BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- Throughout history, great art, drama and communications, such as Handel’s “Messiah,” Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” and Michelangelo’s “Pieta,” have been infused with a personal recognition of God and His love, mercy and grace.

Dr. Ted Baehr

Now, however, in today’s mass media of entertainment, progress is still needed in understanding and loving God, says Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and Publisher of Movieguide® and Chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, as well as a noted critic, educator, lecturer, and media pundit.

Baehr's stated life’s purpose is to be used of God to redeem to values of the media while educating audiences on how to use discernment in selecting their entertainment.

"Consumers of movies, videos and television, especially impressionable children and teenagers, would benefit from a deeper awareness of the spiritual dimension of life, of the spiritual resources available for man, of kinship with God, and of the divine knowledge and understanding still to be claimed," Baehr writes on his ministry website, www.movieguide.org

He says: "Part of the reason for the breakdown of morality in movies and television today, and in the culture at large, is that people of faith retreated from being salt and light in the culture."

Dr. Baehr explains that from 1933 to 1966, they were one of the predominant forces in Hollywood. During that period, the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency and the Protestant Film Commission (which started several years after the Legion of Decency) read every script to ensure that movies represented the largest possible audience by adhering to high standards of decency. As a result, MR. SMITH GOES TO
WASHINGTON, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and THE BELLS OF ST. MARY’S rang out across the land!

Dr. Baehr writes: "It took 10 years and God’s grace acting through three dedicated Christian men to position God’s people to be such a powerful moral influence on Hollywood. As the videotape HOLLYWOOD UNCENSORED all too clearly demonstrates, prior to their involvement in 1933, American movies were morally bankrupt -- full of nudity, perversity and violence. From 1922 to 1933, church-going men and women tried everything, including censorship boards, to influence Hollywood to make wholesome entertainment.

"Nothing succeeded until people of faith volunteered to work alongside the Hollywood studios to help them reach the largest possible audience, a strategy which is being used successfully today at the Christian Film & Television Commission™ ministry and MOVIEGUIDE®."

On his website, Dr. Baehr states that when the Protestant Film Office closed its advocacy offices in Hollywood in 1966 (in spite of many pleas to stay by the top Hollywood filmmakers), not only did it open the floodgates to violence (THE WILD BUNCH), sex and Satanism (ROSEMARY’S BABY), and perverse anti-religious bigotry (MIDNIGHT COWBOY), it also caused a severe drop in movie attendance from 44 million tickets sold per week to about 20 million.

In 1983, while serving on the Communications Board of the National Council of Churches and the National Religious Broadcasters, Dr. Ted Baehr was introduced to George Heimrich and his work at the Protestant Film Office by the great movie producer Ken Wales (AMAZING GRACE, THE PINK PANTHER and CHRISTY). Inspired by George Heimrich and his wife Lucille, Dr. Baehr began contacting prominent members of the industry, and in 1987, formed the Christian Film & Television Commission™ ministry, including MOVIEGUIDE®: A Biblical Guide to Movies and Entertainment. Heimrich donated his Protestant Film Office files to the ministry, where they now reside.

Movieguide is a ministry dedicated to redeeming the values of the mass media according to biblical principles, by influencing entertainment industry executives and helping families make wise media choices.

Michael Harrington, Religion Correspondent, SRN News in Washington, D.C., says, MOVIEGUIDE® provides the best Christian entertainment reviews.

"As a Christian radio professional, a movie buff and a parent I have had reason to scour the web for comprehensive, family-friendly reviews of new movies for many years," he said.

Harrington adds:"There are a number of websites that do a decent job, but MOVIEGUIDE® stands head-and-shoulders above them all. No other website I have found provides the depth of detail and analysis of each new film like Movie Guide. I find it impossible to imagine anyone reading a Movie Guide review, and then going into the theatre and being caught off guard by a film's content. If you read Movie Guide, you've BEEN to the movies."

In 1992, MOVIEGUIDE® began its first Annual Awards Gala and Report to Hollywood. As a result of conversations with Sir John Templeton, the John Templeton Foundation and the Christian Film & Television Commission™ initiated Epiphany Prizes for Inspiring Movies and TV sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, held once a year in Los Angeles.

The Gala seeks to acknowledge spiritually uplifting movies and television programs truly deserving of praise and those persons responsible for bringing them to the screen. In doing that, it seeks to reward the major opinion leaders in our society with a special distinction beyond mere professional recognition.

Each year around Academy Award time, MOVIEGUIDE® hosts an Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry in Hollywood, where we present the prestigious John Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prizes to the Most Inspiring Movie and TV Program of the previous year. The prizes are given to the studio executives and filmmakers who have made the greatest, most positive spiritual impact on the world with their movies and TV programs of the past year.

In 2005, Dr. Baehr, after talks with Dr. Jack Templeton of the Templeton Foundation, created the $50,000 Kairos Prizes for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays. The prize serves to stimulate a continuing quest for deeper understanding in religious knowledge by encouraging first-time screenwriters to produce compelling, entertaining scripts with a spiritual focus. The prizes hope to model the considerable talents behind the Epiphany Prizes over the last 10 years, such as THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, EVELYN, 7TH HEAVEN, TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, AMISTAD, THE PREACHER’S WIFE, and DEAD MAN WALKING.

The Foundation and its partners, MOVIEGUIDE® and the Christian Film & Television Commission™, hope that the Kairos Prizes will create a deeper spiritual awareness on the part of man, a better understanding of the meaning of life, heightened quality of devotion and love, and a greater emphasis on the kind of dedication that brings human life more into concert with God’s Divine Will, thus releasing new and creative energies into human society today.

Dr. Baehr concludes: "By rewarding the best, most spiritually uplifting screenplays, the $50,000 Kairos Prize hopes to create a greater increase in our love of God, our understanding of God, and our appreciation for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its glorious, spiritually uplifting and redemptive aspects."

Sponsored by The John Templeton Foundation, MOVIEGUDE® recently announced the 4th Annual Kairos Prize for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays.

The primary purpose of the prize is to further the influence of moral and spiritual values within the film and television industries. Set up to help inspire first-time and beginning screenwriters to produce compelling, entertaining and spiritually uplifting scripts, the winning scripts are read by top execs in addition to the monetary awards.

PRIZES: Grand Prize: $25,000 · 1st Runner Up: $15,000 · 2nd Runner Up: $10,000

DEADLINES: Oct. 27th, 2008 (Standard); December 1st, 2008 (Late)

For complete information please visit www.kairosprize.com .

** Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent of ANS, is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station. Michael has traveled to Albania and the former Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany and the former Czechoslovakia, Israel,and Canada. He has reported for ANS from Jordan, China, Russia, Jamaica, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Michael's involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- Michael Ireland Media Missionary (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International.