Only two months after 20th Century Fox announced plans to aggressively target the Christian market with a new FoxFaith label, the Weinstein Company–whose predecessor, Miramax, produced such edgy fare as “Fargo”–has announced that they will also create a faith-based movie label. The Weinstein Company is not, at this time anyway, creating their own faith-themed entertainment, but they will be working with Christian entertainment companies such as Impact Productions to distribute their products to movie theaters as well as direct-to- DVD projects. Adaptations of work by two popular Christian authors–Joyce Meyer and Max Lucado–will be the first two projects The Weinstein Company will release.

Many Christian film critics are noting–with more than a little sense of irony and a great deal of disappointment–that while Contemporary Christian Music has finally earned mainstream respectability and has worked its way out of the spiritual ghetto, Hollywood is now creating a Christian film subculture–with the church’s enthusiastic help.

I certainly echo the frustrated sentiments of talented critic and author Jeffrey Overstreet, who has posted these comments about the growth of Christian cinema over at his blog: “Walls and boundaries. That’s what we want. Neat and easy labels and categories. All the better for judging other people, for staying where we are, for complimenting ourselves on our choices.”