“Believe Me” Takes Aim At Cheesy Christian Culture Without Being Cheesy

“Christian” themed movies have had their fair share of challenges.  For every brilliant film like Chariot’s of Fire or The Mission there have been far too many movies of the Left Behind or God is Not Dead calibur.  A good rule of thumb is if a Christian movie’s theme involves either “standing for truth” or the Anti-Christ, chances are you are in for 2 hours of painful viewing.

At one time I had high hopes for Pure Flix, a Christian film company producing some quite good movies dealing with real issues.  Alas, they too seemed to have jumped on the “defending the truth” and “Anti-Christ” bandwagon of late.  If you are producing films with Jerusalem and Countdown in the title, you have officially jumped the shark.    

That’s why I was very pleased to see a great new Christian themed movie recently called Believe Me.  No raptures, no anti-Christ, no university professors persecuting innocent young Christians, heck, Kirk Cameron wasn’t even in it.  I had started to feel he was just contractually obligated to appear in every Christian movie from now on.

No, Believe Me looks at what happens when 4 college seniors conspire to use Christian culture and form a fake charity to pay off their university tuition.  What starts out as a quick way to make a few bucks takes off as churches and Christians start to really back their “work”.  What really gets exposed though is a systematic faith culture of gullibility, hypocrisy, and farce quite at odds with what Jesus really came to teach.

In Believe Me director Will Bakke shines a light in the dark corners of American Christendom poking holes at:

* cheesy missionary money appeals

* narcissistic worship

* Christian “lingo”

*  pop star faith culture

and even how to use the word “just” as many times in a prayer as you can!

(Yes the writers certainly grew up in white, evangelical Christianity)

But Believe Me doesn’t leave the viewer hanging there.  I don’t think its a spoiler to say real redemption is seen and genuine faith in Jesus (and the Way he actually taught about) is found to be what is important in the end.

As I thought about what made Believe Me different than the run of the mill independent Christian movie I realised it is how it separated following Christ from the Christian culture around it.  Many faith based films tend to honor the “system” rather than expose it for the farce it is.  Modern day Christian culture is often at odds with what Christ taught.  Thats why the “cheese” level in Christian movies is so high; it makes Jesus the leader of some kind of silly, ridiculous system that is disconnected from the real issues of life.

Believe Me is none of those things…it’s “cheese free”… and funny!

It’s not a perfect movie but it is a good movie.

And for a “Christian” film, thats high praise indeed!

Peace,

Steve