“He who controls the media, controls culture” – Dr. Ted Baehr
Movieguide was founded in 1985 by Dr. Ted Baehr in Atlanta, GA. The organization started as a radio program, then a TV program and finally as a bi-weekly magazine.
Now located just outside of Los Angeles, CA, Movieguide’s mission is to redeem the values of the entertainment industry, according to biblical principles, by influencing industry executives and artists.
The organization reviews all the movies from a Christian perspective and how movies affect children at different stages of cognitive development. they analyze movies using over 15o different criteria that cover dramatic elements, the literary, the world view and the theological… and much more.
I had the opportunity to interview Movieguide founder and publisher Dr. Ted Baehr on the state of media in our culture. We also talked about the latest film projects and about his new devotional book Reel to Real: 45 Movie Devotions for Families.
Check out the Exclusive Interview with Dr. Baehr below:
Below are excerpts from the article “Let There Be Light” (first published here), detailing MOVIEGUIDE®’s Annual Report to Hollywood, showing Christian, Family Movies do the best at the box office.
Let There Be Light! Publisher Ted Baehr Presents Highlights from MOVIEGUIDE®’s Annual Report to Hollywood Showing Christian, Family Movies Do Best
MOVIEGUIDE® Founder and Publisher Dr. Ted Baehr presented highlights from MOVIEGUIDE®’s 2018 Report to the Entertainment Industry, a comprehensive economic analysis of the content and philosophical, moral, spiritual, and political perspectives in the major movies released theatrically in 2017, at the 26th Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala.
He reported that TV viewers and moviegoers prefer movies and television programs with biblical, morally uplifting, faith-based, patriotic, and conservative principles and values.
For example, 90% of the Top 10 Movies in the United States and overseas in 2017 contained strong or very strong Christian, redemptive, biblical, moral content, including such movies as DESPICABLE ME 3, JUSTICE LEAGUE, THOR:RAGNORAK, WONDER WOMAN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, SPIDER-MAN:HOMECOMING, and THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS, among others.
Dr. Baehr noted:
For now, That Was The Year That Was that:
• BOSS BABY told audiences that Jesus was the boss,
• The great news of Christmas in THE STAR transformed the heroes who were, of course, animals, and the audience,
• Teamwork, fatherhood and truth transformed Batman in THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE,
• God’s grace helped Christian refugees and transformed ALL SAINTS Church.
• An atheist reporter was transformed by looking at the evidence in THE CASE FOR CHRIST,
• Freedom fighting soldiers and patriotic citizens were transformed in DUNKIRK
• WONDER WOMAN was transformed by the power of selfless love, and
• A flawed father was transformed to sacrifice himself for his daughter in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES, and,
• Moviegoers were transformed and inspired to support the good, the true and the beautiful at the box office.
Ted added:
To help the Entertainment Industry, every year we do this detailed economic Report to the Entertainment Industry analysis based on 150 criteria. We look at the aesthetics, ontology, epistemology, and semantics. It’s like plugging your car into a computer to see why you have a little knock. It’s like seeing how can you tune up your car better? With that, we find out that great movies are great stories well-told, which is a very precise and skilled process.
Read the full article including charts of some of the major findings in MOVIEGUIDE®’s Annual Report.
Carl Barnhill has served on staff at some of the largest churches and organizations in the country. He served as Media Director at Precept Ministries International, directing the television and radio program Precepts for Life with Kay Arthur, broadcasted to over 98 million homes around the world. He served as Video Production Director at Pinelake Church in Brandon, MS. He most recently served as Video Coordinator for Newspring Church in South Carolina. He currently serves as Creative Director and Owner of[twelve:thirty]media, serving churches and ministries all over the world through motion graphics content and church media coaching.
