When our sons were young we took them to the movie, “Facing the Giants.” On the way home they complained about how simplistic and silly it all was. “Of course it all works out. This is what Christians want!”
Here is a few minute critique which raises some important issues:
The whole relationship of Christianity to art is a complicated one. I have been thinking about this lately while putting together a talk on the Bible as Literature. I realized that a number of important fiction writers who are not especially known as being evangelical Christians get much of their inspiration from the Bible. This can easily be seen in the titles of books such as The Grapes of Wrath, The Sun Also Rises, The Lord of the Flies, The Power and the Glory, East of Eden, The Little Foxes, etc.
These authors see the art of the Bible and revel in its evocative language while most of us just look for convenient proof texts and black-and-white instructions for living.
Our best writers who don’t claim any belief in Christ say true things about sin and the various predicaments it raises.
What is interesting (and I’ve seen this with journalists as well) is the ability to describe evil in great detail, yet struggle to label it “sin.” Obviously, if you don’t believe in God it removes the reality of sin. But no God also means redemption is impossible. This I also saw while doing research on my first book. Journalists could categorize what the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer did in all his grizzly exploits, but they generally believed he was beyond redemption.
As Christians, we can look long and hard at evil and sin, but pronounce that no one is beyond redemption.