Can you enjoy media that has religious themes
Some of the most beautiful music ever composed is religious in nature, particularly medieval and Renaissance liturgical music. It helps that it's in Latin, so I don't have to pay attention to the meanings!
I listen to some CCM (Contemporary Christian Music.) As Tiffanee said, if it's good, it's good. The CCM is an industry unto itself where I am, and it's hard to not encounter it in venues around here. FWIW, most of what I like does not hit you over the head with the groups' beliefs. They just happen to be Christian. To me, it's not different from listening to any other music from another culture. I like it or I don't.
I can totally enjoy it as long as it is clearly fiction based. If it's trying to come across as factual I can't stop rolling my eyes long enough to enjoy it. I just look at it as entertainment like The Lord of the Rings or The Marvel movies. At least for myself I can watch The Ten Commandments and not think of it as a documentary, just a far out story. A ton of movies and television shows have overtly religious undertones if one wants to dissect them. Don't get me wrong I don't intentionally seek out religious content, but personally it doesn't prevent me from enjoying a good story.
I enjoy the movie "Saved".
I don't like thing that promote religion, but this movie was not really about that. Saved was more about acceptance and how religion can end up being harmful. I do think it is a really good film.
In fact I can LOVE them as well. To this day no movie has made me laugh harder than Monty Python's Life of Brian. The Meaning of Life had some strong spiritual implications as well. Dogma, and Leap of Faith jump out at me as well as being stellar productions. And anytime Morgan Feeman gets to play God... that's a treat.
But I think so much of our TV has religious themes whether we realize it or not. The whole concept of good versus evil is a religious concept, but it plays well in our actions shows and Star Wars has Turned "the dark side" into a whole thing... In fact, Star Wars has a real strong connection to eastern religions, with things like "the Force," or the somewhat "reincarnation" of the main characters like Obi Wan, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker.
Any show that involves magic or sorcery, or any kind of mythology is also pulling on some deeply held religious themes. Vampires are still killed by holy water. Ghosts must still actively seek the light and move on. Shows like Supernatural and Lucifer (awesome shows) play with all the religious themes humans have played with for centuries.
There are some amazing types of media out there, and a lot of these religious themes make for really great stories. It goes bad, though, when the creators of the stories take it way too personally.
No. Years ago the Little House book series was twisted into a TV show I called ‘little church on the prairie’... Lost any respect I may have had for it’s lead man, unworthy of mention, as it both contributed to and rode a wave of religion sweeping the US at that time.
My favorite ‘religious theme’ tv program was a segment of the series Ballykissangel that had been run on the US PBService… Seemed a lot closer to real..