Created by The Christophers, a Christian inspirational group that was founded in 1945 by Father James Keller, “Atomic Energy Can Be a Blessing” dates to 1952. The film stars Father Keller and actor Fred MacMurray (most famous for his role as Dad on “Leave it to Beaver”), and features footage of atomic experiments including medical uses that Keller describes as “gifts from God”. The point of the film is that the energy of the atom can be used for good, and in fact it can be a blessing in such fields as industry, agriculture and medicine. The Christophers went on to make two other atomic era films: “Atomic Energy As A Force For Good” and “From Star to Star” — also starring celebrities.
The film shows early footage of research work being conducted at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, the Hanford Works in Washington State, and the Bellsville, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in New York, Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee, Argonne Laboratory in Chicago, UCLA, Los Alamos, New Mexico and New Brunswick, New Jersey as well as Ohio.
Convinced of the profound ability of each person to shape the future, Father James Keller, M.M., founded The Christophers in 1945. The Maryknoll priest believed that God has given each individual a special task in life which belongs to no one else.
This sense of personal mission and the power of goodness is the heart of the Christopher message. It is summed up by the ancient Chinese proverb which has become the motto of the Christophers: “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”
In response, a number of Roman Catholics began to find new ways of commending the Church and its ideal to the public, including the new medium of television. Perhaps the most notable of these men was Bishop Fulton Sheen. The most popular and influential television presentation, however, was The Christophers, a weekly half-hour program aired on ABC beginning in 1945. Keller avoided theology and philosophy, going “straight for the watcher’s heart.”
To espouse the aims of The Christophers, Keller wrote an article for the conservative American Ecclesiastical Review entitled “What About the Hundred Million?”. In it, he addressed the needs of Americans (including those from Protestant or other non-Catholic backgrounds) who had no connection to organized religion.
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