Christian coverage in mainstream media, especially on the entertainment/cinematic front, is perhaps as hostile and unsympathetic as it has ever been.
Constantly, it seems, creators and streaming services are poking fun at, or trying to poke holes in, the Christian worldview. Take, for example, Cynthia Erivo’s casting as Jesus Christ in an upcoming adaptation of the popular play Jesus Christ Superstar.
Erivo’s undeniable acting and singing talent are completely irrelevant to the fact that her casting as the most influential religious figure in history, with whom she shares zero descriptors, is simply mind-boggling. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that it feels disrespectful, too, especially from a Christian perspective.
Either way, these sorts of things happen all the time. Like clockwork every now and again, something in the social media sphere pops up opposite to the Christian tradition and all chaos ensues.
Disney’s had fingers pointed at them for the same reason in the past, but this year, folks on the other side of the fence began shouting their frustrations after a Pixar show portrayed Christianity in… a positive light? Check your pulse, this is real life. Win or Lose, the animated children’s series released earlier this year on Disney +, features a wide array of children from different backgrounds as they come together on a pee-wee baseball team. They each work through their own struggles in the context of the sport, their age, and the characters around them.
Our focus is on Laurie, a young Christian girl who struggles with insecurity and self-doubt as the daughter of the team’s coach. In the series’ first episode, she prays to her “Heavenly Father”, and throughout the show, a cutout of an angel is visible in her room. While this is certainly a basic portrayal of prayer and religious persistence, the simplicity is a nice refresher in the face of some of the overly complex, dramatic treatments of Judeo-Christian faiths in recent Hollywood endeavors.
To be fair, it isn’t even the Christian inclusion alone that has people all up in arms. Many don’t like it, sure, but upon the confirmation from Disney that the same show had cut a transgender character at some point during development, pitchforks and torches turned to face Laurie.
Supposed voices of reason and social rationality all the sudden rung hostile; why can this little girl be outwardly religious if there is no view polar opposite her’s to counteract it? That seems to be the basic question, as absurd as it sounds. Disney themselves have made no further comment on the issue, leaving it to audiences to bicker back and forth for hours on end, as things tend to go online.
Still, for the Christian involved in social media and entertainment this is a discussion worth being involved in, even considering all the inevitable hostility that will come your way. For the first time in a very long time, a major media company pushed in the same direction as Christians have been for a long while now. It’s a faint light in a vast field of hopeless dark; though a light nonetheless. While Disney still aren’t saints, this sign of good faith has earned a thumbs up from the Christian crowd, in the very least.
Going forward, in the face of the vitriol that will accompany it, these sorts of positive inclusions would go a long way in reclaiming entertainment, especially children’s television, in the name of innocence. You can safely throw on Win or Lose without worrying about having a difficult conversation with your kids. That alone is a blessing worth celebrating.
While explicit detailing of Kai’s transitioning was cut, they made It was pretty easy to what was going on. I watched this series with my little sister, and I’m pretty sure it went over her head, but I would be more careful in recommending this show to families with younger children.