A group of faculty members discussed how Christians should handle and respond to movies during a panel-led discussion called “Faith and Film” Thursday, March 27. The panel met before a group of students and community members in the Legacy Park community room by Starbucks.
Panelists included faculty members Mac Sandlin, assistant professor of Bible, Jim Miller, assistant professor of communications, John Williams, chair of the English department, and President Bruce McLarty. Lisa Burley of the Brackett Library moderated the discussion.
According to Burley, both Sandlin and Williams talked about directors who included their faith and worldview in their films, and Miller focused on how the “Star Wars” films portrayed redemption and forgiveness. She also said McLarty discussed the need for Christians to think critically about films they watch and to look at them as more than simply entertainment.
Burley said she hopes discussions like this will give students an opportunity to comfortably interact with their professors about faith and Christian living on a very practical level.
“My goal with these events is two-fold,” Burley said.”(First), to give students and teachers a time to share their faith stories in practical ways and discuss big ideas outside of a classroom setting.(Second), to give all of us the opportunity to do what we thought college would be like: Sit in a comfortable environment and share great conversation with others.The informal setting allows us to share a different side of ourselves. I hope the attendees realized that their teachers, president and librarian have some of the same questions that they do. We don’t have all the answers, but we love sharing our search.”
Junior Jeanie Linton was among the students in attendance that night. Linton said Sandlin’s discussion and following comments on several Clint Eastwood films not only shed light on the need for Christians to be discerning about the media they consume, but also helped them to realize that media is a way to better understand their context and world.
“Yes, films can be vulgar, inhumane and downright immoral, but hiding from any piece of secularism in our Christian lives is not what God asks us to do,” Linton said. “God understands that (we) are not going to be able to protect ourselves from the sin around us and instead calls us to be light in that darkness. To be in that darkness, I believe we must, in some ways, understand the darkness.”
Likewise, senior Jackson House said the discussion paved the way for understanding movies as a way of understanding others’ lives more fully.
“Watching films intellectually and theologically engaged helps us to not only see the beauty being presented but also see the implicittruth in beauty,” House said.”Films allow us to momentarily exist outside of ourselves and to engage the human experience from anotherperson’s perspective, and for Christians there will always be value in that.”
