Christianity Today interviews Andrew Stanton, director of the new Pixar flick “Wall-E,” about faith in Hollywood:
Some Christians want more “message movies,” and they want them to be movies where the gospel is preached loud and clear. But when movies get too driven by their agenda, you often end up with a crummy movie, and …
Stanton: Yeah, I’m right with you on that.
But guys like you and others at Pixar, and other Christians like Scott Derrickson and Ralph Winter, are bringing biblical themes into the movies without making them feel “preachy.” Where are you on all of that thinking?
Stanton: I agree with what you said. Just because you’re strong in your faith doesn’t mean that you suddenly have to be dumb and pander to a certain audience. When did that become a rule? I think you were given a brain to use it, and I think you were given talents to use it.
It’s about communicating your values without whacking people over the head with them … for Christians in the entertainment media, though, taking this tack can get ‘em in trouble with church people who expect Christians to make only “Christian” entertainment.
But the fact that Christians have retreated to our subculture of Christian music, Christian movies, Christian books, Christian radio, only means that mainstream culture doesn’t come into contact with our values in the marketplace of ideas. We’ve ceded all that cultural ground to other viewpoints and values.
So non-Christians assume stuff about us. (I’m thinking of this TalkBack thread about kids waving their arms in the air at the Witness Festival. Good grief, this is exactly what you’ll find at any secular rock concert — so what makes Christian kids mindless zombies? Nothing except assumptions.)
C.S. Lewis was right: What the world needs is not more Christian writers — or artists or musicians or filmmakers — but more writers and artists and musicians and filmmakers who are Christian.
