Hollywood: hell-bent

Mel Gibson's powerful Passion of the Christ was the third-highest grossing movie of 2004 - outdoing even the latest Harry Potter installment. It has become the ninth-highest grossing movie of all time.

The movie reconnected some Christians to their faith - and brought many back to the movie theater for the first time in years. Earlier this month, it won a People's Choice Award for best drama.

And last year, Passion even inspired a remorseful Norwegian man to confess to two separate bombings of a youth-group headquarters there in the 1990s.

Yet, none of this - nor the undeniable excellence of the film - could manage to squeeze out a best-picture nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Instead, it was beat out by a boxing movie and a "buddy" comedy.

Despite the fact that spiritually meaningful movies are good for business - Passion grossed $370 million-plus, on a relative shoestring budget of $30 million - Hollywood seems hell-bent not only on serving up unwholesome, unhealthy fare, but also hell-bent on denying spiritual Americans movies that nourish their souls.

It's as if Hollywood can't see red - as in red states.

Some will explain it away by noting notorious Bush-hating liberal filmmaker Michael Moore didn't get a nomination for his Fahrenheit 9/11 either. But there's no comparison. For all its pre-election hype, Moore's propaganda came nowhere near Passion's box office, and it failed miserably in its chief aim of deposing President Bush.

What you're left with, then, is a transparent anti-Christian bias in Hollywood, if not contempt.

Not even $370 million could change that, either.

How sad.