{"id":37,"date":"2008-10-21T10:21:05","date_gmt":"2008-10-21T10:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/textmessages\/2008\/10\/the-dishonesty-of-fireproof.html"},"modified":"2008-10-21T10:21:05","modified_gmt":"2008-10-21T10:21:05","slug":"the-dishonesty-of-fireproof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/textmessages\/2008\/10\/the-dishonesty-of-fireproof.html","title":{"rendered":"The Dishonesty of ‘Fireproof’"},"content":{"rendered":"

At The Daily Beast, Daniel Radosh (who, incidentally, started a Beliefnet book club for his “Rapture Ready”<\/a>) uses the occasion of the Christian blockbuster\u00a0“Fireproof”<\/a> to make a larger point about insular Christian entertainment: Not only does it speak exclusively to the Christian audience (while purportedly being evangelistic), but it does so dishonestly. Under the guise of Sharing the Truth, films like “Fireproof” don’t manage to tell the truth about much of anything: \u00a0<\/p>\n

But in making evangelism–and acceptability to the most insular Christian audiences–a priority, Christianese films all but guarantee artistic failure. Art demands an honesty that the evangelical bubble would find intolerable. Committed to promoting an unambiguous message that God solves all problems, Fireproof never portrays Christians doing anything untoward, or even experiencing any sorrow. Caleb’s parents’ marital struggles pre-dated their Christianity. When Caleb’s best friend reveals that he divorced his first wife, he not only says it was before he found the Lord, but adds that after he did, he would have gotten back together with his ex had she not already remarried. In the perfect world of Fireproof, good Christians do not have bad marriages, any more than they drink, gamble or swear.
\nAnd unlike in real life, when Christians in Fireproof share the Gospel they never search awkwardly for the right words and they always find a fertile target.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read it all.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At The Daily Beast, Daniel Radosh (who, incidentally, started a Beliefnet book club for his “Rapture Ready”) uses the occasion of the Christian blockbuster\u00a0“Fireproof” to make a larger point about insular Christian entertainment: Not only does it speak exclusively to the Christian audience (while purportedly being evangelistic), but it does so dishonestly. Under the guise…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-culture","category-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Dishonesty of 'Fireproof' - Text Messages<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/textmessages\/2008\/10\/the-dishonesty-of-fireproof.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dishonesty of 'Fireproof' - Text Messages\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At The Daily Beast, Daniel Radosh (who, incidentally, started a Beliefnet book club for his “Rapture Ready”) uses the occasion of the Christian blockbuster\u00a0“Fireproof” to make a larger point about insular Christian entertainment: Not only does it speak exclusively to the Christian audience (while purportedly being evangelistic), but it does so dishonestly. 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