The Fox in the Henhouse

The Fox in the Henhouse:
The Danger of Neo-Conservatism in the Media

MOVIEGUIDE®, which is published by the Christian Film & Television Commission, uses godly, biblical, Christian principles in its reviews of current movies, television programs and videos. We are admittedly conservative politically and socially, but we are, first and foremost, and above all, Christian and biblical. We are this way because we believe that the Bible is the Word of God and because we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Who reigns over all of Creation, including the Creation of movies, television programs and videos.

That’s why it greatly disturbs us when we hear that Christian businessmen and Christian institutions are relying on non-Christian conservatives or pseudo-conservatives to alert and quite often confuse Christian families and churches about what’s going on in the popular culture around them or in the political world that shapes all of our lives. Many of these so-called conservatives are actually neo-conservatives and/or have insufficient knowledge of the Christian roots of conservative principles and of the contribution of conservative intellectuals such as Edmund Burke, John Adams and Russell Kirk. Furthermore, not many of these conservatives have much knowledge of great Christian conservatives like Andrew Lytle, Otto Scott or John Dabney. Finally, few, if any, of these non-Christian conservatives and neo-conservatives have any training in Christian theology.

In contrast to this, however, MOVIEGUIDE® and the Christian Film & Television Com­mission have been able to maintain its theological, moral and philosophical integrity by condemning false religious movies like Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu, occult movies like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and politically correct movies like The Majestic. Conversely, we have been able to analyze and discern posi­tive Christian, redemptive and conservative elements in such varied movies as The Patriot, Amistad, The Apostle, The Princess Diaries, and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In fulfilling these worthwhile services, we provide the proper biblical balance between Law and Grace, something which many other self-described conservatives are unable to do.

Unlike others in our field, MOVIEGUIDE® and the Christian Film & Television Commis­sion do not use half-baked political theories and unbiblical theological doctrines to help people spend their entertainment dollars wisely. No, we use an intelligent, thorough critical method backed up by decades of research and experience in Christian theology, compara­tive religion, science, psychology, philosophy, hermeneutics, history, politics, and aesthet­ics. That does not, of course, make us infallible or give us all the answers, but it does mean that we have become the Standard by which other reviews and pop culture scholars are measured!

In subtle and even not-so-subtle ways, Christians have, therefore, recently been under attack by non-Christian conservatives! Understandably, they do not see the spiritual dan­gers inherent within movies such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Pseudo-conservatives merely support family-friendly ratings and offer little or no protection to the Christian family desiring true media discernment.

That’s why we need to counteract these pernicious, if oblique, media attacks on the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By standing with us, you can help prevent the further watering down of the Christian faith and the further erosion of conservative biblical prin­ciples. That faith and those principles have made America strong. In fact, they have kept Western Civilization from crumbling completely under the strains of Communist ideology, paganism, occultism, atheism, or Islamic fundamentalism.

Help us redeem the values of the mass media which so heavily affects our society, often for the worst. Help us to “commend those who do right” (1 Peter 2:14) and expose “the fruitless deeds of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11).

As it is written in God’s word: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And, we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But, we have the mind of Christ. —1 Cor. 2:9-16 (ESV)