By Steve Higginbotham
Roma Downy, the former star of “Touched by an Angel” and her husband, Mark Burnett, a renowned Hollywood producer recently produced a mini-series on the Bible. I must admit that when Hollywood attempts to retell stories from the Bible, I get a little uneasy. Biblical accuracy has apparently never been high on their priority list.
Now I understand “poetic license,” and grant the right to retell a story without using the exact same words as the text in so doing. Abbreviating a story by picking and choosing what to include and exclude in a limited time is up to the one telling the story. However, “poetic license” does not give one the right to substantively change the parts of the story that one chooses to include.
While Christians know the Bible is the inspired word of God, Hollywood might, at the very best know the Bible to be a famous literary work. That being said, imagine Hollywood creating a mini-series on the works of Shakespeare. Do you think they would then end “Romeo and Juliet” by having Romeo run off with another woman, and Juliet committing suicide in despair? Or can you imagine them having MacBeth push King Duncan to his death rather than using a dagger? Of course not! It would be unthinkable! Who would be so presumptuous as to trifle with Shakespeare?
So why then does Hollywood feel free to trifle with the Bible? Regardless of whether they view the Bible as inspired or not, it is at least a literary work of historical significance. Yet, there seems to be no hesitancy in taking such liberties with the Bible. This series contains countless examples where the Biblical story was twisted and distorted, not simply abbreviated.
While being interviewed about the accuracy of their mini-series, Roma Downy stated that they “had a great team of scholars and theologians helping us, making sure that we told these stories accurately and truthfully.” If that’s the case, I would suggest that next time, they should skip the “scholars” and “theologians” and interview our little children in Sunday Bible School for a more accurate telling of the story.