Sarah Cy

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[Marcus Pittman @ImKingGinger]

The Truth About Why Christian Movies are So Bad.

I’ve spent the last four years building a streaming platform and talking to people at the very top of the faith-based entertainment industry. Studio heads. Distributors. Producers. Investors. And I’ve come to a conclusion that I think is going to make a lot of people uncomfortable.

Christian movies are bad on purpose.

The talent is out there. I’ve met them. I’ve sat with them at 3am over whiskey and cigars listening to pitches that should have been picked up immediately.

So that left a question that any Christian filmmaker could quickly answer. If the talent is there, why is everything so mediocre?

It starts with an avatar named Bookstore Betty. I’m not making that up.

When the faith-based film industry was being built out, it was done in partnership with Christian bookstore executives. They weren’t asking “how do we make great cinema.” They were asking “who walks into our stores and how do we sell them a movie the same way we sell them a devotional.” The target was a 35 year old woman. The tone, the casting, the conflict resolution, the soft lighting, all of it was reverse-engineered to appeal to Betty.

Not to a general audience.
Not to men.
Not to teenagers. Just Betty.

Every major Christian film you can think of relies on distribution deals with secular studios. The same studios that blacklisted almost everyone who worked on The Passion of the Christ and refused to distribute Kirk Cameron's Pro Life movie.

Think about that.

Passion made over $600 million on a $30 million budget. The most obvious play would have been to duplicate that movie hundreds of times like it was the MCU. But instead of greenlighting more, Hollywood blacklisted the people involved.

So what did they do instead? They set up a system where they get to be the gatekeepers. They only greenlight the safest, most formulaic, most non-threatening stuff possible. Because if Christian films ever started consistently competing with mainstream entertainment, those studios would have a real problem. So they make sure that never happens.

And the church helps them do it.

Christian movies don’t need word of mouth. They don’t need to be good. They need pastors to bulk-buy tickets.

You make a movie with a “message,” market it to churches, and pastors subsidize the whole thing by buying hundreds of tickets to hand out on Sunday.

You don’t have to compete in a fair market when your distribution model is guilt-driven generosity.

And the funding is even more rigged.

Most of these films are funded through Donor Advised Funds, which means donors get a tax write-off for their “investment” regardless of whether the movie makes a dollar. There’s no market pressure to make something good. The donors got their deduction. The studio got their budget. And Betty got another movie about a woman who finds a journal in the attic.

What would happen if someone actually came along and made faith-based content that created pop culture instead of reacting to it? I think it would instantly expose how low-effort the current industry is.

It would be like when Uber showed up and embarrassed the taxi industry overnight. The monopoly only survives because nobody has disrupted it yet.

The talent is there. The audience is there. The only thing missing is capital that wants disruption instead of a tax write-off.

[Steven Bartlett @StevenBartlett]

What if everyone is actually destined for hell?

When Christian Apologist Wesley Huff joined me on The Diary Of A CEO, he explained a central idea in Christianity that many people misunderstand.

According to scripture, the standard for being “good” isn’t simply being better than other people. The standard is God himself.

Which means, by definition, no human being meets it.

That’s what Christianity calls the bad news. Humanity can’t save itself through good actions or intentions.

Here's him breaking it down

[Insurrection Barbie @DefiyantlyFree]

https://t.co/8XDMiECl0D

[CoffeeWithTheClassics @CoffeewClassics]

Exactly. Literature is edifying if it tells us the truth. Not literally, of course. It’s fiction. But if it tells us the truth about human nature.

So much popular literature fails because it lies to us. It manipulates or titillates. But leaves us more ignorant of our humanity.

[Rachel Christine @RachelXReads]

This is perhaps tangential, but I think the "books can't teach you anything" argument comes from the accurate observation that most *modern novels* honestly can't teach you anything. Classic literature was consumed with the struggle between good and evil; it obsessed over the question of humanity and its greater purpose; it scrutinized what it means to find true happiness. It was philosophy wrapped in the glory of a very human story. George Eliot knew that. Many modern writers do not. I know some who do, but they're bound by the market and feel forced to write what sells. It's time to repopularize excellent literature.

[Megan Basham @megbasham]

Scott, on that being a good person to earn Heaven bit, as a fellow cancer fighter, I have tremendous news for you. That is actually not what gets you into heaven. Because if it were, no one would qualify. Only someone who has led a perfect life merits heaven. And only one such person has existed through all of human history.

But thankfully, he used his perfection to sacrifice himself on the cross for us precisely because we are not good, none of us. None of us has lived a good life. And that is the freedom we have in Christ. We know that by following him, we get to wear his righteousness before the judgment throne. And it is THAT— confessing Christ as our Lord and believing in his sacrifice for us—that gets us into Heaven.

[Darwin to Jesus @darwintojesus]

If you want others to understand why reason without God leads to collapse…

Why even the greatest minds failed…

Then share this thread.

Because the world still believes the Enlightenment succeeded.

It’s time they knew the truth.

[Michelle #AmericaOnly🇺🇲 @MichelleRM68]

Currently, beautiful wife & mother Bevelyn Beatty Williams is sitting in prison for 3 years for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in front of an abortion clinic.

REPOST if you think Trump should pardon her for this travesty of justice!👇

[Johnny Midnight ⚡️ @its_The_Dr]

This is absolutely Wonderful by Charlie Kirk, for those of you that don’t think our Country was based on Christianity!
If you are Christian, Please share!

[Rick Thinking @rick_thinking]

@DavidJHarrisJr 😍 “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
II Chronicles 7:14 NKJV

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

Forgot about this ole' article. Some lines I still really agree with. The body section of the second subhead needs work though. Way too cliche.

How to Heal a Broken Mind https://t.co/jlKzlQkcTo

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

The best marketers are also consummate educators, educating the buyer on the real nature of the problem they face and how/why their product/service helps solve that problem.
Granted, the precondition to all of this is that the marketer is telling the truth.

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

What are some of the most unusual (but actually effective) pieces of advice you've ever gotten?
Today, mine is:
People like to help grateful people. Be a grateful person.

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

The joy of creation vs the joy of consumption.
One takes more effort, but both can be a joy, in the right context (what are you creating/consuming?)

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

Most important lesson I learned semi-recently that I still need to chew on:
How to create fans ~ make them feel special.

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

*preceded >.< ;)

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

THINKING about something and PLANNING something is not the same as DOING the thing.

...And yet, a lot of doing must be proceeded by thinking & planning.

Solution: Set limits to how much planning/thinking you do, and set a deadline(startline?) for the doing.

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

In other words, if you have to do something that you're ambivalent about, find a way to love it, or find a person you care about who will benefit from you doing it.

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

The best (most motivating, long-lasting, positive-effect-having) reason to do ANYTHING, is love.

Love for the thing itself, or for a person for whom you're doing the thing.

(ideally both, but latter is more impactful than former)

[Sarah Cy @SarahCyWrites]

As technology gets more advanced, more quickly, human-only characteristics are going to be much more in demand in every niche/field. Such as?

- Relevant experience
- Genuine creativity
- and most importantly: Personal TRUST