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Finally, the Passion buzz is quieting. So, after weeks of avoiding the issue, Weblog will indulge—kinda. The movie is expected to gross more than $300 million, and rivalTitanic, Return of the Kings, and other blockbuster movies. Admittedly, there was plenty of talk, most of it negative, says the Chicago Tribune's Don Wycliff.

But it's more than publicity that has propelled this film, and some folks are catching on. Forbes magazine ran a series on Christians in business. Others have noticed that Christian books like Left Behind, The Prayer of Jabez, and The Purpose-driven Life have become bestsellers. Some were shocked at the marketing savvy Christians showed in promoting The Passion and the underground means of getting Christians to spend 40 days reading and discussing a book.

Well, the Technology Review has a good look. The culture war rhetoric that pits morality-obsessed Christians against the "liberated" rest-of-the-country is too simple, it says. Christians who reject a perceived valueless culture are not only refusing to watch television, or abstaining from movies. They're creating their own stuff.

Christian music is often the example in such arguments, citing Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, but the Review goes further. "Frustrated by network television, cultural conservatives have created their own animated series and sitcoms distributed on video. They have produced their own science fiction, horror, mystery, and romance novels, all of which can be purchased online. And alarmed by contemporary video games, they have produced their own—such as Victory at Hebron, where players battle Satan or rescue martyrs."

Shows like VeggieTales and Focus on the Family's Adventures in Odyssey have done more than provide an alternative for Christians. They've contributed to prodding network TV to produce shows like Touched by an Angel, Seventh Heaven, or Joan of Arcadia.

So what does this have to do with The Passion?

"It's in that context that we need to understand the staggering success of The Passion. The Christians knew how to get folks into the theaters to support this movie." Forgetting that Christians did the same thing with the Left Behind movies, the Review explains. "Despite the presence of such a diverse alternative media culture, evangelicals do not live in some kind of protected bubble, sealed off from the rest of popular culture."

Such cultural engagement has been a hot topic, and, as the Review notes, it will certainly provide friction between those Christians who draw their morality lines in different places. But, more importantly, it avoids the us vs. them debates about society's morality. Sure, Christians oppose cultural disgraces such as the Super Bowl Halftime Show and applaud tighter FCC regulations. But with the diversity and sheer volume of media our culture consumes, we can't control everything. The piece says, "We can respond to that challenge with fear or with courage, with minds open or minds closed. The culture war rhetoric closes off discussion: its metaphors of sewage, pollution, or dead skunks imply that some forms of expression are indefensible."

The piece notes the Christian movie reviewers who encourage engagement and discernment, eliciting some welcome praise. "What I respect about the Christian discernment movement is that it is educating people to make meaningful choices and giving them a conceptual framework for talking about what kinds of ideas get expressed through the media they consume."

It's nearly faddish in Christian circles to talk about "engaging culture," but it's nice to be reminded of the point of it all. It didn't take much salt to preserve a piece of meat, or a jar of vegetables when Jesus told his disciples to be salt in the world. And with culture war rhetoric continuing to heat up this election year, this is a welcome reminder that engaging culture ought to be more than reading books about it, but talking to friends and neighbors, producing videos, video games, music, literature, and someone will take notice.

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March (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48