Why Are The Church And Hollywood At War?
(PERSONAL ESSAY) For almost a century, two of the most powerful and culturally influential institutions in the West — The church and Hollywood — have lived in near constant enmity with each other. Why is this? Does it have to be this way? Is there hope for unity?
I moved to Hollywood when I was 19. I had big dreams in my eyes and Jesus in my heart. I wanted to be an actor, like the ones I had grown up seeing in the movies that inspired my imagination — but I also wanted to be a good Christian, like the ones who shaped my soul. To many, this was an impossible balancing act.
Growing up the son of a minister and a beloved bestselling Christian author, I spent my entire childhood enveloped in the evangelical bubble. I went to youth group, raised my hands at worship concerts and knew all the Christianese terminology. It was there, buried deep inside the Protestant Christian subculture, that I first began to hear about the mysterious and terrifying place called “secular Hollywood.”
I heard in sermons, on websites and from friends that Hollywood and the movies they made were out to corrupt our Christian souls, that Hollywood was filled with a bunch of moral degenerates trying to get good Christians to have sex outside of marriage, drink wine and listen to rock music. I encountered entire churches who boycotted Disney Channel, leaders who warned their followers away from PG-13 movies and families that only watched, listened to and read Christian-made content — what they believed to be “safe for the whole family.” It became clear to me that the church believed that Hollywood was a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, a place that should be avoided and even fought against, lest culture be lost.
Much like Scripture, I was taken with the wonderful narratives I was invited into through film. But it was confusing to see an inspiring and entertaining movie on Saturday night and then be told how evil it was on Sunday morning. I couldn’t reconcile the scathing critiques about “secular Hollywood” I heard in church with the wonder I encountered on my screen at home.
Tasted and saw for myself
When I eventually moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actor, I had a lot of voices in my head about how depraved Hollywood was and how dark my experience would be. But in the first months (then, years) I spent there, I began to see the truth of what Hollywood was really like beyond the church's misconceptions. In acting classes, auditions and professional sets, I was struck by how different the reality of the place was from the perception the church held. Yes, there was darkness. But it wasn’t only dark; in fact, it was a place filled with people like me — people who desired to be a part of great stories.
While I began to understand a fuller truth beyond the church’s misconceptions about Hollywood, I also experienced the deeply ingrained misconceptions Hollywood had about the church and people of faith. I remember the looks of surprise I got from fellow actors and other professionals when I told them I was a Christian, as if I was some sort of alien. I often had to explain that I wasn’t a hate-filled idiot; I was just a normal person who happened to believe in God. I was often made fun of for being a person of faith, my beliefs regularly the butt of jokes I was expected to laugh at. I remember a talent manager once asked me if I believed in God. Upon telling him I did, he proceeded to tell me to stop — that he was my god now.
It slowly occurred to me over that first year that both the church and secular Hollywood were filled with misconceptions about each other. Because of these misconceptions, which amount to nothing scarier than a boogeyman mask, they held each other in contempt.
What do we know?
It’s clear to anyone paying attention that Hollywood and the church are at odds. There’s hardly a month that goes by where the culture-warrior watchdogs of the Christian blogosphere aren’t up in arms about some new movie they believe is going to be the downfall of society, or a TV show they see as an attack on their personal traditional values and morals. But then on the other side, Christianity often bears the brunt of public mocking or misrepresentation in shows and movies. If there is a Christian character, they’re often portrayed as stupid or evil. For decades, oblivious and simple characters like Ned Flanders from “The Simpsons” or mean and angry Christian characters like the Rev. Shaw Moore from “Footloose” have been used to represent Christian communities as a whole.
But this divide between Hollywood and the church didn’t happen overnight. It’s an American feud that dates back to the dissolution of the “Hays Code” in 1968.
The Hays Code was a self-imposed set of industry guidelines that dictated what kind of content could or could not appear in movies, lest the studios face monetary ruin. It banned cursing, nudity, lustful kissing, ridicule of religion and even interracial dating. The code was put into effect in 1934 and lasted over 30 years. It was a time when church-honoring authorities had almost complete control over the movies coming out of Hollywood. The movement was led by a group of extremist elders, pastors and priests who wielded their authority with oppressive and threatening power. But then, after decades of pushback, the Hays Code was finally removed, and in that moment, there was a split between secular Hollywood and the church. Hollywood began to make films without the artistic and moral constraints of religious oversight, and the church responded by receding into itself, away from mainstream culture and into its own subculture.
Through decades of separation, there have only been a few hints of reconciliation when a Christian star became successful in the mainstream. Think Kirk Cameron in the “Left Behind” movie or D.C. Talk’s hit song “Jesus Freak.” By and large, stereotypes were made and folktales were told by each group about the other, furthering an unfortunate divide.
Even now, when “Christian movies” make it big at the box office, they’re usually marketed by claiming they’re going to take down Hollywood and show them how wrong they are — but they do nothing but preach to the choir. When Hollywood attempts to make films or shows about faith, they usually do so with condescension or completely uninformed and false portrayals of what actual Christianity is like.
Are we really that different?
It’s easy in an age of social media and alarmist news stories to sum up entire groups with the lowest common denominators and the worst public examples that seem to find themselves the subjects of headlines — corrupt pastors and abusive producers. Website algorithms and hyper-tailored media keep people in information bubbles that provide an incomplete understanding of anything that falls outside the view of our immediate worlds and communities.
Having lived in and been a part of both worlds/communities, I’ve found that both the church and Hollywood are largely wrong about each other. Most of the people in the entertainment industry are kind, fun, story-loving people like Jesus was, and most Christians are accepting, intelligent, loving people like our favorite movie characters.
The conceptions each group has of the other are simply rooted in confident ignorance, a problem that seems to be going around in today’s culture. The amount of times I’ve heard something to the effect of, “Wow, you’re really cool for a Christian” or “You mean they’re not all perverted heathens?” is staggering.
What’s next?
So, yes, Hollywood and the church seem to be at war — or at least a passive-aggressive standoff. But I’ve found in my decade-plus of being both a Christian and an actor living in Hollywood that both groups have far more in common than they might want to admit. Both revolve around powerful narratives. Both bring beauty to the world. Both gather regularly to celebrate story — one group inside a church, and the other a theater.
So maybe it’s time for us Christians to head to a theater and see that movie we’ve been told we’re not allowed to see. And maybe it’s time for all you Hollywood-types to give church a try. Both could be life changing experiences.
Nathan Clarkson is an award-winning actor of film and TV, a Publishers Weekly bestselling author, a hit indie filmmaker and a podcast philosopher on The Overthinkers. He lives between the lights of Los Angeles and the streets of New York City. His most recent book is called “Finding God in Hollywood.”