Morality and the media

Holly McClure is a Christian filmmaker with a wide involvement in print, radio and television. She talked with Associate Editor Scott Harrup about the positive impact the media can have on today’s culture.

PE: What led you into a media career?

MCCLURE: I wrote a movie review column for parents in the Irvine World News and it got picked up in the Orange County Register. I got involved with different Christian radio stations and Web sites, got onto radio as a talk show host and appeared as a guest on other shows. Since then I’ve done some television work. But it all started with the movie reviews.

The whole reason I wrote the column was to add some moral values and ethics to the movie review process and give parents insight into what’s going on in the theater. As a parent of three kids, it was close to my heart. I felt like God wanted me to use my talents to help families.

PE: What do you see driving the continued decay of morality in television and movie production?

MCCLURE: You can point to several factors. There’s the lack of godly teaching and principles and faith that parents have offered the younger generation. It’s like there’s a generation that’s been skipped. A humanistic approach to living permeates our culture. We may have a strong Christian heritage, but about half the country doesn’t believe those truths.

Another point is the craving of our culture — Christians and non-Christians alike — to be entertained. Church has to be entertaining, going to the gym has to be entertaining, everything you do has to be entertaining. Everyone’s become very self-absorbed. Films are going to cater to that hedonistic side of our nature.

When you have a nation where the kids are being taught a relative morality, they’re more accepting of whatever comes out in the media. Then you have writers that skew their material to that demographic because young people are spending money. As long as we accept it and buy it, Hollywood will continue to sell it.

PE: You’ve filmed a documentary about Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Why does The Passion stand out?

MCCLURE: My documentary on the making of The Passion appeared on PAX and TBN. I think The Passion will contribute to a paradigm shift in our entertainment. Originally, the doors were slammed shut in Mel Gibson’s face by the studios. He was told they wouldn’t touch it because it was religious and about Jesus. So he took his own money and did it, and the film has become huge.

Does religion on its own sell well? No. But this is a good story and it’s the way it’s told. That’s what sells. Before its release, I talked with Mel about why he thought it would do well. “I think people love hero stories and people love love stories,” he said. “This is a hero story. It’s about God loving His Son and His Son loving mankind.”

And, as Gibson points out, this is a story that goes against Hollywood. The hero doesn’t get revenge. The hero doesn’t kill anyone. He is crucified yet forgives His enemies from the cross. It’s a story of compassion.

This movie has made people who have never really heard about Jesus or stepped inside a church to be moved and touched. They walk out and want to learn more about Jesus, ask questions, and pursue those answers. That’s great, and that’s exactly what Gibson wants.

I was at a screening, and a Jewish woman in the audience came up to me afterward. “This movie has profoundly impacted me,” she said. “I’ve never read the Bible, and that’s not what I’m pursuing. But this story makes me curious about the Gospels.” And I smiled and said, “That’s exactly what Mel Gibson is trying to do with this film.”

PE: Where do you see the potential of film for communicating the gospel?

MCCLURE: I think the potential for film is tied to what I said earlier about entertainment. Since entertainment has become the pulpit of America, we need to preach through the media. When you recognize that our children and culture are learning from the movies they watch, then movies become a worldwide platform. So we need to get people in there preaching from that pulpit. For years Christians would hide their heads and treat Hollywood like Sodom and Gomorrah. Christians pulled out and we didn’t have a strong influence. But now believers are involved at every level of filmmaking. That’s how you make a difference.

God knows how to use movies to connect with hardened hearts. We can’t expect films to do anything in people’s lives on their own. But if we let God be God and do what He wants to do, we’re going to find a whole new generation coming to the Lord and expressing an interest in Him from films they have seen.

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