Good Marketing or Heartfelt Sharing - Laurie Goodstein has an article for The New York Times that goes into detail over the hopes some evangelical Christians are pinning on Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ."
She notes that some Christian leaders see the upcoming movie as a means to witness to those that aren't Christian. Some are even encouraging people to buy blocks of tickets for the movie and to pass them out to unsaved friends and associates.
Other organizations are making CD-ROM's geared towards teenagers or tracts to be handed out that share the Gospel message.
Goodstein writes that this "grass-roots" effort also serves as a marketing means for the movie because, as Alan Nierob (a spokesman for Gibson) noted, they really don't have the funds to market the movie via traditional routes:
"We don't have that luxury here. So you've got to do what you can to get the film out there, get supporters, get word of mouth. That's really the grass-roots approach."
Interestingly, Goodstein notes:
Although the film has been praised by some Roman Catholics and promoted on some Catholic Web sites, Catholic clergy members and bishops have not latched onto it as a tool for church-building as the evangelicals have.
Of course "church-building" is nice, but sharing the freedom from sin found only in Christ is much more important.
