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Hollywood Jesus reviewers compile no lists of sinful elements, and Bruce sets no limits about the kind of movies Christians should watch. Such lists are "garbage," he says. "It's nonsense, because it builds walls between us and those we're trying to reach."

Hollywood Jesus is even loath to attack antireligious films. Take Furches's review of House of 1,000 Corpses, a slasher flick. Furches didn't condone the movie but said its grotesque antireligious symbolism should convict Christians. "We have not done a good job of showing the world of Jesus' love," Furches writes.

Ethicist Gushee says that there are some movies no Christian should see—even for the sake of evangelism. Committed Christians could be led astray, he says, or experience what he calls a coarsening of the heart. "It is the height of naïveté about the fragility and vulnerability of the human spirit to think we could be immune to things we look at," Gushee says.

At the same time, Gushee says the checklist approach to quantifying a film's sinful elements is also too superficial. "It is the content and message of the story and the nature of the images, the imprint that's left on the soul, that matters."

Marshall Allen is a journalist in Pasadena.

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March 2004, Vol. 48, No. 3