In the second half of the first session, Biblical Worldview and the Theology of Christian Filmmaking (Part 1), Geoff Botkin make a powerful argument that Christian filmmakers must not only strive for technical excellence but also a 100% biblical worldview.

Citing James 3:1, which says, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

Few us realize that film is a powerful curriculum and that filmmakers are influential teachers. Because of this Mr. Botkin urges us to “develop a worldview that looks at everything from the lens of scripture.”

“I would never show my sons and my daughters some of the early scripts I wrote as a young Christian,” explains Mr. Botkin, “I had a good heart, but the scripts were not Christian. Many of us have no idea how hard we must fight just to have Christian thoughts, because we have been told so many lies.”

His powerpoint features a quote from Harry Blamires, which says that “the Christian mind has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness and nervelessness unmatched in Christian history.”

Mr. Botkin laments the tendency of many Christian artists to “follow worldly trends as closely as possible and to study them carefully [and to] covet the favor and adulation of the most immature and defiant elements of evangelical culture.”

The result is that many artists believe the lies of our culture that they can make up their own meaning, use the tools and ideas of God’s enemies and embrace their culture.

The driving question of this first segment is, “To what extent do we take every scene — every frame — captive to the obedience of Christ?”

The rest of this week will be devoted to answering that question. Stay tuned.