Apologetics and Reel Theology

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:13-17 ESV)

Yea verily, I have passed my Greek final and will begin my one-year Alternate Route program in just over two weeks! Woo-hoo!!

The Church-State DMZ: The oily, atheist prosecuting attorney neglected to ask the judge
about the Bible on the bench next to his gavel... (scene still from God's Not Dead 2)

Last night my wife and I watched God's Not Dead 2, the second in the franchise from Pure Flix Entertainment, the Christian film production company run by David A.R. White aka Pastor Dave in both films. And the second to feature music and a cameo or two from the Christian rock band Newsboys (and who doesn't love the Newsboys?). The first iteration didn't do much for me-- I found it to be a contrived feel-good, spiritually uplifting, but theologically strained film that was quickly mass-marketed as a non-denominational church sermon series and Sunday school study. One of my favorite Christian songs is the Newsboys' confessional We Believe (and they crank it up in the first film...).

The second film was much like the first, in my opinion, and I may not have even paid any attention to it had it not had this premise that piqued my curiosity as a Christian and a (now ex-)high school teacher. Here's a synopsis (from Reel World Theology): God’s Not Dead 2 largely trades on an interaction between Brooke (Hayley Orrantia), a spiritually-seeking, public high school student and her Christian teacher, Grace (Melissa Joan Hart), over whether the words of Jesus are similar to the ideas of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. In order to answer the question with some clarity Grace decides to quote the book of Matthew in a rather innocent fashion; that is, she doesn’t proselytize, she simply answers Brooke’s question. Word gets back to Grace’s administrative superiors and she is suspended for having “preached” in class. One thing leads to another and the ACLU decides to prosecute Grace in public court. The rest of the film tracks how the case plays out.

My concern about these types of movies, and this franchise, in particular, is twofold-- first, who are they meant for?, and who will pay to see them? If the answers are the unchurched and mostly Christians (rather than a broken world and movie-goers of all kinds), then I have to wonder at the point(s)... So, then, you are thinking (I know), why do I bother to watch them? Good unasked question!

I am fascinated (seriously, in a Mr. Spock way) by what people (will) believe or won't believe. What drives them into a church pew? Or to seek God (or a "higher power")? Are we just a herd of sheep doing whatever popular culture tells us we should be doing? THIS is why I will bring myself to watch these kinds of Christian devil'sgonnagetcha types of films.

The Center for Public Education website provides a little insight into the back story of God's Not Dead 2 (my underlining): Increasingly, public school leaders describe being seized by a powerful vise grip. On one side: local and national religious organizations that push, then sue if they believe religion is being denied. On the other: civil liberties groups, equally aggressive and equally willing to use federal courts to thwart coziness between religion and school practices. These types of cases have been around for decades, but as the United States has become increasingly polarized along religious lines, disputes and subsequent lawsuits over religion in the schools have drawn widespread attention on a local, state, and national level. The following examples show what that tightrope looks like on a day-to-day basis.

OK: Teaching about the Bible, the Torah, or other sacred texts and their influence on human behavior. No one denies that religion has strongly motivated behavior in the United States and around the world. Acknowledging that fact in the curriculum does not raise First Amendment concerns.
Wrong: Teaching sacred documents with devotion or as singular truth. It crosses the line when a teacher or school district portrays one religion or religion in general as the preferred belief.

So in this movie, an AP History teacher answered a student's question about a comparison of MLKJr's preaching of non-violence to Jesus' preaching the same. In her reply, she cited a verse or two from Matthew's Gospel, but nothing in her answer could have been called proselytizing in even the most legalistic sense. So she was hauled before a disciplinary board, urged to confess that she was wielding her faith before malleable young minds (very 1692 Salem), then given an ultimatum, after which the rest of the story played out in a courtroom. Could this really happen in this country in the 21st century? I think so, albeit not so much like this (speaking as a high school teacher for 15 years-- see my post The government continues to weed God from the garden...).

What grinds me most about this portrayal of what could very well be a real-life event in a time when everyone is a victim, even a victim of religion, is that there are basically two types of people in the world where this scenario unfolds-- haters (blatantly bitter atheists, mostly; were I one, I'd have been offended at how they were portrayed!) and non-denominational (Baptist-y) Christians. It was one eschatological face-off after another between the sheep and goats (see Matthew 25:31–46).

The church-state issues are very, very real; yet this story seemed to have more of a Soviet-era persecution aftertaste, rather than mirroring a headline from a country that prides itself on freedom of religion, speech, and lifestyle. And like with the first film, the synergistic theology, that one must "invite" Jesus into one's heart in order to be saved, made me flinch a few times. The teacher at one point is so distraught that she pleads with God not to forsake her (God assures and reassures us in His Word that he will never forsake us). Pat Boone's character, the teacher's aging father, in trying to assuage her fear that God has forsaken her, tells her that as an educator she should know that the teacher is always quiet during a test (leading folks watching the movie to perhaps believe that God presents us with obstacles and then disappears behind the curtain...). In another scene, Pastor Dave has been subpoenaed to turn over 180 days' worth of sermons for scrutiny by the government; what could/should have been an MLKJr-esque (or, better, Bonhoeffer-esque) moment, just fizzled. And, lastly, and most ironically, was the Bible on the judge's bench.

There was, however, some very good acting-- in particular, Paul Kwo's role as the Chinese exchange student and Jesse Metcalf as the young lawyer who defends the teacher (near the end, his diatribe in the courtroom directed at the teacher on the stand was nearly Atticus Finch-like-- you'll have to see it for yourself...like that bear scene in The Revenant). In the end, common sense and human reason win out in this (again) theologically strained tale (well, we, the Christians who watch movies like this, know that God always wins). I don't know that I could, in good faith, recommend this film (or its begetter) to a non-believer.

There was plenty of room for some great apologies (defending one's beliefs) in God's Not Dead 2, and Pastor Dave early on even quoted 1 Peter 3:15 ("[be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you"), but, alas, there was very little (aside from authors Lee Strobel and Jim Wallace playing themselves on the witness stand). Until somebody can produce a movie on par with the likes of The Exorcist (overly Catholic and frightening to some, but a great movie about faith that drew crowds from all demographics), one that pokes at the very soul of the lost (not the "hater" like in GND2) in the audience, one that truly speaks to the conscious of the transgressor, one that testifies that God's grace, mercy, and love are the hope for a world gone bad...until a film like that comes out, movies like this one will continue to preach to the sheep...

The goats are getting their theology elsewhere.

So, TGIF! I'm done with Greek! And God's not dead...He's surely alive!!

С Богом, ya'll.

P.S. The lawyer's comment in GND2 to the person who let out a "God bless you!" when someone on the jury sneezed was flippant, but so true...