Conclusion of the Menace of the Religious Movie

One thing may bother some earnest souls. Why so many good people approve the religious movie. The list of those who are enthusiastic about it includes many who cannot be written off as borderline Christians. If it is an evil, why have not these denounced it?

The answer is, lack of spiritual discernment. Many who are turning to the movies are the same who have, by direct teaching or by neglect, discredited the work of the Holy Spirit. They have apologized for the Spirit and so hedged Him in by their unbelief that it has amounted to an out-and-out repudiation. Now we are paying the price of our folly. The light has gone out and good men are forced to stumble around in the darkness of the human intellect.

The religious movie is at present undergoing a period of gestation and seems about to swarm up over the churches like a cloud of locusts out of the earth. The figure is accurate; they are coming from below, not from above. The whole modern psychology has been prepared for this invasion of insects. The fundamentalist have become weary of manna and are longing for red flesh. What they are getting is a sorry substitute for the lusty and uninhibited pleasures of the world, but I suppose it is better than nothing, and it saves face by pretending to be spiritual.

Let us not for the sake of peace keep still while men without spiritual insight dictate the diet upon which God 's children shall feed. I heard the president of a Christian college say some time ago that the church is suffering from an "epidemic of amateurism."  That remark is sadly true, and the religious movie represents amateurism gone wild. Unity among professing Christians Is to be desired, but not at the expense of righteousness. It is good to go with the flock, but I for one refuse mutely to follow a misled flock over a product of precipice.

If God has given wisdom to see the error of religious shows, we owe it to the church to oppose them openly. We dare not take refuge in "guilty silence." Error is not silent; It is highly vocal and amazingly aggressive.  We dare not be less so. But let us take heart: there are still many thousands of Christian people Who grieve to see the world takeover.  If we draw the line and call attention to it, We may be surprised how many people will come over on our side and help us to drive from the church this latest invader--The spirit of Hollywood .