By Anthony:
I recently watched "God's Not Dead" while were
were still in the US. I had to see what
all the talk was about. I have Christian
friends who aren't even willing to watch it, and other Christian friends who
absolutely loved it. I have to say that
it pleasantly surprised me, but I have some serious criticisms as well. I think if you have been against watching it,
you should watch it, so you can see how far Christian movies have come.
The theme of religious intolerance on campuses is surely a
huge thing right now, and this movie was timely in that sense. Free speech and belief is under attack. I'm glad that Christians, like those who made
this movie, are coming together to address this important issue. However, the setup of the movie seemed
unrealistic, that a teacher would make students write down "God is
dead" on paper. This seems like an
unfair caricature. It would have been
better to use a real life example (as far as I've been able to research, I
can't find that this actually happened anywhere).
Christian movies have come a long way. I thought both the filming and the acting
were great. Some scenes were very
moving.
I appreciated that it was not as simplistic as I predicted
it would be. I didn't expect this
mainstream Christian movie to be talking about Richard Dawkins, Stephen
Hawking, and John Lennox for example. I
appreciated that they were willing to draw on Christian scholars outside of
mainstream evangelicalism and even outside of the US. And while it's unlikely a freshman college
student would beat a philosophy professor in such a debate in real life, it was
nice to see that they had him studying constantly. The student wasn't taking this task
simply. He was studying and reading so
many books that he was in danger of failing his other courses.
I also appreciated that the American pastor was learning
good things from a visiting pastor from overseas. We need to do more of that!
But the biggest criticism I have of the movie is that the
non-Christians are portrayed unrealistically negatively. This is upsetting and makes me not want to
support movies like this. We can get
across the beauty of conversion to Christ without making non-Christians all
look like they are abusive, uncaring, and arrogant. The non-Christians in my life generally don't
act like this. I couldn't relate to it,
and I was offended by it. It's basically
a straw-man. Of course we'd all want to
be Christians if Christians are loving and everyone else is an egotistical
jerk. But that's not the reality. The reality is that people will want to
accept Christ because he is real, he is Lord, and for the forgiveness of
sins. Of course, a part of our witness
is our character, our love, and being a light to the world. But the non-Christians' flaws were over the
top.
I also didn't appreciate the gimmick of evangelism it was
promoting. Evangelism involves more than
texting people that "God's not dead."
Our job is to personally share the good news, not spam out text
messages.
But all in all, I can
see both why people appreciate it and why some people don't. Because I was able to see both sides
perspectives' I found it interesting to watch.
I think that God has used this movie to do a lot of good in people's
lives. Watching it can give people
courage to share their faith, give people willingness to suffer in our walk
with Christ, and willingness to deeply study theology, philosophy, and science.
Thanks for the review. This is a movie I have been wanting to watch for quite some time. I actually have it at home, and have had for months, just haven't watched it yet. Would you say it was appropriate for kids to watch?
ReplyDeleteI don't think the movie is really for kids. There might be some adult themes but in addition they just wouldn't understand it. So I wouldn't recommend it unless the kids were like high school age.
ReplyDeleteI had the same reaction to the negative portrayal of unbelievers - not at all realistic
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