Baehr: ‘Entertainment can be redeemed’
- Jun 10, 2008 - comment
Christians were respected members of the Hollywood set during the golden age of American movies—and can be again, according to Ted Baehr Jr., publisher of the conservative Christian magazine Movieguide and author of more than a dozen books on Christians and the entertainment media.
“Entertainment can be redeemed,” Baehr told an audience of Mississippi Baptists gathered May 2 at Park Place Church, Brandon, for the annual Witnessing Through Media awards dinner. “We retreated from a mission field, and we should never retreat from a mission field.”
Baehr, the son of the 1930s cowboy movie star Robert “Tex” Allen and chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, said great movies are great stories well-told with a spiritually inspiring worldview. Those movies perform much better at the box office than violent and sexually explicit films, he observed.
Baehr stressed that the most powerful people in Hollywood are the 12-24 year olds who make up the vast majority of moviegoers. He quoted a Los Angeles Times study that found 74% of females and 58% of males in that age group are offended by cursing and sexual material in films.
“They are on our side,” Baehr told the dinner attendees. “They want our guidance. They want people to help them.”
Baehr said many parents are in denial about the influence of the entertainment media on young people. “In some places I go, they say, ‘My child is too intelligent to be influenced by the media.’ Actually, the more intelligent a child is, the more they are influenced by the media because their imaginations are better.
“So I say to them, ‘If your child is not influenced by the media, he probably has the intelligence of a cucumber.”
The good news is that children can be taught to be media-wise with a great deal of parent involvement, he said. He recommended parents visit his Web site, www.movieguide.com for information and resources.
“We had a record number of entries in our awards competition this year,” said Ian Richardson, communications services director for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board and coordinator of the Witnessing Through Media conference. “These entries, which included television, radio, and Web sites, were extremely creative and speak to the commitment of our churches in spreading the Gospel through media.
“I believe that as we move farther into the 21st century, media will play a vital role in reaching Mississippi and the world for Jesus Christ.”
The Witnessing Through Media awards dinner is part of a comprehensive, two-day conference that includes workshops on Getting Started and Advanced Web Site Design; Creative Production; How Did They Do That?’ Directing; Non-Linear Editing; Camera Operation; Other Media; Projection Systems; and Sound Advice Basic and Advanced.
“We strive to continually offer diverse workshops that will assist our churches in enhancing their media ministries. We are fortunate to obtain conference leaders who not only possess the technical expertise, but have a heart for ministry as well,” Richardson said.
The Witnessing Through Media program is supported by gifts to the Mississippi Cooperative Program. For more information, contact Richardson at P.O. Box 530, Jackson, MS 39205-0530. Telephone: (601) 292-3378 or toll-free outside Jackson (800) 748-1651, ext. 378. E-mail: irichardson@mbcb.org. Web site: www.mbcb.org.
This article is reprinted from the May 15, 2008, issue of The Baptist Record, the newspaper of the Mississippi Baptist Convention.
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