Presenting the First Ever Golden Steeple Awards

Movie Churches Award Night 2017

Award shows make you wait until the end of the night to find out the winner of the Big Awards, but we don’t do that here at Movie Churches. We’re going to tell you in the second paragraph the winner of The Golden Steeple of 2016 for the Best Depiction of Churches/Clergy/Faith in a Nominee for the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. This is the first year of the award, which honors the most attractive depiction of a Movie Church.

And the winner is… Hacksaw Ridge!

Now that you know who won, perhaps you’d like to hear about all the nominees (which just so happen to be the same films nominated this year for the Best Picture Oscar).

Hacksaw Ridge tells the true story of Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector during World War II who fought to go into battle as a medic. His church, Seventh Day Adventist, is seen only briefly. We see him doing chores at the church as the choir practices, but throughout the film Doss’ choices are made on the basis of his faith. And they are often difficult choices with hard consequences. Doss questions God and His Word, but continues to be faithful, resulting in a truly amazing work of grace. (It should be noted though, that the film gets one church detail very wrong. There’s no way a good Seventh Day Adventist of his time would go on a first date to the movies. That’s like a Southern Baptist of the time taking his sweetheart to a bar. Wouldn’t happen.)

Hidden Figures would probably be first runner up for the Golden Steeple. It’s another historical story; in this case, it’s about the African American women who played a crucial but previously unheralded role in the space race of the early 1960s. There are a couple of scenes in what seems to be a Methodist church which the women mathematicians attend. The pastor of the church is quite supportive of the civil rights movements from the pulpit, lauding the accomplishments of his congregants. Big bonus: the church is depicted as a great matchmaking location.

No mention of the Golden Steeple nomination?

Fences, based on the classic August Wilson play about troubled domestic life, also has a strong church presence. Hollywood is much more comfortable with churches in historical dramas. Churches are also much more likely to be shown in a positive light when the film deals with African American characters. Rose (Viola Davis), the wife and mother in the film, finds strength and comfort in her local church. Her husband, Troy (Denzel Washington), speaks reverently of Scripture but implies that pastors are money grubbing. The film also has a pious, almost saccharin, religious ending.

Moonlight also has an African American character that speaks well of the church and Scripture. Unfortunately that character, Juan (portrayed by Mahershala Ali), is also a drug dealer. In this coming of age story about Chiron, a bullied boy growing up gay, his friendship with Juan and Juan’s girlfriend provide him with rare glimpses of kindness and compassion.

No, Bridges does not play God

Hell and High Water, a story of brothers who rob banks to pay the mortgage, doesn’t have any scenes in churches, but we see the exteriors of churches often in the small towns where the story takes place. The two Texas Rangers pursuing the brothers discuss their faith, and the Native American Ranger surprises the Ranger played by Jeff Bridges with his orthodox Christian faith.

Lion is the true story of a Indian boy (not Native American), Saroo, who is separated from his family and then adopted by an Australian couple. As an adult, he searches for the family he lost as a child. We don’t see any Christian churches in the film, but as starving child, Saroo, finds nourishment from the food offered to Hindu idols. (I don’t think the Apostle Paul would have any problem with that.)

Arrival, the story of the reaction of nations to alien visitors from space, has a single reference to a church. The scientists attempting to communicate with the aliens hear a news story about the demise of hundreds in a “church” that is actually a suicidal cult.

Again, the Golden Steeples are snubbed

Manchester by the Sea has an interesting and mixed take on churches. Lee (Casey Affleck), the emotionally tortured protagonist in the film, explains to his nephew Patrick that as Catholics, they’re Christians just as much as Patrick’s newly “born again” mother. The Catholic Church is where ceremonies take place -- weddings and funerals. However, the Church seems to provide no spiritual comfort for Lee. And -- as often happens in current films -- it goes without saying that the Born Again Evangelical Christians (Matthew Broderick and Gretchen Mol) are judgmental jerks. Though Matt’s home is decorated with Christian bookstore knickknacks, he has no problem with “living in sin” with Gretchen.

And finally, La La Land, the probable winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, has no Movie Churches at all. The story of an actress and a jazz musician seeking stardom doesn’t seem to have any interest in spiritual things. As some have commented, the movie does seem to capture contemporary Hollywood’s values of placing personal fulfillment and fame over even romantic love (let alone God’s love).

So even if Mel Gibson, Andrew Garfield, and the rest of the cast and crew of Hacksaw Ridge are overlooked on Oscar night, they can take comfort in being the winners of the first ever Golden Steeple. (And whenever they want to come to Fresno to collect their award, I’ll construct one and roll out the red carpet.)

On the Big Screen in Idaho

Obviously the best thing about discount theaters is, well, the discount. The Northgate Reel Theater in Boise, Idaho, charges only $3 for admission most days, and $1 on Tuesdays. But another good thing about discount theaters is they have the movies that have left the first run theaters. So if you think you’re not interested in a movie, but you eventually hear good things about it, and it’s already left all the first run houses… Well, there you go.

But we hadn’t heard good things from people about the film we saw.

