The new
movie, God’s Not Dead, will be
applauded by many Christians and absolutely hated by some Christians, many
agnostics, and most atheists. That in
and of itself doesn’t really say anything about the quality of the movie, but
more about the fractured nature of modern American politics and culture. I was hoping that this movie would portray
Christians more as we are, flawed but forgiven, and the issues surrounding
belief with more depth as the direction we are going in life, not just a moment’s
decision. That really wasn’t the case,
but I sympathize with the difficulty of making such emotional and intellectual decisions
of faith into a film’s format and actually having it come off as genuine.
The premise
of the movie itself reflects one of the deepest fears of Evangelical Christians,
namely the institutions of higher education in America. There is good reason to be wary of the
education offered by some institutions, it isn’t intended to be from a
Christian perspective, nor is it intended to be a place that teaches Christian
morality. This fear of what will happen
to Christian teens when they go away to college reflects more upon the Church,
however, than the colleges. Christian
parents worry what will happen when their child is taught something they wouldn’t
approve of by a professor who has a pluralistic agenda {as all professors and
teachers do, an agenda is natural}. One
of the biggest reasons why this fear continues to pervade the modern Church is
that too many churches only teach children what to do and what not to do
without teaching them how to think in a God honoring way. A list of rules is not the way to teach a
child how to experience the love of God in his/her life.
When a
kid is two or three the answers are simple, but as they grow and mature we need
to take their intellect seriously and actually teach them how to read and
understand the Bible, how to deal with complicated and difficult social issues,
and how to resist the temptation to join in on the short-sighted, pleasure
based, culture of college campuses. The
real danger to a young, and not very worldly wise, Christian teen is not the
college professor, it’s the rest of the people sharing his/her dorm. That is, if they’ve been told, “don’t drink,
don’t have sex” without anything to go with it that shows them the truth that
God has a larger purpose and plan for their lives, that the choices we make
today have consequences that echo though our lives, and that God wants what is
best for us, not just to take away all the “fun” that they’re being offered.
Taking
the moral issues faced by our congregations seriously starts from the top
down. Sermons on Sunday morning need to
digest the Word of God, not be just a time for telling stories or sharing
platitudes. We, as pastors, need to
demonstrate that we take the Word of God seriously. We ponder it, we wrestle with it, we admit
when we don’t understand it. We need to
show that being a good Christian is far more about living a life of justice,
love, and mercy than it is about how we dress, what music we listen to, or
which Bible we read. We need to show our
own vulnerability, let our people know that their shepherd struggles to be a
man of God {the pastor in the film did reflect this}, but also that we have
more to offer to them when they’re struggling than simply quoting back
Scripture to them {sadly, that’s mainly what the pastor in the movie did}.
Is God’s Not Dead a good movie?
The movie is ok, but I long for a movie that portrays Christians with
more realism than idealism, the issues we face in life with more candor than
quotations. The Christians are still too
one dimensional and the non-believers equally so. Is God’s
Not Dead a good Christian
movie? Once again, it’s ok, but the
writers are still having the characters speak lines for the audience to hear
consisting of full-fledged theological statements rather than realistic
dialogue you or I would actually say. The
best example of this is the climactic scene: If I saw someone I didn’t know hit
by a car, I’d certainly rush to his/her side, I’d try to comfort them while
awaiting the paramedics, and if I thought they were dying I’d ask him/her if
they’d found forgiveness from God, I’d ask him/her if they wanted to trust in
Jesus, I just wouldn’t ask them so dramatically if they are willing to accept Jesus
Christ “as Lord and Savior”. It isn’t a
formula that we have to follow, it’s a commitment to repent and change. God already knows the sinner’s heart; he
doesn’t need me to make sure they get the words exactly right, it was enough
for the thief on the cross to ask Jesus “remember me when you come into your
kingdom.” God’s Not Dead is a step in the right direction, better than
earlier Christian movies, but it still lacks some of the realism that would
really engage both the minds and hearts of believers and non-believers alike.
