God’s Not Dead Too?

Over the past several years, Christian films have been on the rise and I have seen exactly none of them.  In fact I cringe when I hear the advertisements on the radio (that’s secular talk radio to be specific, not Christian radio) and at the same time I sort of feel guilty for my reaction.  So, last weekend was the release of “God’s Not Dead 2”  which to my understanding addresses the very real issue of the opposition to Christianity in today’s world.  My problem is that I struggled with the premise of the first movie. My mom thought it was great. I, as her son in full time Christian ministry, did not see it and felt if I did the nausea would be too much to bear.  Patheos had a review the other day of the first film that pretty much reinforced my perception of that film. In it the author suggests that the first film: contributes to a culture of fear, demonizes nonbelievers, abandons its own appeals to reason, encourages stereotypical views of Christians, and leaves young Christians unprepared for the real faith challenge. At the time of that film’s release, I read about the weakness of the arguments used and the fact that everyone ends up at a Newsboys concert in the end, and concluded that I probably would need an air sickness bag in the theater. I’ve nothing against the Newsboys, though the way that Christian music has pandered to a segment of our population is disturbing. I will leave that for another blog post.

I await reading the Christian reviews of the new film, but the initial (secular) reviews are not positive. On one hand, I would not expect the unbelieving world to react positively to this film.  Yet the thinking Christian is the one I want to hear from about it’s message.  While I confess I enjoyed Melissa Joan Hart in her early career,  her presence in this film will drive me to see it. Since I rarely see any movies in the theatre, I was not headed out this weekend to catch a movie, let alone the latest Christian film. Still, the advertisements and the theme song in particular are annoying me to no end. The triteness of the Newsboys theme song is annoying to the point of despair.  I say that as one who has the affliction of songs getting stuck in the head.

What I wonder is when Christians will stop making movies that are merely preaching a sermon to the choir and actually learn to tell a compelling story, one that lacks stereotypes and characterizations. The last “Christian Film” I saw in the theater, apart from Mel Gibson’s “The Passion” which is a different sort of movie altogether, was “Joshua” a bad movie rendition of an engaging book by Joseph Girzone. Perhaps someday we will see the sort of thing that captivates all audiences and tells a story like scripture tells them. (and please don’t make fun of me for liking Melissa Joan Hart in her earlier career)