Theaters are full of secular movies where God’s name is mainly used as a curse. A few make room for some Christian movies, too—cinematic sermons made specifically to bolster belief (sometimes at the expense of the actual movie). There’s not a lot of room left, it seems, for movies that show the sort of faith that looks familiar to most of us—a faith that’s not particularly showy or splashy or supernatural, but one that nevertheless is with us every day,... Read more
Disney movies are rarely explicitly spiritual. Though Disney was a practicing Protestant and spoke often about his own personal faith, he mostly kept religion out of his work—with one huge exception. Fantasia, which officially turned 75 today, includes one of the most overtly religious expressions in all of the Disney canon—the still shocking, still moving “Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria” sequence that puts an exclamation point on the film. Looking back, it’s a little crazy how un-Disney the segment feels.... Read more
“Everything in your life is public. There are no secrets. Everything you say, everything you do, everyplace (sic) you go, every thought you think is going to be known by all.” Ted Haggard—one-time pastor of Colorado Springs’ massive New Life Church, one-time president of the National Association of Evangelicals—wrote that in his book Letters from Home. Those words proved sadly prophetic: In 2006, a male prostitute came forward, alleging that he and Haggard had had sex and used methamphetamines. Haggard—one... Read more
The United States is growing more secular. According to data released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center, only 63 percent of Americans are “absolutely certain” that God exists, down from the 71 percent who said so in 2007. Nearly a quarter of the U.S. population (23 percent) now reports having no religious preference—up from 16 percent just seven years earlier. Skepticism is particularly strong in Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996), with just four in 10 young... Read more
God loves James Bond. Well, OK, He loves all of us. But in spite of Bond’s killing, womanizing, martini-swilling ways, God must really dig 007. I mean, given the guy’s longevity in perhaps the world’s most dangerous career, supernatural grace might be the most logical conclusion we can come to. For 26 films (including Spectre, released today), Bond has dodged bullets, knives, explosives, lasers, poisonous spiders and angry attack sharks. And while much of his survivability could be attributed to... Read more
The Walking Dead has always been more about the good and evil inside the living than the horror of zombies. Sure, while every survivor in AMC’s hit show must battle and terminate his share of Walkers, the real tension we find in this weekly splatterfest is in the hearts, minds and souls of those survivors. What they must do, and what black deeds they feel they have to commit, to survive. This can make for a pretty bleak hour of... Read more
Science and religion are sometimes portrayed as mortal enemies—worldviews that are completely incompatible with one another. This portrayal has always driven me a little crazy. I believe it’s perfectly rational to believe in God and still honor science: You need not always pit Billy Graham and Stephen Hawking in some eternal cage match. I’m not alone in this. Granted, when the Pew Research Center recently asked Americans whether science and religion are often in conflict, nearly six in 10 said... Read more
In Universal Pictures Steve Jobs, we meet a brilliant, flawed protagonist—a man who demanded his gadgets be friendly and intuitive even though he (according to the film) was neither. Michael Fassbender may well get nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Jobs, and it may seem odd that Universal rolled it wide the weekend before Halloween, the same time when frightflicks like The Last Witch Hunter and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension are trying to scare up some cash.... Read more
War Room is this year’s Christian smash. Its core evangelical audience has helped the Kendrick Brothers film make $67 million, and it’s not done yet. But while War Room is unquestionably 2015’s most successful Christian movie, it’s not the best. If I was voting, that honor would go to Room—a small, searing, R-rated film that’s earned all of $400,000 so far and on the surface doesn’t seem Christian at all. Certainly Room’s pedigree is, by conservative Christian standards, suspect. It’s... Read more
I have a soft spot in my heart (and possibly on the brain) for bad movies. If there’s anything I like more than a good movie, it’s an awful one. And this may be a good thing, given my line of work. While I believe Christian movies are getting better, and sometimes they’re even pretty good, some of them are … well, not. But would it surprise you to learn that Plan 9 From Outer Space—considered by many to be the worst movie ever—is... Read more
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