Christians have always asked Hollywood to make Bible stories into movies, but whenever Hollywood does, Christians argue with each other about the movies and rake them over the coals.
   From VeggieTales and “Prince of Egypt,” to “The Passion of the Christ” and “The Bible” TV mini-series, Christians, in their reviews and responses, have not been rooted in scripture. Whether these movies and the upcoming “Noah” and “Son of God” are accurate or not, Christians need to enter conversation with love and grace. If, for example, a non-Christian came up to a Christian to ask about “The Bible” documentary, the Christian should see this as a great avenue for sharing the gospel. Too often, though, the Christian would respond with something like, “What terrible special effects” or “I don’t watch inaccurate films like those.” At the other end of the spectrum, some Christians oversell movies based on a biblical story just because it’s biblically-based. So, before seeing or reviewing Christian movies, I would urge Christians to stifle either their hostile attitudes or their overenthusiastic attitudes and approach discussion with grace and a biblical mindset.
   That being said, the new movie “Noah” has generated a lot of conversation. It is refreshing to see producers, film makers and actors take a project like this seriously. The directors and writers have been sensitive to and respectful of the Christian community. The writers spent 16 years compiling the script. The difficulty with making the story of Noah, however, is that the story in the Bible is short. No one knows what happened on the boat and little is said about Noah’s family, so the movie makers had to take more creative liberty.
  However, Christian authors and journalists reviewing the film in magazines like “Christianity Today” and “WORLD” have all said that creative flexibility allowed them to further show the complexities of Noah himself in obeying God in a task that ostracizes him from his community and threatens the world in which he lives in. Allowing for more complexity within Noah’s character further highlights God’s providence and grace in the end. This should be Christians’ main concern. If the movie did not display God’s goodness, providence, grace and covenant, then I would urge Christians to be cautious in promoting it. Though there are a lot of elements of the movie that are not stated in the Bible, Christians criticizing this movie need to remember that it’s only a movie and Paramount Pictures spent a lot of money on a Bible story. There are a lot of Christians working in a secular media who are encouraged by interest in a Bible story movie. “Noah” is anything but low-budget or poorly cast; with Russell Crowe as its star, the movie is bound to be epic.
   In general, there are things in Christian movies about which Christians need to have an antenna up. Noah is a sinful man following the commands of God. He is understandable and relatable, but there is more of a gray area when making Jesus into a movie character. Whether you are a Christian or not, you can follow the logic. The Bible clearly states that we, as sinful and finite human beings, cannot fully understand God. A lot of the issues with “The Bible” documentary was giving Jesus lines he never said. We cannot project what we think Jesus would say.
    Even children’s films can have negative visual implications. VeggieTales presents a different type of problem. Though rooted in scripture with many beautiful song lyrics and story scripts, having animated vegetables play characters like David and Goliath can inhibit children’s understanding of the story. I was probably six or seven  before I consciously realized Goliath was not a pickle. Implications of this can be that kids, as they grow up, isolate Bible stories into just fun cartoons rather than the truth.
   There are a lot of good and bad elements within each movie, but rather than being overly critical or enthusiastic, Christians should be gracious and have their antennas up when seeing or promoting these movies. Rather than being argumentative, Christians should use these movies as a springboard for conversation rooted in scripture.