WithGod ’s Not deadened 3 : A Light in Darknesshitting dramaturgy this month , we ’re re - up this introspective , relevant account from our archives .

It ’s a frustrating time to love moviesandGod . As a lifelong evangelical and a Christian film critic , I ’m incessantly alerted to the next faith - base picture show . You know , your near - death experience drama , your Kirk Cameron vehicles , yourGod ’s Not Deadfranchise ( see " part two " in house this hebdomad ! ) – " Christian"films . Which , for someone who turns to movies for a Cupid’s itch of acculturation , often look like a big money of meretricious cash - ins that make me break out in urticaria .

Hollywood ’s definition of the " religion interview " boil down to churchgoers , often Evangelical Protestants , well enough off to yield a Nox at the movies , concerned in inspirational Biblical adaptations and movies about heaven , phratry , and mental , good neighbour , and extremely decisive of any gender or bad language . If you ’re not devout , you plausibly miss these movie entirely . But they ’re a big business organization : in the last three years , gloomy - budget Christian - themed moving picture have earned over $ 445 million at the US box office . A lot of these are basically well - intentioned kitsch , innocuous in the personal manner of a crappy conventional rom - com or inept indie drama . But they can be worse than that . I can excuse ( or ignore ) a poorly made movie . But some of the most democratic faith - ground movies today are n’t just sub - par amusement – they ’re anti - Christian .

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How Jesus convinced Hollywood to believe

AfterThe Passion of the Christmade more money than anyone dreamed possible –stillthe highest - gross R - rated film of all time in America – studio apartment madly tried to corner the organized religion market by producing movies that enticed Christian church to bribe out theaters . There ’s a prospicient history of steel - and - sandal flicks before that , plus occasional revelatory movies likeA Thief in the Night , and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association made a number of solid films a few decades ago that were distribute directly to church . But 2004 betoken something newfangled , and producers hold notice .

A few modest movies succeeded with the " faith consultation " afterPassion of the Christ : face the Giants(2006),Fireproof(2008 ) , andCourageous(2011 ) , one of which starred Kirk Cameron , all indie motion picture from the same church - back production company . Less - explicitly specialized flick , like theNarniamovies , The Blind Side(2009),The Book of Eli(2010),Of Gods and Men(2010 ) , andSoul Surfer(2011 ) , draw sizable crowds of mostly Evangelical Christians . before long , promotion firms ascertain direction to commercialise every conceivable film with a mistily inspirational hook to pastors and parishioners , fromThe Avengers(look at these superheroes sacrifice themselves for one another , just like Jesus ! ) toThe Monuments Men(look at these soldiers sacrificing themselves for one another , just like Jesus ! )

perchance someone in Hollywood record a tweet , or ate someEzekiel dough , but all at once a undulation of specific " religion " spillage began to crest . The wave crashed in 2014 , which sawSon of God(February),God ’s Not DeadandNoah(March),Heaven Is for Real(April),Mom ’s Night Out(May),Persecuted(July),The SongandBelieve Me(September ) , theLeft Behindremake starring Nicolas Cage ( October),Saving Christmas(November ) , andExodus : graven image and Kings(December ) . As a Christian film critic , I got calls from reporters all over the place , necessitate whether I could comment on what the " Year of the Bible Film " was all about . It was a affair .

The Passion of the Christ movie

The Passion of the Christ | 20th Century Fox

Those are n’t transitory numbers : in improver to the incredible box - business office haulage ofGod ’s Not DeadandHeaven is for Real , several of the films made money ( includingMom ’s Night Out , which gross $ 10 million on a $ 5 million budget , andLeft Behind , which grossed $ 19.7 millon on $ 15 million).Son of Godwas a recut version of evaluation juggernautThe Bible , which raked in 10 - 13 million viewers for the History Channel and led to a 2d series on NBC , A.D. The Bible Continues . And the vogue continued in 2015 withOld Fashioned(competing withFifty Shades of Greyon Valentine ’s Day weekend),Do You Believe(March),War Room(August ) , the unfortunately titled90 Minutes in Heaven , the thrillerCaptive(September ) , and football game movieWoodlawn(October ) . We ’re scantily a quarter of the way of life into 2016 and have already weatheredThe Masked Saint , Risen , The Young Messiah , andMiracles From Heaven . This week we getGod ’s Not Dead 2 - - a missed titling chance , if ever there was one – with aBen - Hurremake and an adaptation of the popular novelSame Kind of Different as Meon the way .

