In depth | Evangelicals Now

Imperfect, but helpful?

Ian Cooper

The Chosen is an American TV and film series on the Life of Christ, which from uncertain beginnings has become a global success.

It has millions of viewers and has been dubbed or subtitled in scores of languages. With a model of crowd-funding it has raised the vast sums needed for a series which aims to complete seven seasons of eight episodes each, 56 episodes in total. Currently it has done three seasons, 24 episodes, and is available on Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and the Angel Studio and Chosen apps – it’s free on the apps. The director is Dallas Jenkins, a conservative evangelical, 46 and married with four children, whose father Jerry Jenkins was the author of the Left Behind books. So why, when most Christian film series are cheesy or preachy or both, has this been a terrific hit.

The elephant in the playground

Ian Cooper

Date posted: 1 Feb 2020

Dear Editor,

Ben Alltimes article, ‘The elephant in the playground’ January p.13), on how (en so many children from Christian homes succumb to peer pressure and give up their faith, is salutary but a little pessimistic. Our family was part of a church for many years where nearly all the children are still very much Christians, often friends and spouses, and who look back on growing up in their church with great affection and delight – they refer to going back to ‘the shire’ (borrowing from Tolkien). Now why?