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I just saw Finding Nemo. Trusted friends (adults and children alike) told me it is a must-see. But my wife and I still emerged from the theater wondering what, exactly, we had just received for our investment of $15 and two hours of our life.

"To praise, exalt, establish, and defend." The great Roman Catholic journalist and author G. K. Chesterton, in one of his gem-like short essays, urged all Christians to do these things when they came across worthy literary or artistic expressions. Modern literature, media, and culture contain little that is positive or edifying, said Chesterton. Those that don't major on the degraded, the corrupt, and the dysfunctional still blow an uncertain trumpet. They haven't much to offer that can build up audiences.

Chesterton argued that it's our job as Christians to seek out cultural products that say something worth saying-and then to recommend them to others. "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things" (Philippians 4:8).

Certainly, Finding Nemo is artistically well done, sweetly humorous, untainted by any of the decadence that so disturbed Chesterton. But the problem my wife and I had with it is this: We've seen it all before. It's the Disney formula. Despite the (tired) theme of love between father and son, in the end it's just well produced mind-candy. Its message is pasteurized. It does not feed much in us beside the desire to be entertained.

Every time I see such well-meaning but empty movies, I remember Neil Postman's arresting title: Amusing Ourselves to Death.

OK, yes: I do keep coming back—media lemming that I am.

It goes something like this: I'm on my way home from work. It's been a long day. I'm tired. I know five restless kids and an equally tired wife are waiting for me at home. So what do I do? I stop at the Blockbuster and pick up a couple of harmless entertainments. And that evening, a few more hours trickle away as the family relaxes in front of them.

I begin to have sympathy with the Puritans or the medieval monks,with their suspicions of time-wasting merry-making. There must be better things to do with life than this!

To be sure, not everything is bleak in the world of media giants and media outlets. Wal-mart has helped the Veggie Tales' Jonah video rocket to over 2.7 million in sales (some 25 percent of these have been sold through Wal-mart stores). And they have demonstrated an aggressive enough preference for conservative and Christian media products to make the liberal media cry "censorship."

But this courageous (though, of course, lucrative) public preference for conservative media on the part of one major retailer is not enough, if the stories we watch and hear never rise above the basic (Jonah) or the sensational (Left Behind). Where are the Christian classics—old and new? Where can we go to find compelling, spirit-lifting stories from the great Christian writers and inspirational biographies from the annals of faith?

Where, indeed. A few suggestions:

The classic BBC Narnia series feels a little clunky, but it is an award-winner that my kids keep coming back to and enjoying. Focus on the Family has done an even better job—though in audio rather than video—with their Radio Theateradaptation of the Narnia books. This is a top-notch audio dramatization hosted by Lewis's stepson, Douglas Gresham. The series' adaptation of The Silver Chair well deserved its recent triumph over 600 entrants—many from such major secular players as Random House—for the coveted "Audie Award." Focus also created the Peabody Award winning audio drama "Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom" a few years ago.

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July (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47