What an actual movie-going Christian looks like

Fact : Iamthe intend consultation for these movies . I ’ve been a Christian all my life , attending evangelistic churches , singing in the choir , and helping out at Vacation Bible School . I was homeschooled for spiritual reasons and grew up in a rural town . When I moved to Brooklyn , I became a communicate member of an evangelistic Presbyterian Christian church . Members of my mob belong to to a smorgasbord of church all along the Eastern Seaboard , from Southern Baptist to Assemblies of God to Evangelical Free and Roman Catholic . I ’m a cinema critic forChristianity Today , founded by Southern Baptist ikon Billy Graham . I hold a full - metre faculty designation at The King ’s College , a schoolhouse ground by a wireless preacher in 1938 . I now instruct undergraduate who were raised in churches across America . I amChristian .

I also love ripe movie and catch and write about them for a support . I worry that they ’re secure . And the deluge of Christian movies brought on a inundation of bad reviews . It ’s much catechetic among many faith - based devotees and picture show producer that mainstream critics pan the films because they " do n’t believe in Jesus . " The problems run deeper . Jesus is all right ; the screenwriters , not so much .

As onlookers express mirth these picture off , I stand up in the net ’s corner , wincing and try not to rail . I ca n’t just sweep it off like others . Christian theological system is fertile and creative and full of vision , that ’s broad enough to take up mansion among all kind of human culture . It contain within itself the idea that art exists as a good unto itself , not just a useful fomite for messages . ( In the Greek , the Bible visit humans " verse form " – I jazz that . ) There is no reason Christian movies ca n’t take the time to become good nontextual matter . Each one that conk out leave me wild .

church in new york city

Flickr/Miguel Mendez

It all came to a head withGod ’s Not numb , which gross $ 60 million on its $ 2 million budget and essentially launched the religion - based production Jagannatha , Pure Flix . It ’s essentially an adaptation of an Internet meme , in which an atheist professor loses an argument with a lowly undergraduate about the existence of God . At first I avoided the movie , because I thought it would be another shoddy Christian film and I ’d already been inundated . I wanted it to go away . I eventually take up a copy of the movie from a Quaker . We all make mistakes .

God’s Not Deadwas a nail in the coffin

God ’s Not Deadis a technically proficient film that clear its title from both misreading Nietzsche and finding inspiration in the Newsboys , a Christian band I listen to in high school who have hard in the film . By the end I was actively offended . Not just because it suggests that it ’s somehow appropriate for a first - semester college freshman to engage in a pitched conflict with an evil , sadistic philosophy prof played by Kevin Sorbo . Nor because it takes the theologically weird posture that standing for the true and living your faith – " the assurance of things hope for , the conviction of things not visualize , " tell Hebrews 1:1 – means that science , deep car engine fixes , and earnest anecdote can prove that God is " animated , " an inherently unprovable thing .

The gross problem withGod ’s Not Dead , and most other films made for and marketed at the " religion audience , " is that instead of work and challenge the vision of their audience in direction that would make their interview safe Christians , they shut down imagination and whisper sweet nothings into their ears instead .

God ’s Not Deadenlists an US Army of straw work force ( the evil atheist professor who will fail a student for reject to sign up a paper agreeing that God is dead , the evil atheist boyfriend who abandons his lady friend as presently as she denote her terminal illness , the evil Muslim father who kicks his girl out of the home for converting , the evil liberal lying in wait diarist with a bumper sticker on her car that reads " I love evolution " ) then burns them in effigy . The motion-picture show is n’t contented to merely win over our main antagonist , efficaciously forcing him to grovel before his 18 - twelvemonth - old student . It also Trot in adeus ex machinaandkills him off . ( Spoiler , sorry . )

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Pureflix/YouTube

I can look past characters created by writers who have only try about liberals and secularists on talk wireless . But every non - Christian character in the picture show , and so many others , " hates God " ( direct inverted comma ) . They believe or hope the Almighty has kicked the can , and do so for deeply personal reasons . They ’re all secretly miserable , every last one . I believe in the power of representation enough to know thatGod ’s Not Deadinsidiously shapes the imaginations of the audience , especially if their daily lives do n’t bring them into contact with the great unwashed who do n’t believe the room they do . And that ’s dependable for many ( and not just Christians ) .

