Magyar Egyház, 1955 (34. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)
1955-02-01 / 2. szám
12 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ HOLLYWOOD DISCOVERS RELIGION by the Rev. Charles A. Darocy The inroads of Television put a scare into the wealthy motion picture producers. They saw the weekly audience fall from a wartime peak of nearly 80 millions to a low of 45 million people. So they looked around for new subject matter. It wasn’t hard to discover that America’s 90 million churchgoers were the ideal untapped audience. Soon the cameras began to grind out film. Old Testament subjects. Plenty of color and bloodshed. Plenty of sex and sin. But always with a moral. Religion was to be made into the most popular and easy to take product. There was no attempt to answer the basic question true religion: WHY? The only goal was to coerce enough people to see a picture because, as the advertisement writers vaguely said, “It’s religous!” You have seen the results. Prom a slicked up “David and Bathsheba” to a stereophonically noisy version of the Rev. Lloyd C. Douglas’ novel, “The Robe.” You have witnessed great biblical truths watered down because the movie makers dare not offend anyone and therefore end up pleasing everyone who is too simple to think. And the proud tradition of Christianity has become another theme for exploitation by the conscienceless showmen of Hollywood, the latter day Sodom by the Pacific. What has Hollywood’s discovery of religion meant? For one thing it has proved once and for all that with only a few exceptions the hollow Hollywood minds cannot comprehend anything that calls for an ounce of spirituality. They draw a picture of faith that leaves out human personality and depicts people as mere faces: grinning or scowling, but always just faces. No attempt is made to present real individuals. Thus capable actors are given roles that wouldn’t tax the abilities of a moron. The profound religion of Jesus Christ is given a new twist: the good guy of the cowboy pictures puts on a white robe and smiles stupidly; the bad guy who robs the local saloon is forced to turn in his six shooter for a sword and his scowl for a more biblical frown. The sweet young thing remains just that in the new Hollywood version of religion, only now she blushes more in keeping with her holy character. Sounds pretty silly, doesn’t it. Well, it is. And as long as the Hollywood millionaires believe that you are content with this profitable desecration of our faith, they will keep on turning out movies with plenty of color but little depth. Yes, religion pays off at the box office. But there are signs that when religious themes are dealt with honestly the American public will support the movies. The recent “Martin Luther” produced in Europe has played to millions. The Roman Catholic film, “Monsiour Vincent” won critical and public acclaim in spite of its evasion of the saccharine sentiment that Hollywood believes so necessary when protraying unusual, that is, religious subjects. Our one hope is that the public, and that means you and me, will learn to demand religious films of honesty and beauty. Don’t let the trend to costlier and emptier religious films continue. Instead give the Hollywood producers your ideas. They read the mails carefully and if given enough encouragement will very surely consider setting aside their former efforts and begin work to bring America the glorious heritage of religion through the medium of the films. THE ANGELS Of all the creatures of God the angels and men are regarded by Him as His most precious creatures. In this article we make a few observations about the angels, relying, of course, on the Bible. As to the origin of the angels we can say that they are certainly creatures of God, although it is not revealed in the Bible, how and when God created them. They are spiritual beings, they have no body, they are powerful, they are serving God because for this purpose God created them. Also there is a faint information in the Bible that God uses His angels in executing His plans concerning us. How and what are the angels doing for our benefit? We can not tell with certainty. There are occasions recorded in the Bible when the angels appeared in human form to bring messages from God to some earthly men. For instance, an angel of God announced to Virgin Mary, in the form of a man, that she will bear Jesus Christ in her womb. The Bible definitely talks about evil or sinful angels too. As we can understand from the Holy Scriptures, in a time and for some reason some of the angels rebelled against God, and refused to obey Him. In this rebellion the angels had a leader, called Satan or Devil. The righteous God expelled these evil angels from their heavenly habitations. They are here in this world of ours and their only purpose is to tempt us to sin against God and one another. Even our Lord, Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan three times in the desert when He was preparing Himself there for 40 days for His great work as our Savior. Since the perfect justice of God can not leave sins without punishment, therefore it is understandable that Satan and his evil angels must receive their due punishment from the righteous God.. The sin of the evil angels is the possible greatest sin because they turned against their own creator, the most Holy God. Therefore, their punishment must be the possible greatest punishment, which is the unspeakable and never ending torments in hell. That the evil angels indeed will be cast into hell, it is clear in the biblical description of the last judgement. Jesus, the Judge, mentions hell as a place which is prepared for Satan and his evil angels. Concerning the faithful and holy angels of God, we should be very grateful that God loves us so much that even His heavenly hosts are employed for our benefit. As to Satan and his evil angels, we should heed and obey the fatherly advise of the Bible: “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” God will give us enough strength to be victorious over the temptations of the devil, if we are humble to ask Him for His divine help. STEPHEN KOVÁCS --------•--------Salvation may come quietly, but we cannot remain quiet about it. * * * Better never to have been born at all, than never to have been born again. * * * We ought so to live Christ as to compel others to think about Christ. * * * God’s heart is our habitation; our heart is God’s habitation. * * *
