For those that like their religion more saccharine, April will bring “Heaven is for Real,” the film adaptation of the best-seller about a young boy who, after nearly dying on the operating table, convinces his family that he actually visited heaven during surgery. Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah,” which arrives in theatres at the end of March, dramatizes the famously incredible story of a man and his ark, while the unambiguously titled “Son of God,” released last week, provides the umpteenth dramatization of the Biblical story of Jesus. This month, major movie studios are doing more evangelizing than Pat Robertson, with the release of two Biblical blockbusters.

Sunday’s Oscars-hosted by an openly gay celebrity, with two winners from a film about AIDS patients in the nineteen-eighties-might seem to confirm the culture industry’s reputation for liberalism and libertinism.īut Matthew McConaughey’s words of gratitude are far from the only sign that God is, in fact, alive and well in Hollywood. In the minds of those who believe themselves to be targets of this war, the pernicious influence of Hollywood often looms large. This defensive misperception is what led, earlier this year, to a proposed law in Arizona that would have legalized discrimination against gay couples on the ground of “religious freedom,” when in fact there was no evidence to indicate that the religious beliefs of any business owners had been legally infringed upon in the state. It is an article of faith among the religious right in America that we are in the midst of a war on religion (in which “religion” usually means Christianity), even though considerable evidence suggests the opposite.

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