Some critics love to hate on Christian movies, but are these people being too harsh, over-the-top or short-sighted in their rebukes?
That’s a topic the hosts of “Pure Talk,” an online culture and entertainment show brought to you by Pure Flix and Faithwire, addressed on Thursday night’s episode, with the panel diving into the seemingly never-ending debate over the quality of faith films.
“I think the Christian entertainment community gets a lot of flak, because there’s a lot of eyes on them,” Dan Andros, managing editor of Faithwire, told his fellow hosts. “There are a lot of horrible movies that come out in the secular [world], people make fun of them, but there isn’t … so much on the line.”
And despite the critique, Andros said “there have been plenty of great Christian movies,” with Billy Hallowell, senior editor at Faithwire, adding that it’s important to realize that Christian moviemakers haven’t been in the game as long as their secular peers.
“You have to give some grace to people, as they’re [relatively new to] making this content,” Hallowell said. “They have to improve and get better.”
Watch this episode of “Pure Talk” below:
In the end, Hallowell added that there are three different types of faith films: those intended for a strictly Christian audience, films meant for the general public and movies that intend to reach both audiences. Judging Christian films depends, in part, on understanding their intended audiences.
“The challenge for Christian filmmakers … is finding an interesting way to tell the stories,” he said.
And Greg Gudorf, CEO of Pure Flix digital, noted that Pure Flix’s central goal as a faith-based studio is to “influence culture for Christ through media,” discussing the problem that some filmmakers struggle with of leading “with the message and sometimes forgetting to lead with the story.”
“You have to tune into what it is [people] are responding to,” he said. “Once you can meet them, you can potentially shift them.”
The first episode of this season of “Pure Talk” focused on an entirely different subject: Should Christian parents choose public school, private school — or opt to educate their children at home? We’ll leave you with that episode below: