Prejudice Destroys Discernment

Prejudice Destroys Discernment

By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher

There have been many very good Christian faith and values movies that discerning audiences should have supported, but their discernment may have been blindsided by prejudices.

A discerning audience of people of faith and values should look at how the movie coheres in whole or in part to biblical principles and theological orthodoxy. That is why MG uses more than 150 criteria to analyze movies. As an example, there was a wonderful family movie last year that was very pro-life and started with the perspective that God creates babies, that babies are a gift from God, that Jesus is the boss, that the Devil is trying to stop people from having babies, and many other sound theological principles. But, there were those who refused to see the movie, THE BOSS BABY, because it starred some people they thought were nefarious in the Hollywood community, such as Alec Baldwin.

For many years, I’ve taught that biographical criticism is often the least effective form of criticism. For instance, try to apply biographical criticism to Solomon building the temple. God told Solomon to go to Hiram, king of Tyre, to get his materials and workmen, but Hiram was a pagan and his workmen were creating all the temples to the false gods. We should be outraged, except that God told Solomon to do this because he wanted the best workmen. The key is to to employ the best workmen for their talents, but not to compromise your values.

Another example is THE STAR. One person complained that some of the actors were not orthodox. However, the movie made it clear that Jesus was the Son of God, that He was the Christ, that He was born of a virgin, that He was King of Kings, that He came to save mankind, and cohered to the biblical story and the Nicene Creed, although it created some fictional characters to tell the story and had some allegorical moments.

Christians should support THE STAR and especially show it to their children and grandchildren to open the conversation about Jesus and why He matters.

So, the moral of this is don’t let your prejudices blindside your discernment. Ask the right questions to develop your wisdom and understanding and avoid prejudging, which is an act of pride.