God Highjacks Hollywood

For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways

And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

In 2005, I was completing my undergraduate degree at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. I soon became aware that as a Christian I was in the minority. In a community awash with intellectualism, there was a void of spirituality. Morality was based upon popular cultural norms. I could not see how God could use this environment for His good.

I took a women’s studies class that hit every hot button issue there was involving women, including abortion. Initially most of the students said they saw no problem with abortion because it was a personal choice. I said that the problem with abortion was not only the question of whether a fetus was human or not, but the long term psychological implications for the women. The instructor and many of the students opposed my view as being pro-life rhetoric.

Then the class watched the film “If These Walls Could Talk” (HBO NYC Productions, 1996; Directors: Cher, Nancy Savoca) which is billed as a pro-choice movie. My first instinct was to skip the film and ask for an alternative project, but I felt God nudging me to watch the movie with the class. I did and I prayed that something good would come of it.

The film had a dramatic emotional effect on the students. After viewing the film many students were horrified by what they saw. Several cried. One young man said, “I may never have sex again. I could never put a girlfriend through that.”

What happened? God opened His loving arms and embraced those students with His love and changed their hearts.

Who would have thought a secular film could accomplish that? The truth is, God hijacked what Hollywood made and turned things upside down.