If you haven’t seen the pro-faith, pro-marriage “Fireproof” yet, chances are you’ve heard about it. The third movie produced by Albany, Ga.’s Sherwood Baptist Church placed fourth in national box office receipts its opening weekend.

With another $4 million plus of business (including my ticket purchase) the weekend of Oct. 3, the film has grossed $12.4 million. Not bad for a production that only cost $500,000 to make and relies largely on a volunteer cast. Hollywood only wishes it could be that efficient with its expenditures.

Thanks to advance publicity, “The Love Dare,” a book that began as a plot device in the film, sold 300,000 copies before the movie even opened.

This past weekend, another movie opened with additional “buzz” in the Church, particularly as premier evangelist Billy Graham approaches his 90th birthday on Nov. 7.

“Billy: The Early Years” chronicles the rise of the famed preacher. It also details his friendship with Charles Templeton, considered a more popular evangelist until his faith shipwrecked on the rocks of unbelief.

The film has already generated controversy, with son Franklin Graham criticizing it. However, oldest daughter Gigi defended it, saying “it’s good and positive, and I think it honors the Lord and my mother and daddy.”

Mocking the faithful

Sandwiched between these faith-friendly films is one that opened the end of September. “Religulous” is comedian Bill Maher’s attempt to mock anyone who believes in God, be they Christian, Mormon, Muslim or Scientologist.

Though many reviewers are favorable, one columnist noted, “I myself don’t find the mockery of what is sacred to others so very hilarious. But there’s no disputing that beating up on religion is a surefire gambit for cheap laughs these days.

“On ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ season debut, homeschooling families were held up to ridicule, even though homeschooled kids are disproportionately represented in, and even courted by, Ivy League universities because they perform so far above their institutionally educated peers.”

Being personally acquainted with a couple whose homeschooled son attended Harvard University, I can vouch for the validity of her comment.

Even atheists can be evangelists

Still, the point isn’t to carry on about Bill Maher’s diatribe. His scorn of God has been well-publicized for years. Besides, in recent times a flock of outspoken atheists have written bestsellers that ultimately served to popularize interest in the Almighty.

Christianity Today wrote about this phenomenon two months ago. The magazine noted that apologetics has become so popular that when Focus on the Family sponsored an apologetics conference for teens last year, it attracted an overflow crowd of 1,500.

Likewise, more than 2,000 students packed Central Hall in London last year to hear apologist William Lane Craig debate biologist Louis Wolpert on the topic, “Is God a Delusion?”

Craig noted that moderator John Humphreys, the “Mike Wallace of Britain,” told him, “As I look out over this sea of young faces before me, whether or not you believe in God, something is going on here. I have never seen this kind of interest before in religious things in Britain.”

This reminds me of a comment by abstinence advocate Lakita Garth during an interview. Although she watched some movies I would consider questionable, Garth said she did so to relate better to her campus audiences: “Kids today don’t know Scripture. They know scripts.”