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
There’s a box in front of you—about the size of a shoebox, black and plain, the lid hinged with brass fixtures and fastened with a huge, ornate lock. The key that fits that lock is within reach—on the table, just beside your right hand. It, like the lock, is big and heavy, the shaft carved with deep runes and strange symbols. A tag—a plain, paper tag—is attached to the key with a simple string. “DO NOT USE!” it says in... Read more
Christian movies can be difficult for secular audiences to embrace. Sometimes it’s because of the acting or writing. They can feel amateurish and overwrought or just way too preachy. But there are times that, even when most of the aesthetic pieces are there, they’re a hard sell for general moviegoers. Why? Because, simply put, the stories can feel just too good to be true—even if they are true. Which brings us to Woodlawn—a fine piece of Christian craftsmanship that, in... Read more
Frankenstein, the 1931 classic Universal monster movie, probably doesn’t have the oomph to terrify folks like it did back in the day. Most horror movies base their effectiveness on the fear of the unknown, and after 84 years, this flick is hardly that. Boris Karloff’s classic look as “the Monster” is so much a part of the culture that most 4-year-olds know what “Frankenstein” looks like. But even though the first site of the Monster isn’t enough to cause hardened... Read more
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