Have We Gone Too Far?

Ok, so I'm doing some Yahoo News surfing, and come across this story about marketing the Passion of Christ film. One thing it mentions is that some guy went out and bought 6,000 tickets to give away. Which makes me wonder, if he wouldn't have been a better steward of God's money by buying tickets for the early shows.

But then it makes mention to the fact that at the Daytona 500 Bobby Labonte will be racing for God. Now, I know that many Christians will think that this is a great thing, and maybe I'm just wrong in my odd thinking, but really, is slapping an ad for the latest Jesus film on a NASCAR vehicle going to make a difference in the world? Am I the only one who actually thinks that this might cheapen the Gospel a little? Before you have the church denounce me, hear me out. I'm not against the new film by Mel Gibson, although I have yet to see it, and can only take what I've read and heard that it is a decent film in regards to scriptural accuracies. But putting does selling Jesus on NASCAR really the best thing to do? You have to also remember that this car has also promoted the asthma medicine, Hulk movie, Jurassic Park III, Banquet Foods - a ConAgra product, Circuit City, and coming soon... Shrek 2. Heck, if I were to judge the Passion of Christ based only on the other movies that they've advertised, I would put it on the "watch only if someone esle rented it, and I had nothing better to do" list. And don't get me started on what God might say about people not only working on Sunday, but the amount of natural resources they are using, the damage to the environment caused by the exhaust of a NASCAR race, and it's place in the big picture of life. But I only jest to some extent of that, as I do enjoy the occassional race they show over here in Germany.

But I must ask, will this film really make a huge difference? I hope so, but I also wonder how many people will only see it as a nice story, or someone's take on some event that might have happened, or didn't. Will Christians feel that this is more than a tool, and thus instead of taking friends (I mean people they actually have earned trust and respect with) to see it, and have a serious discussion after the film, will just expect that the movie itself will do the job. I remember a few years ago, many Christians were banking on the movie Left Behind to cause all their friends to accept Christianity, and before that it was Future Tense. We need to remeber that this is just a film. We need to still interact with people, show them that there is hope in this world, that we are not perfect, and that Christ has relevance in our lives. We still need to love those who God puts around us.

But then again, other movies alone have helped kick start religion before in mass numbers.

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