One of the books we were required to read during our sophomore year at Punxsutawney High School (Pa.) was “The Ugly American.” It was a story of how citizens of other countries see Americans. The book’s title gives away the entire plot. The moral of the book is “Americans should act nicer when they travel in other countries.”
After I became a world traveler and witnessed some boorish behavior from fellow Americans, I understood the book’s premise. Tourists can act pretty badly!
But I also learned that no other country is as generous to the downtrodden as is America. Our charitable giving – corporately and individually – is many multiples of the rest of the world combined. Our generosity to people we don’t know makes us an object of peculiarity. In Japan, for instance, it is rare for an individual to help non-family people. Millions of Americans help non-family and total strangers every day.
“The Ugly American,” however, didn’t paint Americans nearly as ugly as Hollywood portrays Christians. I’m reminded of this in most movies, in nearly every television drama, and in all adult sitcoms.
When was the last time you saw a movie showing a family who loved God, attended church, and stayed together? When did you last see a Christian man depicted as a loving, caring father who was the provider, protector and leader in his home? I’ll bet you are thinking pretty hard to come up with an answer. Just 30 years ago, such a movie family was typical. But now, there is seldom a father at home. If he is a Christian, he is depicted as an ignorant bigot.
The Hollywood writers persecute Christians because they think it’s stylish. They also do this because they are cowards who know that they can portray Christians as dimwitted, ignorant or just plain evil, and suffer no consequences. They would never risk such derision against Moslems, Hindus or any other religious group. That would be dangerous!
Last month, Dr. Chuck Colson reminded me of how bad the Hollywood bigotry has become. He wrote the following to his supporters:
“In the recent film ‘Hannibal,’ a character named Mason Verger has just one goal in life: to catch up with the cannibal who chewed off his face, and feed him to flesh-eating pigs. It’s a sick and twisted goal—and it may not surprise you to learn that Verger is the film’s only Christian character.
In the historical film ‘Quills,’ about the Marquis de Sade, the vilest sexual behavior is performed by a Catholic priest; de Sade is portrayed as the persecuted victim of a puritanical society.”
Five years ago I watched “Black Robe,” the story of a Jesuit priest who came from France to preach to the Huron Indians. The background music was beautiful and the plot exciting. But the premise of the movie was that missionaries bring, not salvation, but disease and death, slavery and hypocrisy.
The problem with Hollywood’s blatant hatred of Christians is that people, including Christians, fund it. Christians don’t boycott such trash because many have been convinced that it is “un-Christian” to speak out against lies – if the lies are about them.
So the bigotry against Christians spreads into other areas of society.
One example: Last year, Nebraska assistant football coach Ron Brown was recruited by Sanford University for its head coaching position. Coach Brown was one of the most successful coaches in America, but he was turned down when Sanford’s athletic director Alan Glenn discovered something awful. He learned that Coach Brown was a practicing Christian.
Of course there was “credible opposition” to having a Christian at Sanford. Courtney Wooten, the director of “Queer Straight Social and Political Alliance” said, “As a Christian, Brown would be poorly received by the student body in general.”
This should seem strange. After all, Sanford University has prided itself in being “inclusive and tolerant” of all lifestyles, of all beliefs. Every perversion is encouraged, every oddity welcomed.
However, Hollywood taught Sanford University that hatred of Christians is America’s last acceptable prejudice.
Dr. Colson finished his letter with this word of encouragement.
“The good news is that every now and then, Hollywood gets religion right. A recent remake of ‘Les Misérables’ offers a poignant picture of Christian grace, forgiveness, and redemption.”
I agree, and welcome such generosity from Hollywood. But Dr. Colson’s observation reminds of a scene from “Schindler’s List.” Millions of Jews were rounded up for extermination. Every now and then, the Nazi death camp director would allow a Jew to live. He considered himself a good man for showing such tolerance.
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© 2008 by George V. Caylor. All rights reserved.
The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.
(Ecclesiastes 10:2)