We had low expectations for The Magnificent Seven. We heard it was no great shakes, being the remake of a remake. 1954’s Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa was a great film. It was remade as a Western by John Sturges in 1960, a very good film. It wasn’t surprising to hear that it didn’t compare to the other films, but no one told me that it had a Movie Church! The Church is rather central to the film, which is, of course, ideal for this site.

The film opens in a church. The citizens of a small Western town are discussing what to do about the evil mining baron, Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) who is trying to drive them from their land. The pastor leading the meeting allows everyone to have a say. One good Christian man makes a bold statement about their need to trust in the Lord. The mining baron and his thugs enter, threaten the townspeople and shoot the man who said he would trust in God. The evil men then set the church on fire.

The widow of the good Christian man searches out gunmen tohelp the townspeople. For inexplicable reasons, she does so in low cut blouses (the other women in town have high necked prairie dresses, but her decolletage is never mentioned). She finds Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington), a most dangerous man. When he asks her if she seeks revenge, she responds, “I seek righteousness, but I’ll take revenge.” As in previous incarnations of the story, the leader finds six companions.

While preparing for battle against Bogue, the preacher from the town approaches Chisholm and thanks him for coming to the aid of the townspeople. The night before the battle, the preacher leads a worship service for the townspeople. They sing hymns and pray the Lord’s Prayer. The preacher also joins in the battle the next day.

The church suffers more damage in the battle for the town, so I’ll add another steeple for a total of four steeples.

Christmas Movie Churches Repost: The Bishop's Wife and The Preacher's Wife

The Preacher's Wife (1996) and The Bishop's Wife (1947)

This is, of course, a review of the churches in these films, not the films themselves; which is probably for the best this week, as the original film and its remake share a frankly bizarre plot. A clergyman and his wife are having marital difficulties, so God sends an angel to have a platonic affair with the wife. You know, like the Creator of the Universe does.

Fortunately, I don't have to explain why the title character of The Bishop's Wife, Loretta Young, seems oblivious to the fact that people will gossip if she goes dining and ice skating alone with Dudley the Angel (Cary Grant). We don't have to puzzle over why the title character of The Preacher's Wife, Whitney Houston, thinks it's okay to "window shop" for a man other than her husband, mistaking angel Denzel Washington for a man.

No, thankfully, we just have to look at the churches. The Bishop's Wife has two Episcopal churches: St. Timothy's, the church where Bishop David Niven used to be pastor, and the other church he currently pastors in the film. I didn't catch the name of that church, so for our purposes we'll call it St. David's. The church in The Preacher's Wife is Saint Matthew's, an unusual name for what seems to be a Baptist church. We'll look at different aspects of ministry in each of these churches.

FOCUS AND VISION: The leadership of both St. David's and St. Matthew's seems primarily concerned about the building program and fundraising. For some reason, most churches in Hollywood films (from Going My Way to Sister Act) seem primarily concerned with building programs and fundraising. I've attended enough congregational and leadership meetings to attest to the fact these are among the more dull functions of a church. St. Timothy's, on the other hand, seems to be primarily concerned with its music program, their boys' choir.

MUSIC PROGRAM: As just mentioned, St. Timothy's has a quite wonderful boys' choir. The highlight of the film for me was their performance of Charles Gounod's "Noel." The choir does have a rather odd rehearsal schedule -- the boys come together for one song and then depart. But it seems to work. There's not much to say about St. David's music program. As for the music at St. Matthew's, with Whitney Houston as choir director and soloist and Lionel Richie playing the piano, there certainly is a degree of excellence.

PASTORAL LEADERSHIP: The current pastor at St. Tim's seems to be a good guy, but is rather obsequious toward the Bishop. Bishop Henry used to be fun and compassionate but has become weary and burdened. Preacher Henry seems incapable of delegating; he takes on every ministry of the church -- from visitation to youth ministry to preaching to legal representation -- on his own.

TEACHING AND PREACHING: We don't really learn much about the teaching at St. Timothy's, but the theology of the one song we hear sung there is sound. The final sermon we hear at the end of The Bishop's Wife isn't too bad. It's about not leaving Christ out of Christmas. Of course, it's written by Dudley the Angel, but the Bishop takes the credit. The teaching at St. Matthew's is pretty awful. The preacher's final sermon is sort of a new age "we just have to believe in ourselves and we can do anything if we just believe" kind of thing.

PRAYER: Again, nothing about prayer from St. Timothy's. The Bishop does pray for the problems of the church and learns to accept God's will rather than his own in answer to his prayers. Preacher Henry, on the other hand, presents one of the worst analogies I've ever heard about prayer. While talking to a young man facing trial he says, "Do you play basketball? Prayer is like when you take a shot and the time between the shot and the basket, you hope. And that is what prayer is like." So I guess in that analogy: Shooter = Person Praying, Shot = Prayer, Basket = God. As someone who is a horrible shot in basketball, I must say I really hate that analogy. If I had to have a sports analogy for prayer, I'd rather compare it to a son having a catch with his father like in Field of Dreams.

So if I had to choose one church to go to, it would be St. Timothy's, because they really do have a good boys' choir. But I’m only giving two steeples to each church.

Note: This review originally appeared in Dean and Mindy Go to Church, 12/11/14