[nickcarraway]

ping

[Argus]

bump for later lengthy read.

[Zack Nguyen]

Good for them. There are good movies out there if you look. And regardless, it is an extremely powerful medium.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Frankie Schaeffer wrote a book several years ago called "Addicted to Mediocrity". It deals with how Christians are suspiscious of any excellent or cutting edge talent by anyone in the art world.

Many Christians believe that if you are popular with the culture at large (or even worse if the art elite love your work) then you must not be doing God's will. It used to be that the best artists were sponsered by the Church and their masterpieces ornamented the great sites of worship. Now if you hang a Kinkaid painting in the lobby your church is "artsy".

Movies are probably the most extreme example of this. There are some really talented Christian actors, but much fewer talented Christian directors, producers, and crew members of major studio quality.

My big hope is that Gibson's Icon Productions and Jackson's new Weta shop can be open areas outside of the Hollywood machine where Christians can ply their trade. I don't think a movie a month about some biblical figure needs to be made, but there are many, many more screenplays that are better and more uplifting than half the movies that lose money for the studio nowadays.

[Salvation]

**Nicolosi: As Pope John Paul II noted in his 1999 letter to artists, creative people have a special relationship with God as beauty.**

Ping!