Christians: Celebrity Christians

You decide what you think about this.  If the videos will not start, click on the title lines to start them.

Featuring Christian testimonials from Lacey Chabert, Gina Tognoni, Eduardo Verastegui, Charisma Carpenter, Paul Walker, Patricia Heaton, Ninel Conde, Jensen Ackles, Gabrielle Union, Hunter Tylo, Eric Close, Kelly Pickler, Mariah Carey, Elijah Wood, Nancy O'Dell, Mel Gibson, Jennie Finch, Meagan Good, Jim Caviezel, Natalie Raitano, Denzel Washington, Kristin Chenoweth, Martin Sheen, Miley Cyrus, Pamela Anderson, Stephen Baldwin, and Hilarie Burton!

Part 2! Featuring Christian testimonials from Halle

Berry, Jessica Simpson, Tyler Perry, Carrie Underwood, Mark Wahlberg, Nicole Scherzinger, Brooke Burns, Angie Harmon, Beyonce, Christina Milian, Bono, Will Smith, Joe Jonas, Nicole Kidman, Heidi Montag, Kirsten Storms, Donna D'Errico, Julianne Morris, Patrick Muldoon, Alexa Vega, Sofia Vergara, Kari Wuhrer, Dana Hamm, Andie MacDowell, Alyson Michalka, Dave Mustaine, Jesse McCartney, Austin Peck, Jonathan Jackson

Part 3! Featuring Christian testimonials from Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Cuba Gooding Jr., Brandy Ledford, Rene Russo, Chad Brannon, Pauley Perrette, Adam Young (Owl City), Kelita Smith, Erin Ellington, Chris Jehrico, Selena Gomez, Sara Evans, Tom Hanks, Kathy Ireland, Brande Roderick, Ryan Cabrera, Lacey Mosley (Flyleaf), Gaby Espino, Brian Littrell, Angela Bassett, Ben Wysocki (The Fray), Luisana Lopilato, LeBron James, Monica Arnold, Prince, Denise Richards, Tarja Turunen (Nightwish), Val Kilmer, Kim Kardashian, Chris Ackerman, Holly Huddleston, Taylor Swift

Film Comment: Fireproof

A man who is willing to run into a burning building to save strangers is allowing his own marriage to go up in flames and burn to the ground.  He's an accomplished fire captain, respected by everyone, but his personal life is in total disarray.

Him: I work hard and do what is right. At home I just want to relax.  All she does is nag.  She doesn't respect me.  I look at internet pornography because she always says no.
Her: He doesn't care how I feel.   He doesn't understand my emotional needs.  He just married me for sex and cooking.

The man is challenged to try an experiment, to follow a daily plan based on biblical concepts.  To his surprise, and to the delight of his initially suspicious wife, their marriage is saved.  They learn how to make their marriage fireproof.

Fireproof  (2008) is an anomaly, an independent film produced by a local church in Albany, Georgia rather than a large Hollywood studio.  There are only two professional actors in the film; the rest of the cast, who are remarkably competent for non-professionals, are all members of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia.

Two other films, Flywheel, and Facing the Giants, were also produced by the same group.  Of the three, Flywheel is my personal favorite.

Bollywood, Nollywood, Hollywood

     Hollywood is the movie capital of the world but it is not the movie production capital of the world.  It's actually third.  Number one is Bollywood, the Indian film industry which produces multiple thousands of films annually.  The name "Bollywood" is Hollywood with a "B" because the actual name of India is Bharat.

     Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, produces thirty to fifty low-budget films a week.  Since the industry was virtually non-existent before the 1992 release of Living in Bondage by Kenneth Nnebue, this explosive growth is extraordinary.

     Most of the films are produced for about $15,000 and filmed in three to five days.  The DVD's sell for $2.00 and earn their producers huge returns.  The reason they are being discussed here is that a great many them are based on Pentecostal Christianity, even, or especially, the ones we in America would recognize as gore and violence filled horror films.  These films are on the level of the Christian Hell House phenomena.  

     The 1992 Igbo language film, Living in Bondage, started it all.  The plot goes like this: a group of men sacrifice their wives and drink their blood in a pagan ceremony which causes them to become rich.  The trouble is that their wives won't leave and continue to torment them as ghosts.  The men are saved when they beg forgiveness and accept Jesus Christ into their hearts.  The film almost immediately sold over seven hundred fifty thousand copies.

     The larger Christian ministries in Nigeria have their own production facilities and their films feature gore, witchcraft, cannibalism, violence, exorcisms, and Pentecostalism. 

"About Nollywood," http://nollywood.com/

"Cinema of Nigeria," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nollywood

Lapeyre, Jason, "Nollywood Nightmares. Inside Nigeria's Homegrown Horror Industry," Rue Morgue, Toronto, #92, 2009.