Are faith-based shows getting better or ...

Is this niche-based approach to pop culture always going to be second rate?

Over the past quarter century of so, I have spent a large chunk of my time trying to get Christian liberal arts colleges to ponder this question: Why do they have drama departments and not programs to make short films and pilots for television?

Or how about this: Why do these schools have classical-music departments, but not programs centering on 99% of the music that serves as the soundtrack for the lives of most of the students on their campuses? (I loved my college classical music experiences, by the way.)

Maybe even this: If colleges offer programs linked to popular culture, why do they center on creating “contemporary Christian” products for evangelical believers instead of mainstream material for the wider world of believers and unbelievers?

To be blunt, why do Christian educators assume that the goal is to preach to their own choirs instead of trying to influence the culture as a whole?

Recently, I ran into a Marcus Pittman essay, at his “Poorly Written Thoughts on Media and Tech,” that takes on topics linked to some of these questions. The headline: “Why the faith based film industry has failed culturally.”

That’s a provocative statement, since national media outlets are paying a modest amount of attention to “The Chosen” and other faith-driven productions that, frankly, are (a) better than the norm and also (b) suggest that this industry has financial promise in the digital, streaming, niche-market age. Remember that provocative Hollywood theory — “Christian is the new gay” — that believers had the potential to become an acceptable niche market?

Now, understand that Pittman has an agenda, since he is one of the creators of the alternative streaming service LOOR.TV (click here for some YouTubes from this project). Here are a few chunks of that essay, directly linked to my questions:

… Our first lesson as we began to build our relationships with the artists was realizing that the Christian film industry was swamped with incredible talent. There was an overwhelming abundance of it. Much more great projects and capabilities to create those projects than we ever thought. More talent than our little startup who didn’t even have a website could ever take on.

So that left a question, a question that any Christian filmmaker could quickly answer. “Why are Christian movies in a perpetual state of mediocrity, when all of this talent is widely available?”

What we learned is that there were only two options.

1. The Christian film industry was incredibly incompetent.
2. The Christian film industry was creating this content intentionally.

Think about it for a moment.

Pittman mentions, of course, the mainstream-media discussions inspired by Mel Gibson and “The Passion of the Christ” box-office totals. But that isn’t really what he is talking about. He’s digging into the roots of the “God Is Not Dead” phenomenon and dozens like it.