Presenting the Gospel to Hollywood in a 'loving and kind way'

Ted Baehr talks about the reason for the 15th Annual Movieguide® Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

And he explained that mission during an interview at the glittering 15th Annual Movieguide® Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on Tuesday, February 20th.

"What we are trying to do here at the gala is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a loving and kind way to Hollywood," he said. "It's an amazing thing that we get to tell them that we commend their movies which have some great moment of spiritual inspiration."

I asked Dr. Baehr about the early days of the awards gala when there were not so many family friendly movies to reward.

"When we started Movieguide®, there was only one movie that had positive Christian content," he said. "It was 'Trip to Bountiful' and there was a scene where a young lady sat on a bus and talked about reading the Bible. Also, there were only six movies that we could put on the cover of Movieguide®. Now we have only five movies open a week and every week two or three or four have got family content.

"We've got of course 'Amazing Grace' coming out and we're talking about this. At the same time we've got 'The Astronaut's Wife,' and both of them have strong Christian content. Then we've got 'Hidden Secrets' soon to be released and today we've just got more movies than we know what to do with so it's made it a lot tougher to judge them."

I then asked Dr. Baehr why he felt there had been this massive change in Hollywood.

"Many of the studio execs who come here to our event have told me that it is, to a large degree, because of our economic analysis," he said. "The chairman of Disney had tea with me about two weeks ago and he said, 'Now listen to me. I'm giving you a compliment. You've shown us that this is not only morally responsible but it's economically beneficial to make these kind of films.' So we now have shown them that they can do the right thing and make money by doing it. That makes them happy."

He added, "I think that God just finds a pot with a couple of cracks that He can use and sends you into the battle."

I then asked him how people could pray for him.

"There's a great change in Hollywood and there's a lot of people getting on board with this change so just pray that we're faithful and that we're filled with more and more of His grace, His Holy Spirit, His wisdom, and His knowledge. It's not about you or me; it's about Jesus and if we can try to keep that in mind and it's very hard to keep in mind all of the time because it's always the nature of man to go back into himself. But pray that we show forth Jesus in a better way."

Details of the winners:

Moses and the Baby Jesus, "God in the flesh," were honored Tuesday night at the 15th Annual Movieguide® Faith & Values Awards Gala, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

(Left to right) Executive Producer Tim Rellim and Producer Wyck Godfrey of THE NATIVITY STORY, distributed by New Line Cinema, accept the $50,000 John Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring Movie of 2006 as Dr. Ted Baehr and Dr. Jack Templeton look on with approval. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS from ABC-TV won the $50,000  Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring TV Program of 2006.

"The Ten Commandments," an ABC-TV production about the Prophet Moses, took home the $50,000 John Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prize for the Most Inspiring TV Program of 2006.

"The Nativity Story," a movie about the Virgin Mary, her husband Joseph and the birth of Jesus Christ won the $50,000 John Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prize for the Most Inspiring Movie of 2006.

The Epiphany Prizes are given to the one TV program and the one movie that did the most to increase man's love and/or understanding of God.

The Templeton Foundation also handed out $50,000 to three aspiring, first-time screenwriters, winners of the Kairos Prizes for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays by First-Time Screenwriters.

The three winning screenplays will be read by more than 30 top decision makers at six of the top eight major studios in Hollywood, including Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros. 20th Century Fox, Sony, and New Line Cinema.

Oscar - winning actress and Hollywood legend Shirley Jones ("Oklahoma!," "The Music Man," "Elmer Gantry," and TV's "The Partridge Family") won the Grace Award for Most Inspiring TV Performance of 2006 for her role as Aunt Batty in Hallmark's "Hidden Places."

Oscar Isaac, who played Joseph in "The Nativity Story," joins past Grace winners Robert Duvall, Denzel Washington and Stephen Collins as winner of the Grace Award for Most Inspiring Movie Performance of 2006.

Legendary actress and singer Shirley Jones accepts the Grace Award for the Most Inspiring Acting Performance in Television in 2006 at the Movieguide® Faith & Values Awards Gala Tuesday night..

The Grace Award is given for the most inspiring performances in TV and film that "best displayed God's grace toward us as human beings."

"Charlotte's Web" won the Crystal Teddy Award for the Best Family Movie of 2006 and "The Queen" won the "Papa Bear Award of Excellence" for the Best Movie for Mature Audiences in 2006.

Other movies picked as the Top Ten Family Movies in 2006 were "Cars," "The Nativity Story," "Eight Below," "Akeelah and the Bee," "Ice Age: The Meltdown," "Invincible," "Glory Road," "The Pursuit of Happyness," and "Facing the Giants."

Other movies picked as the Top Ten Movies for Mature Audiences in 2006 were "We Are Marshall," "Dreamgirls," "Joyeaux Noel," "World Trade Center," "Superman Returns," "Rocky Balboa," "The Lost City," "Last Holiday," and Mission: Impossible III."

"The Pursuit of Happyness" won the Libertas Award in Movies for Promoting Positive American Values.

Hallmark's "Hidden Places" won the Libertas Award in Television for Promoting Positive American Values.

Finally, Chris Gardner, the loving father behind the inspirational success story of "The Pursuit of Happyness," won a special award for his personal lifetime achievements and his positive contribution to the culture and to America.

Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.


Further note to radio stations and networks. An MP3 audio version of this interview is available from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com