Jesus at the Movies

Tommy Tenney, a televangelist and author, likes to let his audiences in on a little secret about a new movie based on his novel, Hadassah, a fictionalized account of the Old Testament Book of Esther. Tenney equates the movie, "One Night With the King," with Jesus' parables. It advances an agenda that reveals a hidden truth, even if the audience is unaware of it. As Tenney writes on his website, "'One Night With the King' preaches the Gospel in a subtle and nonconfrontational way. I call it 'sneaky' preaching."

"One Night With the King," which opens today, is a production of Gener8Xion Entertainment, (8X) a media company run by Matt and Laurie Crouch, son and daughter-in-law of Paul and Jan Crouch, the patriarch and matriarch of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the world's largest purveyor of Christian programming. The movie is the first major production to be distributed by Twentieth Century Fox's latest nod to the growing evangelical toehold in Hollywood, its religious distribution label, FoxFaith.

TBN, a 30-year-old network that's expanded along with media technology -- growing from individual local broadcast stations to cable to satellite and the internet -- now has five channels through which it peddles its bizarre mix of prosperity preaching and Biblical prophecy, around the world, every hour of every day. Its programs, in which televangelist hosts plead for money, are often followed by a plea for a "love gift" for Paul and Jan, meaning a donation in exchange for a tchotchke, recently a small bottle of perfumed "anointing oil." TBN, a nonprofit, pays the Crouches nearly $1 million a year in compensation, and its many popular televangelists, such as Rod Parsley, a rising star in the Christian Right, and Armageddon lobbyist John Hagee, also live lavish lifestyles off the donations of their congregations and viewers.

Its televangelists have been subjects of investigations and exposés into scandals over fund-raising and controversial faith-healing practices. And two years ago, Paul Crouch was the subject of a Los Angeles Times investigative series charging that he paid hush money to a former male lover. But none of this has seemed to dampen viewer enthusiasm for TBN, which, through a conglomerate of nonprofit entities, pulls in nearly $300 million in revenue each year. And it certainly hasn't dampened the enthusiasm of the Christian Right, which is jumping right in with TBN in promoting "One Night With the King."

Although the movie, a lavish production filmed on location in India and starring such well-known Hollywood entities as Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole, may seem on the surface a tale of political intrigue and romance, on TBN and in front of Christian audiences, the filmmakers relentlessly make clear their prophetic intentions. "Your destiny awaits!" proclaims a TBN ticker running across the screen during daily programming. As part of a special "pastors' screening tour" in September, TBN offered pastors' testimonials to the power of the film. "We have been called for a time such as this," said one. The film is "about leading others to the Kingdom," another intoned. The message for the modern audience? One pastor said, "Esther means ... it's time for Christians to stand up and save our nation."

The movie's marketers have somehow reengineered Esther's story to turn an Old Testament legend into a modern proselytizing tool for Christians. In Jewish tradition, Esther is a heroine, the brave queen who risked her favor with the King of Persia to save Jews from destruction at the hands of the evil Haman. Her story is celebrated on Purim by eating triangular pastries, wearing costumes, and making a lot of noise. But for evangelicals, Esther's story has long resonated as evidence that God chooses saviors in every generation. When Esther -- who had hidden her Judaism from her husband, the King of Persia -- balked at approaching the king for his intervention to stop his assistant, Haman, from slaughtering the Jews, her cousin Mordecai asked her: "Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" It is those last six words -- "for such a time as this" -- that evangelicals have seized upon in maintaining that God chose Esther, and God can choose you, too. And the movie's promoters are driving home the point that the movie isn't really about Esther saving the Jews, it's about the viewer being saved.