A Damn Real-Life Film
It’s not a sin to show Christians swearing
I’M A CHRISTIAN, I swear.
No, I mean I swear. Probably a little too much. This is less a point of pride than just the reality that at some point every day four-letter words tumble from my mouth. But I am a Christian. I swear. So when I saw that the new faithbased film “Generational Sins,” which came out last weekend, was going to toss in a couple of fbombs, along with other profanities, I thought, “Well, good, that’s a little more like real life, isn’t it?”
It’s certainly more real-life than the fundamentalist churches I was raised in, where euphemisms like “oh my gosh” and “oh my goodness” were treated with equal disdain as akin to taking the name of the Lord in vain.
I think most people would agree that the phrase “oh my stars” (a fully acceptable fundamentalist substitution for profanity, by the way) probably wouldn’t be heard coming from any character in a story that follows two bitter and estranged brothers who are brought back together by their mother’s death, reunite with their abusive and alcoholic father and, while retracing their lives, find redemption and a hope and a faith in God.
Here’s the thing: The film’s cursing isn’t gratuitous but an attempt to not “shy away from the realities of life,” as director Spencer T. Folmar said.
“Life is hard, messy, gritty, filled with disappointments, broken relationships and sin. Why shouldn’t the films we create accurately reflect the lives we lead?” Folmar, who also went to seminary, asked. A valid question. He says most “faith-based” films today portray a world that many people wouldn’t find real or relatable, and he’s not wrong — if my
upbringing is any indicator. For starters, we were expected to never frequent the cinema, even if it was a “faith-based” film that depicted Christian life exactly as we were told we should be living it. In fact, “no moviegoing” was actually a part of the church membership covenant you signed in order to become a member.
Well, not in those words, exactly. It was actually a much broader declaration — we had to sign on to the concept of “avoiding the appearance of evil.” And obviously, Hollywood is evil, so movie theaters are a veritable den of iniquity, or at least the appearance of iniquity. While you might be going to see that Grated film, your mere attendance at a movie theater could tempt others who don’t have your Disneyfied sensibilities and might watch something — anything — else.
In the church I grew up in, for instance, “Harry Potter” was too demonic and “The Passion of the Christ” was waaay too Catholic. You just can’t win.
But if Christians are only making movies, or any art and entertainment, for other Christians alone, we’re forfeiting the opportunity to spread the message we dedicate our lives to spreading.
Of course, some critics don’t see it that way. Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide, which recommends films based on their Christian messaging, says: “It’s off-putting for the audience. People don’t swear that much in public, except maybe in the hallowed halls of Hollywood.”
Oh, that’s laughably untrue — all one needs to do is ride a New York City subway for five minutes to know that. If Baehr thinks that swearing is only found in Hollywood, his world is too small.
Movieguide’s review argues that movies “don’t need to be filled with foul language, explicit sex, drug use and the like to reach out to people that aren’t walking with God.”
That, though, seems to miss the point. It’s not about using those things for the hell of it — sorry, for the h-e-double-hockey-sticks of it — or because it’s hip for a movie to do so, but rather to show the characters actually, you know, sinning like the lot of us does.
Folmar puts his movie in what he calls the “hard faith genre,” a term he coined. I like it. Faith is hard. Sometimes faith is messy. And the beauty of our redemption story is that God meets us in our brokenness and in our frailty and in our sweariness.
It’s his humanity. If we, as humans, can’t meet our fellow humans in our shared mess, what are we doing?
And if a “hot-damn” or a good-old f-bomb moves us closer to meeting others where they are, I swear, it’s worth it.