unlikely candidate” for such attention. “Unlike `The Passion of the Christ,”’ she writes, “it is a comedy that portrays God in the flesh (played again by Morgan Freeman, wearing a natty white suit). `Bruce Almighty,’ which made more than $240 million at the box office in the United States, was better known for irreverent humor … than for any underlying religious message.”

While I would argue that “Bruce Almighty” did convey the theme of grace, overall, there is reason to believe that just as politicians exploited evangelicals, offering little in return, Hollywood is doing the same.

Gibson allowed evangelicals to position “The Passion of the Christ” as an evangelistic opportunity. So they did. But a spokesman for Gibson, Alan Nierob, explained the outreach efforts as “more in the interest of marketing than evangelism.”

In one interview, a Gibson spokesman said the film needed a boost similar to what Disney movies get from toys distributed through fast-food restaurants. Just as there is a McDonald’s on nearly every block, there are churches on every block; evangelical churches were the equivalent of a fast-food distribution outlets, without the toys.

Having been seduced by politics as the route to cultural influence, are evangelicals now being drawn into a similar cul-de-sac by Hollywood?

(Dick Staub is the author of “The Culturally Savvy Christian” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at http://www.dickstaub.com.)

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