Who are they?
Just what it sounds like – people who are actively seeking real answers to life’s toughest questions. They might be former RINOs yearning for something deeper. Or they might have no experience with faith at all except for those religion classes they took in college, but that was enough to pique their curiosity. Either way, they recognize that there’s something more out there, and they want it. A person in this crowd probably has books on faith sitting on their nightstand or a Scott Hahn CD in their car.
What is a reasonable Christian theme?
There isn’t one. Not in the sense of exploring narrative film that we have been discussing. What a Christian in media should offer this audience is not “fine art” but rather educational media. This audience wants more depth and concrete answers. Apologetics and educational material are the way to reach this audience. Entertainment is not the priority here (although excellence in production value still should be). This is where saint stories can make their entrance, not as a masked attempt to try to convert someone but rather as an inspirational story that conveys fact and wonder (this doesn’t mean that a saint story couldn’t be made into a wonderful narrative film, but usually they are not). For the most part, documentary-style catechesis is closer to what this audience is seeking.
Why is this reasonable?
If this audience is seeking a narrative film, then the same rules apply here that we’ve already covered with the Uninterested and RINO audiences. People go to the movies to be entertained. Even if they are actively looking for answers and depth in their spiritual lives, they still don’t appreciate being preached to when they pay for a movie ticket. There is a real need here, however, for apologetics and educational media. For these folks, it’s not one or the other – there’s a time and a place for entertainment, and a time and a place for the stuff that gives them answers. Next to the book on Christianity on their nightstand might be the latest crime thriller novel. It is time that we stop trying to mix the two.
How do we reach our goal?
A feature-length film is probably not the best route. Short videos on specific topics will better serve this community because the kind of ideas we’re dealing with are intellectually and spiritually intense – not many people can absorb more than 45 minutes of this kind of material in one sitting. Audio content is also great for this kind of thing – EWTN Radio and the Lighthouse CD series are perfect examples of this. Really outstanding catechetical videos are still waiting to be made, however. There is a wide open market here.
Jesus worked this way with the rich young man in the Gospel (see Luke 18:18-27). The young man asks Jesus how he can gain eternal life. It’s curious that he asks this question because only a couple lines later, the young man reveals that he has been observing the commandments all his life. He must have known that he was missing something, that there was something more to life than simply not being evil. And he was actively seeking to find what the missing piece was.
Tragically, when Jesus gives him the answer, the young man finds it too hard to accept. Again, I find the young man’s action – or rather his reaction – curious. He’s not angry with Jesus, or indignant. He doesn’t mock Jesus or scoff at his answer. He goes away sad, I think, because he knows what Jesus says is true, and he also knows that he’s not strong enough to translate it into action.
Jesus’ style of communication here is straightforward. He doesn’t bother with frills or a lengthy, cryptic parable this time. He keeps it short, simple, and utterly profound.
Short videos about the faith may seem easy enough, but if that were really true, wouldn’t there be more of them out there? I think this niche in media has yet to be mastered by anyone. Don’t get me wrong – EWTN and others are doing some really amazing things, and I don’t want to skimp on giving them due credit. But I think there’s plenty of room to grow. An inspiring recent example from Ireland can be found here: John the Baptist.
The challenge here is to make the material digestible for those who may not have a strong background in faith, but at the same time, it needs to fearlessly address the real, tough questions they have. If it doesn’t deal with the counter arguments and questions head on, the video will come across as disingenuous. What makes Scott Hahn’s books so fantastic, for instance, is that he is a genius at expressing theologically dense ideas in almost conversational terms without being afraid to confront the tough questions. How can Christians adapt that style into our medium without falling into the trap of trying to make a narrative film educational?
Next week: Faithful.
