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Paul Lauer, founder and CEO of Motive Entertainment, said his company is "pretty strict" about what films they will—and will not—promote to the Christian market. Motive has previously worked such movies as The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe; The Passion of The Christ; Rocky Balboa; and The Polar Express.

"We turn down a lot of business because the films are not in line with our morals and values," Lauer said. "The Secret Life of Bees is probably more on the fringe than normal for us, and there are certain aspects we knew would be somewhat challenging for part of the Christian audience.

"But we thought the values, morals, and message were strong enough, despite the fact that it didn't have a 100 percent perfect content record. There are language issues; the Lord's name is used in vain."

As for the Black Madonna theme in the film, Lauer said, "We knew some of the Christian audience would have challenges with that. But that goes back to a general misunderstanding between Catholics and Protestants, and what Catholics mean by honoring the Virgin Mary, as opposed to worshiping the Virgin Mary."

Lauer said that though Motive wasn't involved in putting together the Bible study for Bees, he said that the studios generally are "hands-off" when asking faith-based marketing agencies to create resources for the Christian audience.

He also said that when Motive was marketing The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to Christian leaders, "We did a similar thing [with a study guide] by not giving explicit Scripture studies, but covering themes and values that pastors could connect with, building their own Bible studies around it. It could be used for Bible study, but not as a Bible study."

A key difference, though, is that The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was written by a Christian author, and that story—unlike Bees—doesn't include questionable theology, from an evangelical perspective.

Rob Rienow, family pastor at WBC, agreed that the film tackles important topics worth discussing from a Christian perspective, but added that he wouldn't use the materials at beeresources.com "because it is not centered on the Scriptures."

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