We hope you'll benefit from using the film resources from our video vault. Before we give details on how to use our guides, we'd like to share a little about our theology of film, why we have elected to provide discussion questions rather than straight reviews, and why we do not rate films as most others do.

A BRIEF THEOLOGY OF FILM

Devout Christians vary widely about what they believe is suitable to view. For about the first 50 years of film history we conservative Christians criticized all films as being evil. Later, some began to think that movies should not all be lumped together as being Satan's tool, and that they could be judged on individual merits.

Once that idea emerged, two important things happened. First, some Christians began producing teaching films that were shown in churches or at youth meetings. Often such films showed nothing more than a preacher's "talking head," but later branched out to movies based on Bible stories. "A Thief In The Night" was a breakthrough dramatic movie about the rapture. There have always been a diligent group of Christian filmmakers, but generally their work has not been presented to larger forums because of their themes and low budgets.

The second thing that grew out of the idea that filled could be based upon individual merits was the the motion picture rating system. It came into being to provide warnings about the negative content of films, notably bad language, violence and explicit sex. Hollywood has always had the desire and the budgets to present themes which appeal to mass audiences, and they have produced plenty of good wholesome films. But few in Hollywood are ideologues, and often they are motivated solely by profits with little or no concern with the negative impact of their work can have.