Kevin Harvey is an editor and author who also really enjoys pop culture. His latest book, All You Want To Know About the Bible in Pop Culture, points people to the sometimes surprising gospel elements in today's movies and comics.
1) Have you always been a fan and/or consumer of pop culture? What motivated you to write this book?
Absolutely. Though my dad was a deacon and Sunday school teacher, and my mom was a preacher’s daughter who always sang in the church choir, our family did not shy away from enjoying great family moments and memories at the movie theater or in front of the television. I have vivid memories of my dad rushing my brother and me to the theater after church one Sunday to see the latest Star Trek movie and my mom cringing at the scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when the man’s heart is pulled out. Pop culture in my family growing up was part of enjoying life together. At some point in my adulthood, I began noticing more and more ways in which Hollywood was using biblical themes, perhaps without even knowing it, to write their stories. So my motivation for this book became twofold:
One, that the churched audience would recognize that a great deal of pop culture today is not near the Sodom and Gomorrah environment many accuse it as being, and in fact much of it is either intentionally gospel-inspired or unintentionally able to be redeemed for the gospel. We just need to be able to put on our “God goggles” and be willing to enter a mission field that hundreds of millions of people immerse themselves in daily. The new Avengers movie made $180 million dollars in its opening weekend, which is a gigantic audience of fans who would probably be more open to discussing comparisons between The Vision and Jesus than they would most any other topic Christians tend to use to try and break the ice with in order to share the gospel.
And two, for the unchurched audience, I hope that this book and others like it will find a mass appeal to the mission field itself. This is probably my biggest hope for the book—that a comic book fan who has never opened the Bible would suddenly find themselves curious to read more about Jesus, after seeing all the similarities to him in the recent Superman movies.
2) Christians have a complicated relationship with pop culture, swinging wildly from withdrawal and separation to total immersion. What is your view?
No doubt, I wish that Christians would view the 15 million people who watched The Walking Dead finale or the millions of people who loved Breaking Bad as a mission field. The fan bases are basically the population of a small country. Just as a missionary going to Africa would first learn the native language in order to best form relationships and share the gospel, so must we “learn the language” so to speak of pop culture and be able to engage in watercooler conversations at work and online about the previous night’s Blacklist episode or the latest movie to make a billion dollars at the box office. Certainly there are lines to draw and temptations to stay away from. I would never call for an all-out pop culture party for all Christians. But I believe there is much more than people realize that can be not only enjoyed as entertainment but used to introduce others to the gospel.
I wish that Christians would view the 15 million people who watched The Walking Dead finale as a mission field.
3) Christian themes or content can be found in some surprising places. What surprised you most in your research?
Probably what surprised me the most would be the unintentional (at least what I believed to be unintentional) biblical parallels that can be found in many popular reality television shows. For example, Undercover Boss is an awesome metaphor of how Jesus came down to earth to serve among the people. Home-renovation shows do a good job of exemplifying 2 Corinthians 5:17, taking out the old and replacing with the new. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is a beautiful picture of the early church in Acts and what I believe we are still called to be like as a church.
4) Sometimes Christian themes are overt, sometimes they are subtle. What motivates otherwise secular artists, filmakers, and songwriters to include Christian themes?
Just like the psalmists in the Bible were simply communicating to God, sharing their hearts through their art, today’s writers are doing the same thing. If you want to know what is on someone’s mind, look at their art. Look for what they’re writing, not just saying. But beyond what they are intentionally communicating, a secular artist, whether he believes it or not, has been created by God, made in his image, and has a hole in his heart that can only be filled by a relationship with his creator. I believe that perhaps without being able to connect all the dots, a writer recognizes the need for redemption, grace, and forgiveness in each of our lives. He realizes that we cannot save ourselves and that some things in life can only be explained through supernatural means. Themes such as sacrificial love and forgiving the unforgivable hit home with everyone, because we were created with a need for them in our lives.
A secular artist, whether he believes it or not, has been created by God, made in his image, and has a hole in his heart that can only be filled by a relationship with his creator.
5) If you could give pastors and church leaders one piece of advice on applying pop culture in their sermons, what would that be?
Don’t run away from pop culture. Don’t consider cable TV and Top 40 radio beacons of the devil to stay away from. In fact, they are beacons of the world, broadcasting to us, the church, what they are relating to and how we can make connections with them. Maybe those sitting in your Sunday congregation who have been in church their whole lives can make connections to Chris Tomlin, Duck Dynasty, and Left Behind. But the mission field we have been sent to share Christ with, those outside the doors of your church or who perhaps have crossed that threshold for the first time ever, are listening to Katy Perry and watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and are planning on standing in line to see the next Star Wars movie. If you can connect with them there, you will definitely get their attention.
Daniel Darling is vice-president of communications for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He is the author of several books, including his latest, Activist Faith.
