Dear Churches of America,

Please do not ruin this movie for me. I'm begging you, don't do what I'm afraid you are going to do. Do not market this movie as the next big evangelistic tool. I am really excited about this movie. I'd like to go to it, enjoy it, talk to my brother about it, recommend it, recommend the books, and have a general sense of satisfaction about it. I DON't want you exploit it, baptize it, lean on it, evangelize with it, or claim it as something that belongs to you. I think there are enough of us with a bad taste in our mouths from the last Christian marketing blitz (the Passion). Oh, I am so nervous that when this movie hits, I will be defending and apologizing (not to be confused with apologetics) for my faith, or rather, the (Christian) Faith. For once, can't we enjoy this event as a wonderful telling of a great story written by one of our most beloved authors? Can we not get so giddy about having another superficial "tool" in which we'll "win" people to Christ? I apologize in advance for my cynicism, but please...please...don't do it.

I picked up this magazine and thought, oh no...we are going to try to use this movie to save people...for some reason it never occured to me that this would happen, but I shouldn't be surprised. How bad could it be? It appears to be a magazine featuring a story about how to use the movie to get opportunities to share Christ. Wrong. When I opened the pages, I realized that it was a catalog. Inside is all the information you need to buy banners, movie invitations, postcards, banners, and more banners. They all sport the movie logo, a picture of Aslan or some other character and some cheesy slogan. AND it's all being marketed as the next big push in outreach. My heart sinks as I think about the implications. You can spend anywhere from 100 up to 350 dollars for a single banner. But if you are the kind of church who's into buying banners, you probably don't just get one banner. AND if you are going to the trouble to buy banners, you'll probably buy the invitations and/or postcards and send them out on your 3000 person mailing list. You may even have an "after party" event where everyone gets together and talks about the movie and it's obvious religious/spiritual content. Some churches who are really "zealous" for evangelism might even offer to pay for the tickets for many of their people to go to with an unchurched friend.

I can't help but notice how all of this might be a huge waste of money. And this isn't yo daddy's spending cash either, this is money that people are entrusting to the church for good purposes. I sort of feel like Disney has found a way to exploit us...and it makes me feel sort of bad except that we are walking right into it. So they put out a movie that will gain instant approval from the largest religious group in the US of A and it also happens to have the name Disney attached to it. So you know everyone who struggles to find a decent family movie will be cramming their kids into theaters eager to see something that won't scare, gross out, or prematurely "educate" their children. Do I care that Disney is making this movie? Not a bit. In fact it's good that a company that consistently puts out AWESOME movies is taking the beloved stories to task. Am I bothered that the church will ultimately try to use it for evangelism and in doing so waste time and resource? You bet. Somebody out there is exploiting (yet again) the Christian faith by telling us all that promoting this movie full tilt will help change the world for the Kingdom...and we're buying it.

This sort of thing is what I would call lazy evangelism. It's for people who either aren't interested in developing relationships/conversations with friends, neighbors, co-workers about spirituality and God OR for people who's life is so characterized by isolation from "wordly things" that they have no idea how to start those relationships/conversations. When a "christian" themed movie (or something like it) surfaces they feel it to be a godsend because finally there is something that will speak to these "sinnners." An entire church can get caught up in not actually evangelizing to people and just waiting around for the next slick presentation to piggy back off of. They aren't aware of how much more meaningful and lasting true fellowship and community will do for cause of Christ. It's almost as if these programs are a crutch...one that needs to get kicked away so we can learn to walk in our communities again.

Let me break this down and be done with it. Some churches will spend thousands of "evangelism" dollars to promote a 2 or 3 hour movie which contains Christian themes and likenesses so they will have a better chance to talk to others about Jesus RATHER than just being active in the lives of the people of their community. Depressing, I know.