Fireproof

Fireproof is a low-budget Christian movie that is drawing modest attendance. The movie cost about $500,000 to produce, so it should easily make a profit; especially when it comes out on DVD.

The movie is about a fire chief captain (played by Kirk Cameron) who's marriage is on the rocks. Kirk's father convinces his son to devote 40 days to saving the marriage. The movie is full of Christianese. Kirk's father sounds more like a minister than a father. Still, it's a good movie that brought about many tears.

I was still wiping tears away while sweeping the aisles. Unlike Tyler Perry movies, Christian movies are easy to clean. One expects lots of trash in urban ghetto movies, or in kids movies or what passes for comedy today. We don't expect trash in chick-flicks and certainly not in a Christian movie. So I was surprised to find two popcorn bags in the seats at the top of the auditorium.

Now I'm not God. I don't know if those bags were left by heathens or by Democrats disguised as Christians, or even by young people who belong to a youth group because it's an excuse to hang out together and hopefully get lucky. All I know is that thinking Christians would not have left their sins behind so that an innocent usher would have to suffer on their behalf. Like most Christians who are sinned upon, I cursed the person who left the bags for me to clean up.

Perhaps there is a double standard here. We expect certain movies to be filthy just because of the nature of the audience. Those are the sins of commission. But the worst sins are those of ommission - the sins of not doing the right thing; in this case, taking out your own trash.

In some churches, leaving trash in the seats would not be considered a sin. Those churches have compromised with the world so much that it's hard to tell their members from the unbelievers. I belong to the denomination that teaches the truth - that you reap what you sow; even if you get your just rewards on the other side in the form of a shack, instead of the mansion everybody else gets who took out their trash.

The real issue here isn't whether it's right for Christians to take responsibility for their own sinful trash in Christian movies, but whether they have the right to sin in R-Rated movies; or even in G-rated movies. Can you call yourself a Christian if you only act righteously in Christian movies but like the world when you're in a worldly movie?

This may be too much Christianese for those of you who aren't Christians but who love going to movies. If you're one of those people, I would encourage you to go see Fireproof. Not only will you sit in the comfort of a relatively clean auditorium; you'll actually laugh and cry at what you see on the screen. Maybe you'll see the light and start taking your trash with you when you leave all movies. God surely works in mysterious ways.