A Non-Cheesy Christian Film Does Exist: Risen, Starring Joseph Fiennes and Tom Felton

/
A Non-Cheesy Christian Film Does Exist: Risen, Starring Joseph Fiennes and Tom Felton

For those of you who know me, you know I have an extremely low tolerance--allergy if you will—towards music and film stamped with the “Christian” title. Most Christian art is at best, bland, and at worst, insensitive in the way it glosses over the depth of human emotion.

With that said, I am about to unabashedly give due praise to the new film, Risen, starring Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love, Luther) and Tom Felton (Harry Potterfilms). Produced by Affirm Films, a division of Sony Pictures, it is a whodunit detective story in which a first-century Roman soldier Clavius (Fiennes) is assigned by Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) to locate the missing body of the recently crucified Jesus Christ, or Yeshua, as he is referred to in the film (Cliff Curtis of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead). Sitting in the theater, I was waiting for the shoe to drop for a single cheesy / unrealistic moment. It never came.

Read More

An Interview with Actors / Models Clayton and Keeley - Part 2

/
An Interview with Actors / Models Clayton and Keeley - Part 2

Clayton and Keeley are my good friends and a married couple whom I admire greatly. Both are working models and actors based in New York City, who also happen to be Christians. It is an incredible privilege to know such strong followers of Christ who take seriously their mission to be God’s salt and light in the entertainment industry. If you missed Part 1 of their interview, be sure to read that here. This is Part 2, where they share with me how they practically minister to their cast and crew on set, how God is moving in Hollywood, and their advice to aspiring Christian actors.

Read More

'Dear Hollywood': An Open Letter from Anthem Lights

/
image

Earlier this month, Christian band Anthem Lights released a lyric video for their song “Dear Hollywood” off their latest album You Have My Heart. The band is more widely known for their acoustic covers of pop songs on YouTube (last year, they won Ryan Seacrest’s contest for best Taylor Swift cover of all time with “We Are Never Getting Back Together”). Still, all of their original songs are clearly faith-based. I always had an inkling that they shared my desire to engage an unbelieving culture for the sake of Christ, and not simply create music that preaches to the choir. I no longer have any doubts.

In the Behind The Song video interview, band member Caleb Grimm says the song is “the conversation that we would want to have…if each of us (band members) could sit down with a celebrity.”

The song points to the spiritual emptiness that plagues many celebrities:

Broken hearted but pretending you’re alright / You’ve lived out every dream / But something missin’ / There’s a bigger picture calling you tonight / You could know your worth if you would only listen

The calling to reach out to these people is urgent, for the Bible says that “the human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” (Proverbs 18:14).

In the song, the band also tells Hollywood that “It breaks my heart that you still look away / From the perfect love that’s right there on display.” Jesus Christ is the only one who is able to fill a human being’s insatiable desire to be known, admired, and accepted. Not even the biggest or most loyal fan base can accomplish that.

Besides the celebrities themselves, their fans are spiritually hungry as well. And the artists have the greatest potential to influence those fans for good. Through the song, Anthem Lights also tells Hollywood that “There’s so much good that you could do / With so many eyes watching you /…When all the world is listening.”

Alan Powell, another band member, says that as fellow musicians, the band has an “overwhelming desire to see this medium of entertainment be used in an uplifting way. Tragically,…it’s used to glorify things that are not edifying, that aren’t uplifting to the individual, more specifically, are not glorifying to God.”

To be clear, Alan says, “we don’t mean this in any means like pointing fingers, like ‘Hollywood, you’re stupid.’” Rather, it’s simply to point out the entertainment industry’s potential.

“There’s so much influence that they have,” says Caleb. “In a very real way, entertainers run the world.”

Alan shares his hope for Christians who hear the song. “As a believer, you either feel this way about Hollywood, or you’re like ‘Oh, man I should feel that way,’ or it’s like ‘Yeah, I didn’t know it, but that’s the way I feel.’”

I used to think I was the only person who saw celebrities in this way. But as God once showed Paul, He has “many people in this city” (Acts 18:10). I’m glad to know that I’m not alone.

image