Lois Lane wrote an article that explained why the world didn't need Superman, but perhaps it should have been entitled "Why Christians Don't Need Superman." There are a lot of reasons why Superman Returns didn't soar at the box office, but part of the reason was certainly the lack of support by Christian audiences; which is something that baffles me. Of all the movies released this summer, you would think this was the one that Christians should have really been excited about and supported, but apparently it just wasn't Christian enough. Why? Because it didn't have Christ, only someone like Christ, and when it comes to the gospel on the big screen, that apparently isn't good enough.

You know, there was a time when the Church felt that Hollywood was completely ignoring them. Many Christians saw nothing worthwhile whatsoever coming out of Hollywood, and anything that did have any sort of reference to God, the Church or Christianity was usually derogatory or insulting. All of that begin to change in 2004 when Mel Gibson released a little picture called The Passion of the Christ. It quickly became the number one grossing R-rated film of all time, due in a large part to the efforts of Christians and their support of the film. Now, admittedly this was an independent effort by Mel Gibson and not a film made by Hollywood proper, but let's face it, Mel Gibson has always been one of the faces of Hollywood. Christians wholeheartedly accepted this film and were excited about how they could use it to reach people with the gospel. When Narnia came out, once again Christians mobilized to support a film that had portrayed the gospel message. Once again, Christians had a tool to reach people for Christ. It seemed as though Hollywood was finally learning that there was a market for so called "Christian" movies. But why were these Christian movies so successful when other Christian efforts such as Hoodwinked and Luther only met with modest success. These movies were about Christians or made by Christians, and yet they did not receive the same sort of wholehearted support as The Passion or Narnia. Why? Were they not "Christian" enough? Were they made for the "wrong" reasons? Were they not blatant enough with the gospel? Maybe it's because they didn't really feature Christ, which leads us to why Christians don't need Superman.