{"id":18897,"date":"2012-10-10T16:42:55","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T23:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=18897"},"modified":"2014-05-28T09:25:18","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T16:25:18","slug":"kevin-miller-questions-the-existence-of-hell-in-hellbound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2012\/10\/kevin-miller-questions-the-existence-of-hell-in-hellbound.html","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Miller questions the existence of hell in Hellbound?<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Kevin Miller is no stranger to controversy. The Abbotsford-based writer, who has worked on a number of documentaries (as well as an independent feature or two), butted heads with atheists and evolutionary scientists four years ago as one of the cowriters of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed<\/a><\/em>, a locally produced film starring Ben Stein<\/a> that advocated a form of creationism known as \u201cintelligent design\u201d.<\/p>\n

Expelled<\/em> was celebrated by many figures on the right, but some of Miller\u2019s subsequent films have fallen on very different points of the political and religious spectrums. With God on Our Side<\/a><\/em>, for example, tackled Christian Zionism, and now Miller\u2019s directorial debut, Hellbound?<\/a><\/em> \u2014 which opens locally on Friday (October 12) \u2014 questions whether or not belief in hell is really all that necessary, even for Christians.<\/p>\n

Although the film is sympathetic to those who question the existence of hell \u2014 indeed, it was recently panned by the evangelical newsmagazine Christianity Today<\/em> for failing to affirm said existence \u2014 the film also allows for those who insist that if there really is an afterlife, then people like Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden must have gone somewhere other than heaven when they died.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the notion of hell taps into a universal sense that there are bad things that happen in the world, many of which we are incapable of making right,\u201d Miller says by phone, \u201cand so we intuitively think that if there is a God, he damn well better make things right. Because if he doesn\u2019t, then we live in an unjust universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem, says Miller, is that belief in a place of eternal torment can affect how people think of the God who sends people there \u2014 and this, in turn, can have consequences for this world and the people who live in it. \u201cOur beliefs about hell are a reflection of who we believe God to be. And if we believe that God is, in the end, retributive and violent, and that is how he will solve his problems, it\u2019s no surprise that we live in a world where violence tends to be the last word. Because that\u2019s what we believe God\u2019s last word will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to a fairly broad range of Christian interviewees \u2014 ranging from self-styled exorcist Bob Larson to \u201cemerging church\u201d leader Brian McLaren (who recently caused a stir by participating in a same-sex wedding ceremony for his gay son) \u2014 Miller also interviews a handful of non-Christians, including screenwriting guru Robert McKee and some of the attendees at Copenhell, a heavy-metal festival in Denmark.<\/p>\n

Miller toyed with interviewing non-Christian religious leaders as well, but decided against it because \u201cit started to feel too much like a History Channel special\u201d. Instead, he decided to focus on a growing controversy within evangelical Christian circles \u2014 epitomized by the furor last year over Rob Bell\u2019s book Love Wins<\/i> \u2014 in which belief in hell has been treated as a sort of \u201clitmus test\u201d to determine who is in or out of the group.<\/p>\n

Miller himself resists coming down firmly on one side or the other of that debate, though. \u201cIf this film does take a position,\u201d he says, \u201cI think the strongest position it takes is that the most important thing is how we live today and that if your views are leading you to a place in your life that isn\u2019t good, you might want to go reexamine your views.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 A version of this article was first published in <\/i>The Georgia Straight.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Miller is no stranger to controversy. The Abbotsford-based writer, who has worked on a number of documentaries (as well as an independent feature or two), butted heads with atheists and evolutionary scientists four years ago as one of the cowriters of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a locally produced film starring Ben Stein that advocated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2275],"tags":[2277,2276,2278,230,229,2274,2279],"class_list":["post-18897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-georgia-straight","tag-bob-larson","tag-brian-mclaren","tag-expelled","tag-hellbound","tag-kevin-miller","tag-rob-bell","tag-robert-mckee"],"yoast_head":"\nKevin Miller questions the existence of hell in Hellbound?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kevin Miller is no stranger to controversy. 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