Hollywood has always had a love/hate relationship with religion. Trying to be hip, modern and intellectually advanced, Hollywood has produced movies about all religions in formats ranging from pious and reverent to the ridiculous and blasphemous. It has always been difficult to talk to someone about God who think they are Him.

The type of movie (including comedy) that Hollywood produced seemed to have depended on the times in which it was produced. During the conservative 40's and 50's, reverence was show toward God in movies such as The Ten Commandments, The Robe, The Next Voice You Hear, etc.

Next came the hippy, free-love 60's and 70's movies that tried to be hip and sexy, like Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, The Sex Life of Jesus, Oh God!, The Last Temptations of Christ, etc.

During the "me generation" of the 80's and 90's, the more inquisitive/ investigative movie came out, like In Search of the Historical Jesus, The Miracles of Jesus, From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians, and others.

In this new century, several religious groups have begun to produce their own movies as feature films. They have decided to take an active hand in showing the world what they believe. This has prodeced movies like Joshua, Left Behind, The Omega Code I and II, The Passion of Christ, and several others. The Lord only knows what is coming in the future.

Contrary to popular belief, the trends in Hollywood, rather than setting the agenda of the general public on religion actually follows it. Hollywood is reflecting the mood of the country. Mainly because the dollar rules. Rather than being creative on religion, Hollywood does what it feels is safe and financially viable. The general public is beginning to see that, and are using it to their advantage to get Hollywood to produce what they want to see.