It goes without saying that children can be easily influenced by television or movies, and I was no exception. I did not long to be a fry cook like Spongebob, but there was a specific genre that I once deemed obscure and heartwarming even though any background and motivation flew over my head. And that is religious propaganda. As an adult, It is very easy to point out how ridiculous and xenophobic some of this media can be, but I did not know any better as an adolescent.
To start, I’m not saying all Catholic/Christian media is propaganda or prejudice against any race or other religion. Take Veggietales for example. I haven’t seen much from that show as a kid, but I had a few VHS tapes which I saw multiple times. They certainly made me feel proud to be a Catholic at the time and it was a lot of fun to watch. Only this show can make biblical stories very entertaining for children. The “Frankencelery” episode somewhat eased my fear as I used to be afraid of the dark and easily terrified of horror movies (I used to have nightmares about Chucky from Child’s Play). God may or may not exist, but nonetheless I was able to sleep with no trouble thanks to the thought of God being mightier than any monster. Looking back, I personally have no problem with how this show shares its religious views. Not sure if it is the right way to teach Christianity, but I’ll still take it any day over most of the other religious content I have seen.
If there is one movie that I am ashamed to admit I once enjoyed, it’s God’s Not Dead. I was 14-15 years old when I first saw it, and it was with my sister. The movie was available to watch on Netflix and at the time, we were both proud Catholics. Because of that, none of us cared that the movie is filled with bland storylines, racism and a clear vendetta to get viewers to believe in God and follow his ways or else horrible things will happen to us. My child’s brain was very happy to see that the pastor’s car starts up again only after he prays for it to work again, even though now it is super predictable to those who know propaganda when they see it. At the time, I did not care for the backgrounds of any of the actors, producers or movie studios that are behind the camera of any film, so I unknowingly felt heartwarmed from religious slop that uses hate and bigotry to get us to follow the word of God, which is not the right way to share beliefs. I felt very disappointed to find out all the controversies behind this abomination, including allegations of the Newsboys singer sexually assaulting 3 men. Which hit me the most because I enjoyed that music the most on the first watch.
I thankfully have not seen much other content like that as a child, but I’m afraid of what I could have turned out to be if I searched for more religious movies like that. My taste has gotten much better since then, yet despite that, I still fell for a few other movies with some Christian themes like Sound of Freedom starring Jim Caviezel as the controversial O.U.R. founder Tim Ballard. Just like with God’s Not Dead, it is a faith based production that I thought was touching at first due to the main character fighting child sex trafficking, but I was disappointed to find out Ballard’s true past. I truly gave up on Christian media at that point and eventually afterwards, I just could not see a reason to believe in God if a majority of his followers spread their word like this.
I have admittedly seen God’s Not Dead a few more times to not only look back at how problematic it truly is, but to also get a good laugh from the acting and lack of plot. Still, If I fell for its ideology at first, I can’t be the only one. It is a poor excuse for propaganda, but I would not be surprised if this was how some people found their faith in God. My advice: try not to be too influenced by what you see on TV or movies. And that especially goes for propaganda, which only tries to spread hate to specific groups of people and get us to praise a specific figure. As if it’s the only way to live our lives. We’re all individuals. We have to work it out for ourselves. Yes, I just quoted Life of Brian.