On April 27, I wrote about movies being marketed to Christians in "Couldn't Script It Any Better" (click to read).
On a similar - though even more disturbing - note, Peter Boyer has written an essay in The New Yorker regarding the manner in which The Da Vinci Code has been marketed to those who would normally be its biggest critics ... Christians.
Since I cannot post the entire essay, here is a summary from the New Yorker's website:
In the May 22, 2006, issue of The New Yorker, Peter J. Boyer reports on how Sony Pictures Entertainment has gone to unique lengths to market “The Da Vinci Code” to Christians (“Hollywood Heresy,” p. 34). Boyer writes, “Christians were broadly united in their opposition to the book, and to the movie, but badly divided on the question of how to deal with it.” Sony, fearing an outright boycott, hired a public-relations firm that aimed to capitalize on that division by drawing the Christian community into an expansive discussion of the film. In February, Boyer writes, Sony launched a Web site, “ ‘The Da Vinci Dialogue,’ which contains some forty-five essays by religious leaders and Christian scholars questioning and correcting, in civil tones, various of Dan Brown’s assertions.” Now, Boyer writes, that “theme of engagement has come to define the Christian response.... Sony is undoubtedly pleased by this outcome. If Christian leaders are speaking of ‘dialogue’ and ‘engagement,’ they are not saying, ‘Don’t see this film.’ ”
As I asked a few weeks ago - must we be so predictable?
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UPDATE: Wait a minute. Maybe The New Yorker is using me to sell its magazines! Aiieee!
2 comments:
I don't think there's one right answer. It really depends on each individual Christian, how they can best utilize the cultural "moment" to speak the (true) gospel to others.
I think the lesson of this article is that we not jump too quickly into any pre-made mold. Some of those molds are being fashioned for us, and that's not a good sign!
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