Speaking as an atheist, I LOVE religious movies!

Where else do you get to see Western Civilization grapple with its central myths time and time again? Where else can you witness the loftiest ideals collide head-on with the crassest of commercialism? Watching a Hollywood religious movie is like taking a guided tour of the American soul, with results that are equally revolting and hilarious.

Some of my favorite moments from religious movies:

1) Max von Sydow as Jesus in the Greatest Story Ever Told, delivering the Sermon on the Mount with a distinctly Swedish accent.

2) Mary Magdalene turning a trick with Judas in The Color of the Cross, to give Jesus extra time to get away.

3) The image of the female Satan holding a demonic child in The Passion of the Christ, thus presenting the devil not as the anti-Christ, but as the Anti-Mary.

4) Harry Dean Stanton's portrayal of the Apostle Paul as a religious huckster in The Last Temptation of Christ.

5) Christopher Plummer's orgasmic reaction to the dance of Salome in Jesus of Nazareth.

6) The weird, almost surreal treatment of the Nativity in Passolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew.

I could go on and on. You just can't get this heady mixture of popular theology, awkward piety, barely repressed sexuality and good old-fashioned violence in any other film genre. I'll never be converted by a Jesus movie, but I'll always be the first in line to see one.

Learn more about this author, Scott Knickelbine.
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