If you’ve been on Facebook at all over the last week or so and you’re a believer, you’ve no doubt seen people commenting on the new movie, Noah. Some for, some against, mostly against, but now it’s my turn.
First a confession, I’ve not seen the movie and the jury is still out on whether or not I will. By now you might be thinking then why bother to weigh in? Just another reactionary Christian… Well not exactly. You see I am not reacting to the movie but to the reaction. I remember a Christian musician named Eli who once commented How he was always amazed when Christians are surprised when people without Jesus act like people without Jesus. Well something similar is in play here. I’ve heard many accounts of how far off the biblical record this film is. My question is why does this surprise us?
It sounds to me like people who regard the story of Noah as a myth made a story out of what they consider a tall tale and so they embellished at will. I would expect no less. Rather than expressing outrage at this, we should expect it. The people who made this film are not the people entrusted with the story. We believers are the people who have been entrusted with this and all other Bible stories, especially those of us blessed with creative gifts. We need to tell these stories, because if we don’t someone else will and it won’t necessarily be the way we would want them to tell it.
You might be tempted to push back on this. You might say we don’t have Hollywood budgets. That’s not the point. What do you have? Start there. Can’t make a movie? Draw a comic. Can’t draw a comic? Write a story. Tell a friend. Go to the movie with a friend and share the story afterward. Use what you have and tell the story, the TRUE story, and team up with those around you.
We can do a better job at telling these stories than those who don’t believe them. We need to start now and do the best we can.
AMOKArts 