For decades Hollywood has ignored the large audience of those who want movies that reflect the biblical values upon which so much of our heritage is based.  Following the phenomenal success of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, America’s entertainment providers have sought to reach out to evangelicals and others who want high quality family-friendly entertainment.

Two important new movies are set to release in the next two months.  The first is Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, which will be in theatres on October 21, 2005.  The other movie is Narnia, which will open on December 9, 2005.

Christian movie critic Ted Baehr gives the following description of Dreamer:

On October 21, a very entertaining movie full of faith, family and godly dreams will come to a theater near you. Called DREAMER: INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY, it is the NATIONAL VELVET of the 21st Century, a wonderful, captivating movie that will make you want to stand up and cheer… I have fought for 20 years to restore Hollywood to producing movies that you can walk out of with your head held high. This is one.

Online resources from Ted Baehr’s Movie Guide and Fuller Theological Seminary provide discussion guides for this movie.  These resources include a Christian study guide, a family activity guide and a non-religious youth and family values guide.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is based on one of the books from C.S. Lewis’ classic children’s book collection, The Chronicles of Narnia.  C.S. Lewis was one of the leading thinkers, apologists and advocates of Christianity in the 20^th century.  The Chronicles are written as an allegory (a story in which the characters and events symbolize some deeper underlying meaning) of the Christian faith.  Aslan, the lion, represents Jesus Christ and his role in the book signifies Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The witch represents Satan’s temptation of humanity to turn from God and into sin.

We cannot fully endorse these movies, because we have not seen them.  But so far it appears that some of Hollywood is responding to the need for family movies with biblical values.  A sample of the resources for the Dreamer movie is in a notebook in the Fellowship Hall.  This is a sample for everyone to be able to see, and should not be taken.

These resources are available online at: http://dreamer-lime.dreamworks.com/familyfun/.  The official site for the Narnia movie is: http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/index.html

It is our responsibility as individual families and a church to raise our children up to know Jesus Christ and his word.  The Bible tells us in Romans 12: 2 (NLT), “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”  This is nearly impossible when our children are immersed in an entertainment world that sensationalizes, promotes and flaunts those things, which the Bible condemns as sin.

Below are some links to web sites that will help you as a parent and a Christian yourself to navigate the entertainment world from a Christian perspective.

http://www.pluggedinonline.com/

http://movieguide.org/

http://www.screenit.com/search_movies.html

These websites offer movie reviews from a Christian perspective.  Their opinions will vary on any particular movie and it is helpful to check out the reviews from more than one site.  While these are helpful guides each family and individual must personally seek God’s guidance in how we choose to entertain ourselves.

Let’s pray that these movies will be faithful to biblically-based family values and that a good response from the viewing public will encourage Hollywood to make more high quality movies that reflect our values.