Protestant portrayal in the media

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris_LaRock
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Chris_LaRock

Guest
How would you say Protestants are portrayed in movies and on tv? I don’t personally see too many Protestants on tv at all. (Maybe it’s because Catholic clergy dress nicer? 😃 LOL)
 
I think they are made out to be idiots and I don’t like it.
A movie like “Saved” is the type I can’t stand, where evangelicals who oppose abortion and homosexuality are made into evil neanderthal monsters.
Then you have shows where the liberal “progressive” Christian is praised for his “new way of thinking” and all that ****.
 
Chris LaRock:
How would you say Protestants are portrayed in movies and on tv? I don’t personally see too many Protestants on tv at all. (Maybe it’s because Catholic clergy dress nicer? 😃 LOL)
Click to expand...
It’s difficult to find good portrayals of faithful Christians anywhere in the media. For that matter, of faithful Orthodox or Conservative Jews. Or of practicing Muslims. Occasionally in the 90’s you saw someone practicing some sort of Buddhist meditation. But rarely actually living out the life of a religious Buddhist. Screenplays for movies and TV shows are written by folks who are fully secularised, interact almost exclusively with people like them who are wholly secularised, have in many cases NEVER gone to church or synagogue, and certainly not attended regularly in the past great number of years. At best, folks in the industry are Holy Day attendees.
 
Seventh Heaven has a pretty good projection of protestant family life.
 
Character Zero:
I think they are made out to be idiots and I don’t like it.
A movie like “Saved” is the type I can’t stand, where evangelicals who oppose abortion and homosexuality are made into evil neanderthal monsters.
Then you have shows where the liberal “progressive” Christian is praised for his “new way of thinking” and all that ****.
Click to expand...
I’d have to say it’s because it’s pretty hard to find a ‘representative’ for Protestantism. Since by their very definition of existence, they do not have a formal hierarchial structure (some, like the anglicans and methodists do, but even then you will find different sects of anglicans/methodists and you don’t really have an authoritative voice in either) and all the different denominations all hold varying beliefs.
 
40.png
flameburns623:
It’s difficult to find good portrayals of faithful Christians anywhere in the media. .
Click to expand...
Exactly! There is a stereotype, which is invariably some kind of an idiot…usually an idiot who is also hypocritical.
There is just so much that I can take, & then I have to tune it all out…Funny, how the media touts the importance of “tolerance”, but is almost completely intolerant of people of faith. There seems to be a need to make us all look as bad as possible.
 
Chris LaRock:
How would you say Protestants are portrayed in movies and on tv? I don’t personally see too many Protestants on tv at all. (Maybe it’s because Catholic clergy dress nicer? 😃 LOL)
Click to expand...
The Catholic preist generally represents Christians in movies. It is generally Catholics that are portrayed badly, but there was the movie “Saved” recently that portrayed protestants as self righteous.
 
Character Zero:
I think they are made out to be idiots and I don’t like it.
A movie like “Saved” is the type I can’t stand, where evangelicals who oppose abortion and homosexuality are made into evil neanderthal monsters.
Then you have shows where the liberal “progressive” Christian is praised for his “new way of thinking” and all that ****.
Click to expand...
I agree, that was the main thing that got me mad watching saved. It was a propaganda movie saying that all conservative Christians are evil and we hate homosexuals and are intollerant. It basically said that Christianity is good if it has no firm stances, but if it stands for something then it is evil.
 
40.png
Loboto-Me:
Seventh Heaven has a pretty good projection of protestant family life.
Click to expand...
Except for the fact that I have never heard them use the name of Jesus, and normally they go out of their way to avoid even saying God… Think about it - for it to be a tv show about a protestant minister and his family - its much more about fixing people’s problems than anything to do with God…

But we do have a good new movie coming out (well the release has been postponed so it likely may now be only coming out on video, but oh well) called Second Chance (or The Second Chance or something like that) that stars Michael W. Smith as a pastor and another actor as a inner city pastor and how they learn to work together… (Considering that Michael W. Smith had the chance to audition for a movie once before in his career and turned it down because the movie was inappropriate in his opinion (he had the opportunity to audition for the lead in Hope Floats) then I trust (from what I know of him from his music and his interviews and the way he generally lives his life) that this movie should be a pretty good portrayal)
 
Yeah, even when Seventh Heaven shows them in church you don’t even hear them mention Jesus.
Also, for awhile they touched on dating and stuff alone. But then as the kids got older they had do deal with the premarital sex issue. Everytime I’ve seen them deal with it, even the guy who’s supposed to be the pastor. You get the impression that he doesn’t want his kids to have sex because he’s uncomfortable with the idea of his kids having sex (Daddy’s little girl, and all that) Not because the bible speaks against it or anything. I’m not coming down on the show. I think it is a clean show (although the kids are a little disrespectful and the parents to laid back for my taste). It does show people making mora decisions and when they don’t they usually suffer consequences.
But I wouldn’t say it portrays your average Prostestant Preacher’s family. I’m a PK (Preacher’s kid) and my parents were never as lax as these were. And I was always given biblical reasons for their decisions and advice about my life growing up.
 
