Longtime readers will know that, though I'm a highly committed Christian, I'm not a big fan of Christian entertainment. Whether it's movies or music, I often find it way too formulaic, inauthentic, and too message-first. In the past, I've compared it to some of the Left's most egregious attempts at storytelling.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with the message, but bad storytelling is bad storytelling. I don't think Christian storytelling has been good up until recently, and its music scene has been lacking since its golden age in the '90s.
I'm not the only Christian who thinks this. Many of my Christian friends and family tend to avoid Christian media, but one thing can't be denied; it still has an audience, and it's easy to understand why. We all like the guy it revolves around.
Jesus Christ is a rallying figure and our love for him will cause us to support things that promote and glorify Him, even if the thing itself is kind of sub-par. That said, a Christian film that the writer's phoned in is still miles away better than whatever "modern" writers are limping to the barn with. I confess that I think "God's Not Dead" is somewhat sloppily written, but I'd rather watch that film three times, back to back, than endure one episode of "She-Hulk" or the live-action "Halo" show.
And I'm not alone on that either, and I'm not just speaking on behalf of a chunk of my fellow Christians.
What's funny is that despite the numbers painting a picture of a Christian-centric entertainment industry that actually does pretty well, the entertainment industry cannot wrap its head around the existence of that audience.
Recently, Kevin Sorbo, the man who fronted "God's Not Dead" and was famously Hercules in the '90s, reminisced about his meeting with Netflix executives in a post. He was responding to a post from Netflix UK making a "neck injury" joke about a scene from an episode from their series "The Gentlemen."
Years ago Netflix brought me in to discuss doing Faith based films. At the end of our meeting, the executives looked at me and said “we understand that there’s an audience for the kind of movies you make, we just don’t know why.”
These people are sick.
Years ago Netflix brought me in to discuss doing Faith based films. At the end of our meeting, the executives looked at me and said “we understand that there’s an audience for the kind of movies you make, we just don’t know why.”
— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) September 10, 2026
These people are sick. https://t.co/cYRxMZbuca
I don't know if Netflix UK was making light of Charlie Kirk's assassination. If they weren't, the timing of this "joke" is horrific, given the wound Charlie received. Sorbo seems to think maybe it was intentional, but whether or not they did, Sorbo's story tells us something very revealing.
Netflix's comment to him was they don't understand why there's a market for faith-based films. That's more of a confession of both incredible ignorance and bad business sense if you ask me.
Geeks and Gamers already laid out just how successful these Christian-centric films are:
God’s Not Dead, which featured Sorbo as atheist philosophy professor Jeffrey Radisson, became a surprise box-office hit in 2014. Produced on a reported $2 million budget, the movie grossed more than $60 million worldwide and spawned an entire franchise.
Other films have demonstrated the same potential. I Can Only Imagine grossed more than $80 million worldwide against a reported $7 million production budget, while Jesus Revolution earned more than $50 million worldwide on a budget reportedly around $15 million.
Then there was Sound of Freedom, which became one of 2023’s biggest box-office surprises, earning more than $180 million domestically despite being released outside the traditional Hollywood studio system.
What bugs me about all this, is that it's clear the money is there. From a business POV, this is a no-brainer. Hire Christians to make Christian films and have a faith-based section on the platform.
But they don't have one.
I think the reason boils down to one simple reason that Sorbo kind of highlighted. I don't think they don't understand why Christians watch Christian media, I think they don't understand why Christians are Christians. They can't wrap their heads around people of faith wanting to see faith-based films because they, themselves, are very clearly of the mind that Christianity is stupid.
And you know what? Fine. Think it's stupid.
I hate clam chowder, but if I ran a fine dining restaurant and had a chef who specialized in it, you can damn well bet I'd have clam chowder on the menu. Why? Because it makes money, and I need money to keep the employees paid and the lights on. I might even want to expand some day.
The ideological resistance to Christianity, however, stops them from creating anything that would push the message that Christ is the way. That would run contrary to their rigid ideological beliefs. This is ideologically isolating for one, and promotes only more hate and bigotry towards Christians, but it also costs them a ton of money. They settle into their own evil, push away the morality that would keep them connected with the common man, and cause resentment that ultimately results in a loss of income.
It's self-inflicted loss due to willfully adopted bigotry.