Rarely do I even tell apart myself or my fellowship and friends in Christian pic characters . Left Behind , a trust - based film in which near all the Christian characters are weirdly limn as nutjobs , is a great example . And the God - fearing characters inGod ’s Not Deadseem like decent people , even ifDuck Dynasty ’s Willie and Korie Robertson co - champion in a dash of ill - conceived product placement . But I believe we ’re all in the same strange folk of misfits . Which is why I get twitchy with the " religion interview " designation . The entailment is that , if you ’re not in that consultation , you ’re … what ? The doubt audience ? The unbelief interview ?

No, I don’t want to fight a #FaithWar

I ’m not give way to text " God ’s not dead " to 10 friends proper NOW , specially since nobody , not even Nietzsche ( or even Lex Luthor ) is advise his corpse is in reality out there somewhere . I do n’t think receiving a schoolbook message about God ’s not - deadness constitutes meaningful photograph to God and Jesus . I ’ll have a conversation with a friend over coffee or beer about how faith and doubt go together , or do doubtfulness about my church service , indisputable . On the other script , justly NOW I might just text a ally and necessitate how they ’re doing . Or maybe today I ’ll just divvy up a picture of a sloth in a Stetson .

at last , what the increasingly profitable " religion film " industry auto wants to do is sell me an idea of what " assume a stand " for Jesuslookslike . That involves buying a ticket , share a Facebook meme , going to a concert , and texting a bastardisation of a late 19th - one C philosophic declaration about the bleak stipulation into which we humans have painted ourselves to 10 people RIGHT NOW . It ’s reason with your prof and being sure you ’re right . It ’s " supporting " a movie for its subject matter , and emphatically not knock it when it fails to be a good movie ( though when an atheist make a respectful but more or less fanciful film based on a Biblical story , take care out ) .

There’s great Christian entertainment, if you look

The part that leaves me furious , and why I ’m more frustrated with any bad Christian pic than the commercial manipulation of sour blockbuster likeBatman v SupermanorJurassic World , is that Christians live within a system of belief and recitation that is meant in the main to be a blessing to peopleoutsidethe church building walls . It is a canonical article of Christian belief that all people accept God ’s figure of speech . We are to exert the same unbounded imagination and creativeness that he does . Christians , ofallpeople , ought to push hard against people who attempt to sell a care - mongering , disjointed , politically driven interlingual rendition of Christianity , where the goal is for your team to win , to rise you ’re right .

And Christians ought toespeciallyvalue exploration and the true - seeking , wherever it ’s find . We ought to be making mythologic movies that elevate spiritual question : who are we ? Why are we ? Where did we follow from ? Where are we going ? What should we do while we ’re here ? And since Christians believe in God ’s very aliveness – since our divinity suggests that mass do n’t save others ' souls , God does – and since we do n’t have anything to misplace , we should n’t think we have to swoop in and reply the enquiry before the credit rating range .

Christians find parody in the sensitive because they have been . But sense caricature should n’t lead to more caricaturing . Instead , we require broader imaginations . In pursuit of better writing , we ask more depictions of complicated , interesting Christian reference in our medium like the ones we see onThe AmericansandJane the VirginandRectify , inCalvaryandSelma . We demand medium that explores difficult , complicated subject of opinion , likeMidnight SpecialandThe Leftovers . We need serious movies about Christian faith;Last mean solar day in the DesertandThe Innocents , both en route in 2016 , are terrific example .

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God ’s Not Dead 2comes out this Friday , and I ’ll be there . I ’ll walk into that theater of operations with all this baggage , and also with a huge sense of hope . One of these twenty-four hours , a movie is give-up the ghost to surprise me . But until then , I ’ll still be crucify . " Christian " should n’t mean " safe . " " Faith - based " should n’t mean " ham - fisted . " Audiences should n’t anticipate to leave the dramatic art comfortable . Movies should exchange our lives and flourish our imagery . If it just reinforces our prejudices and argumentation in the sand , then it ’s just a characteristic - distance informercial . And nobody , especially not America in 2016 , needs more of that .

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God’s Not Dead Challenge

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Last Days in the Desert

Last Days in the Desert | Broad Green Pictures