Yeah - and even though even in Church you never hear much about God - in the early days Seventh Heaven seemed to be a lot better portrayal that in has been in the last 4 or 5 years in my opinion. While they have always dealt with issues, in the last years it seems to have become the “lets see how messed up the Camden family and their friends can become” rather than truthfully dealing with issues - they’ve become a vehicle for the issues, and like you said, while they push for morality, its not because of God most of the time, or at least it doesn’t come across that way…

my mother still watches the show and I saw one part last week or the week before where they so OBVIOUSLY avoided using the name of God or Jesus… Rev. Camden just sort of looked “above” and maybe pointed, and Lucy (who decided to become a Pastor herself - for what seemed like just to “help” people, nothing about their souls…seemed more like she decided on it, than it being a calling, but thats another aside, lol) and Lucy just refered to “a higher power” - it made me want to scream!

Actually for what little we saw of him, I thought that on JAG, Sturgis’s father the Chaplain was a pretty good portrayal - they avoided too much religion coming from him, but he seemed like an honest portrayal - that even if they wouldn’t show him saying anything on his VERY FEW appearances that was too “Christian” his character very much seems to have would have been saying things like that “off screen” more so than the Camdens, but maybe thats just because we didn’t see too much of him…

And as far as CATHOLIC portrayals, I have to say I have always loved the portrayal of Father Mulcahey on MAS*H even before I was ever interested in becoming a Catholic - he just always stood up for his beliefs, without alienating the others, he always made it clear that he didn’t approve of sin, without coming across as holier than thou (and while still having fun at the same time =)
 
40.png
mellysue:
Yeah, even when Seventh Heaven shows them in church you don’t even hear them mention Jesus.
Also, for awhile they touched on dating and stuff alone. But then as the kids got older they had do deal with the premarital sex issue. Everytime I’ve seen them deal with it, even the guy who’s supposed to be the pastor. You get the impression that he doesn’t want his kids to have sex because he’s uncomfortable with the idea of his kids having sex (Daddy’s little girl, and all that) Not because the bible speaks against it or anything. I’m not coming down on the show. I think it is a clean show (although the kids are a little disrespectful and the parents to laid back for my taste). It does show people making mora decisions and when they don’t they usually suffer consequences.
But I wouldn’t say it portrays your average Prostestant Preacher’s family. I’m a PK (Preacher’s kid) and my parents were never as lax as these were. And I was always given biblical reasons for their decisions and advice about my life growing up.
Click to expand...
Seventh Heaven is pretty much a secular show with a religious backdrop. Although, I find myself watching it there’s not much deep religious introspection to it.
 
I LOVED Seventh Heaven in high school, I’ve just gotten thoroughly aggrivated with it, and not just because of its portrayal of Christianity… But yes - if you’re going to watch, you’ve got to watch it for what it is, after all, we don’t normally complain about other shows that don’t address the issue do we (well with the exception of ones that are blatantly against morals and such) I just don’t watch much fiction tv anymore - I watch HOUSE and thats about it - that and re-runs (and dvds) of MAS*H, lol (its a Father-Daughter thing in my house =)
 
40.png
Loboto-Me:
Seventh Heaven has a pretty good projection of protestant family life.
Click to expand...
But only because they are liberal protestants. If they were good orthodox conservative protestants, the media would only make fun of them.
 
AmISearching?:
I LOVED Seventh Heaven in high school, I’ve just gotten thoroughly aggrivated with it, and not just because of its portrayal of Christianity… But yes - if you’re going to watch, you’ve got to watch it for what it is, after all, we don’t normally complain about other shows that don’t address the issue do we (well with the exception of ones that are blatantly against morals and such) I just don’t watch much fiction tv anymore - I watch HOUSE and thats about it - that and re-runs (and dvds) of MAS*H, lol (its a Father-Daughter thing in my house =)
Click to expand...
Yes, we used to watch if faithfully in my house. We absolutely loved “Joan of Arcadia” but of course they canceled that show. Most of the shows on today on the networks are pretty much what you would expect of secular society. “Joan” was a theologically liberal show but at least you always had the sense of God’s presence and purpose in the life of the family - something hard to come by nowadays.

Peace…
 
I guess you could say that both Catholics and Protestants are equally hated. :rolleyes:
 
Chris LaRock:
I guess you could say that both Catholics and Protestants are equally hated. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
orthodox Christians of all sorts - Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox - all are not particularly liked by the media…

liberal Christians are ok in the media’s book because they don’t say anything for them to really disagree with

and the truely extreme end of fundamentalism is likely ok by them in a comic sense - in that they make fun of them…

but a true orthodox serious Christian of any sort - they don’t know what to do with and they ignore…
 
I was disappointed about the part in ‘saved’ where the Christian preacher doesn’t respond to the disagreement about his condemnation of homosexuality. I think this was done to imply that Christians have no reason to condemn it. Two scriptures popped into my mind when that happened. Leviticus 18:22, and Leviticus 20:13.

Jesus said we would be hated for the sake of his name. I’m actually flattered when they hate us for our faith and lie about us. Remember the Beatitudes? Rejoice and be exceedingly glad when men say all kinds of evil things of you falsely for the sake of my name, for your reward will be great in heaven. (something like that)
 
40.png
sententia:
Whatever happened to Mash?
Click to expand...
What do you mean? Hallmark Channel has the reruns on almost every night (quite a few in a row) and you can buy up to season 7 (I think!) out of 13 on DVD now =) (I’m not positive without looking what season they’re up to but I know its about to there…unless a new one has come out and me and my dad have both missed it!) and speaking of that - even on the tv (because of them doing it for the dvds) its been remastered (I never knew that the show wasn’t supposed to look dark and dingy as a child/teenager until they started doing that when I was in college - I thought it was the way it was supposed to be to represent war, LOL!)

of course the interesting thing is that it lasted for 13 seasons when the war only lasted 3 years - and they had more than 3 Christmas episodes!! LOL
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top