Sex in Christian Movies: a Study of Roger Young‘s the Bible: Joseph and Mel Gibson‘s Passion of the Christ

International Journal of Communication and Media Science

© 2015 by SSRG - IJCMS Journal

Volume 2 Issue 1

Year of Publication : 2015

Authors : Endong, Floribert Patrick Calvain , Obonganwan and Edim Ekpenyong

10.14445/2349641X/IJCMS-V2I2P102

How to Cite?

Endong, Floribert Patrick Calvain , Obonganwan and Edim Ekpenyong, "Sex in Christian Movies: a Study of Roger Young‘s the Bible: Joseph and Mel Gibson‘s Passion of the Christ," SSRG International Journal of Communication and Media Science, vol. 2,  no. 1, pp. 10-19, 2015. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/2349641X/IJCMS-V2I2P102

Abstract:

Mediated sex is often seriously criticized and conceived as a total contradiction to Christian values notably chastity. Christian media content is, in this respect, often conceived to (ideally) be either sex free or sex sensitive. This relatively conservative position is however paradoxical to recent trends observed in Christian cinema with a good number of Christian films sometimes showcasing an explicit depiction of sex, sexuality and/or nudity. Good examples of such films are Bible-based dramas such as Roger Young‟s The Bible: Joseph and Mel Gibson‟s The Passion of the Christ. Though they are interpretations of certain books of the Bible, these two films seem not to be as sensible and implicit in their depiction of sex and nudity as the Bible is. Using a structuralist approach, this paper attempts to show this discrepancy between the biblical and the cinematic texts, through comparing specific biblical extracts with their corresponding interpretations in these films (that is, a comparison of extracts from the mother text with their mise-en-scene). It argues that this discrepancy may partially be attributed to Christian film producers‟ constant reliance on “para” or “meta” biblical sources such as novelizations of the Bible. These novelizations of Bible stories themselves have their source in the lack of details in the Bible.

Keywords:

Christian Films, Obscenity, Passion of the Christ, Sex, The Holy Bible.

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