Christian Presence Growing in Culture and Media

Not only has the U.S. experienced the rising profile of Christian lobbyists within the political spheres, now a growing religious trend is also notable in the U.S. media and culture.
|PIC1|
The Christian music scene is firmly established in the US, but alongside the regular Christian pop music, a new interest in church songs is emerging with popular artists taking the familiar church song lyrics and re-doing them in a contemporary music style, be it jazz or gospel. Amy Grant’s cover of church songs sold 465,000.

Singer Bart Millard, who also released an album of church song-makeovers, explained why: “I wanted to create something special for my son. So with this music emerging as it has, it is possible that my son won’t have to look back to outdated songs, as was the case when I was young”.

Singer Ashley Cleveland gave a completely different explanation for the recent revival of old church songs: “It’s about the assumption that church songs are old fashioned, outdated relics from the past that have nothing more to say to us.

“For me, though, there is nothing more meaningful than these old songs. In our culture and even within the Christian community discord sometimes dominates. But when you sing together a church song that everyone knows, then all of sudden we are all one heart and soul,” he said.

The model industry has also not been left untouched by the growing influence of Christians. Former Dressman for the Ford agency, Jeff Calenberg, founded “Models for Christ” with the aim nurturing in models a more spiritual orientation.

|PIC2|Mr Calenberg explained in the New York’s “Independent” the thinking behind the organisation: “In our sector there are many people who have fallen into crisis because of the pressure put on them”. Models for Christ supports models to recover from crises or addictions, and works to strengthen them in order to overcome personal difficulties as well as to set young models aside as mentors.

Calenberg also encourages his models to decline any contract that goes against their beliefs and convictions.

In England too, there have been inroads made in the printed press. The recently founded street paper “The Son”, by journalist Hugh Southon, continues to go from strength to strength. On its first release, it sold 40,000 copies but had already risen to 62,000 by its second release.

“Our goal was to bring out a self-aware and provocative newspaper that would be successful in bringing Jesus back to the centre of society. But it had to be entertaining and fit in with today’s widespread celebrity culture”, explained Southon.

The newspaper is currently released every second month, but in 2006 it is set to become a regular monthly print.

Across the U.S., congregations and communities have been gathering in their local churches to watch sneak previews of a new movie, not about God but rather, less expectedly, about golf.

“The Greatest Game Ever Played” is the latest offering from the Walt Disney Co. soon to hit the U.S. box office and is being marketed specifically to faith-based groups, despite its generally unreligious content.

|TOP|Walt Disney Studios’ Dennis Rice commented on the film, which recounts Francis Ouimet’s improbable win in the 1913 U.S. Open: “Its themes are bout family, about not giving up on your dreams, courage.”

He added: “They are very secular virtues, but they also could potentially be Christian virtues.”

Disney is not alone in shifting its marketing focus toward the faith-based market. Other productions this year that have made a similar effort to pull in the crowds from this blossoming market are the recent father-son story “The Thing About My Folks” and the dark courtroom drama “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”.

Promoters of “The Thing About My Folks” invited members of churches, synagogues and Jewish community centres were invited to more than 30 screenings in cities including Minneapolis, Cleveland and Chicago.

Paul Reiser, writer and co-star of the family comedy, encouraged faith-based communities to support similar smaller movies that otherwise might not bring in such big revenue: “If the powers that be see there is a bigger market out there, it will make it easier for the next time around.”

Filmmakers are pursuing a similar tactic with new movie “the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by calling in Motive Entertainment, the same group that marketed “Passion” to churches, to spearhead their campaign before the film’s release in December.

“As good business people, we’d be silly not to tap into every fan of the book and hope they will become a fan of the movie,” said Mr Rice. “We don’t believe we’re making a Christian movie. We believe we’re following the story of the book faithfully and allowing everyone to interpret it how they want depending on how they’ve connected to the book.”

Twentieth Century Fox has also recently launched a website, which includes a “church resources” link, for the purpose of marketing family-friendly or Christian videos directly to a religious audience (http://www.foxfaith.com). The site also features written guidance suggesting Bible verses to bring into discussion over particular scenes from the films.

Senior vice president of marketing at Fox Home Video said: “We recognise this is an underserved marketplace that was hungry for programming that mirrored their values.”

Robert K. Johnston, a professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena urged churches to get more involved or else find themselves excluded from this growing sub-culture: “Increasingly, the church realises that spiritual conversations are happening in the culture and we are in danger of being left out of the conversation.”