Religion in Movies

Tonight I attended a thought provoking lecture about religion in movies. Upon arriving to the lecture, I was greeted by students dressed as ushers with popcorn, soda, and candy to make each person feel as if they were attending a movie. Shanny Luft, apart of the Philosophy Department, went over the evangelical attitudes about film during the 20th century. There are about 60 million Protestants who refer themselves to be Evangelicals. These people believe in the spirit of revivalism.  Fundamentalists are similar to Evangelicals in the sense that they too also believe in spirit of revivalism and being reborn again but they make themselves separate from society while Evangelicals are more involved. Fundamentalists were known to be "militant defenders. "
Many books in the early 1900's stated that Christians should not go to movies. Fundamentalists would see poeple lining up to get into the theater and not as many people going to the church. They were constantly competing for the audience. Also felt that the actors should not portray things that they are not. Actors were often in intimate scenes with people who were not their significant other. Is this a form of fidelity in real life. If an actor commits murder on screen, are they then a murder in real life? Fundamentalists were concerned with these aspects but what is ironic is they never discuss the content of the movies themselves. This is obviously because they never attended movies.

Evangelists ironically love media. They especially loved radio and thought it was a great way to communicate information. They were opposed with how Hollywood portrayed actors as living these luxurious lives. This can be somewhat connected to today's society. Luft added that he started writing his dissertation before having kids but after they were born he became worried about how media was going to affect his children growing up. Movies and video games often distort reality especially for young children.
Overall the lecture was very intriguing and made very interesting points that I had never thoroughly considered before.