Michael Medved wrote an interesting article for USA Today about the reaction (or lack ot it) of conservative Christians to Brokeback Mountain. While secular critics have tried to best each other in singing the movie’s praises, Christians have been relatively silent about it. No major evangelical organization has called for a boycott. Medved says that this isn’t apathy, but rather a sign that our movement has matured and Christians feel more secure in our place at the cultural table. After all, our movies are getting made too, and making big money (witness The Passion, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia). I think he’s right, and I’m sure it would have been a terrible strategy to picket theaters and try to shame movie-goers.

With the move to the new building in February, I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing about the start of my ministry here, and if I think back to 1988 (my first year at MHCC) I remember another controversial movie to which we responded differently. The movie was The Last Temptation of Christ, and I hate to bring it up even eighteen years later because of all the emotion that surrounded it then. Many Christians felt that the movie defamed Christ. Director Martin Scorsese said that, on the contrary, it showed how wonderful Christ’s sacrifice really was by asking the big “what if”…what if Jesus had come down from the cross and lived a normal life?

I’m not interested in revisiting the debate over the movie, but I can’t help mentioning the difference in our response eighteen years later to Brokeback. Back in ’88 there was a lot of picketing of theaters, name-calling and calls for boycotts in response to Last Temptation. I thought at the time that Christians who took part in this merely helped publicize the movie and came off looking angry and mean.

I agree with Medved that our recent response to Brokeback has been better and more mature. The film hasn’t been ignored by Christian leaders and publications, but neither has it become a rallying point for cultural war. Medved implies that the film makers may actually be disappointed in this response.

Of course the other possibility is that we just don’t care anymore, that we’re not willing to take an unpopular stand. What do you think? (Click on the link below that counts comments if you want to reply).