I’ve heard a lot of buzz about the new movie Noah. In case you haven’t, it’s a much anticipated hollywood take on the biblical account of Noah as recorded in Genesis 6 and following.
Many Christians have responded about how there are inaccuracies in the movie and we should boycott it and boycott it vocally. I don’t agree. Boycotts more often tend to make us sound judgmental and close minded. As if people don’t already think that about Christians. While I’m not in favor of embracing things that dis-honor God, I do think we need to look to see if and how we can redeem things we disagree with rather than simply boycotting them.
To some degree, anything that gets people talking about the Bible is a good thing. But better than that, anything that allows me to share with friends and neighbors about my faith is a good thing.
If this movie allows me to share why I believe in the Bible… why I trust what it says, even when it doesn’t make sense, then that’s a win in my book. Besides, the movie looks pretty good. I mean seriously, casting Gladiator (Russell Crowe) as Noah is genius. I love it when Biblical heroes are portrayed as real men. Check out that movie poster… Noah is one seriously bad dude. Not that I had anything against Steve Carell in Evan Almighty. I have to admit, I laughed out loud many times during that movie. But too often men are portrayed as completely incompetent wimps in our culture. My dad calls this comedic formula: DWG (Dumb White Guy).
Now obviously I haven’t seen Noah yet so I can’t address specific concerns about biblical accuracy or whether this is appropriate for your children (It’s rated PG-13 so probably not the younger ones). But I do plan to leverage this movie for evangelistic purposes. How?
Maybe I’ll get my small group together for a movie night and we’ll all discuss it afterward. Maybe I’ll wait for it to come out on DVD and have a showing at my house with some friends. Either way, I’d rather talk about it in a way that sheds a positive light on our faith and the real story than simply blast it from afar because they took some of the typical “Hollywood liberties”. At least by seeing it I can have intelligent conversations with people are gonna see it whether I boycott or not but end up having questions.
Will I compare the movie with the actual Biblical account? Of course. Do I expect to find differences, some of which may cast Noah or God in a bad light? Absolutely. But I’m praying through all of that I’ll be able to have a conversation with people I care about that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise. That’s the piece I plan to capitalize on.