Analyzing Christianity
God’s Club: Being Genuinely Helpful vs. Being Christianly Helpful.
If we really want to help people, then we need to do something that the Christians of God’s Club simply can’t do.
Analyzing Christianity
God’s Club: They’re Just Trying to Be Nice!
Last time we talked about the Oncoming Bus Gambit–that popular Christian thought experiment–because the movie God’s Club is built around this trope. The story centers around the efforts of protagonist schoolteacher Michael Evans to proselytize kids at his public school, the pushback he receives as a result of his “help,” and how he overcomes this persecution.
Analyzing Christianity
Persecution Complex: God’s Club and the “Religious Liberty” Scam
The central idea in the Christian movie God’s Club, which we reviewed recently and have been discussing off and on, is a very common talking point believed by right-wing Christians all over America: that they are facing unprecedented levels of persecution in this country, and thus are in great danger of losing their religious liberty–and from there getting imprisoned and even executed for their beliefs. Non-Christians may well feel baffled about why so many Christians cling to this idea as hard as they do–and why they seem to genuinely think that they are in real danger.
Analyzing Christianity
“God’s Club” Shows Us the Disconnect Between Christian-Land and Reality-Land
I’d be hard-pressed to point to a more glaring illustration of that discrepancy than the disgraceful spectacle of Christians making movies presenting themselves as they really truly believe they are–while remaining completely (and, one increasingly suspects, willfully) oblivious to how others see them.
Analyzing Christianity
God’s Club: Why Fundagelical Movies Create Such Polarized Opinions.
I’ve been doing reviews of Christian movies for a while now. And unsurprisingly, I have been uniformly unimpressed because Christian media is uniformly awful. But to hear Christians themselves talk about “their” movies, these are all masterpieces. Epics. Perhaps marginally flawed here and there, but essentially wonderful. Everyone else is left to wonder if they’re even seeing the same movies these Christians are praising. I’m not surprised at all to see this lopsided reception.
Analyzing Christianity
God’s Club: The Mega-Review
I just noticed a movie pop up on my Netflix thing that sounded so ludicrous that I had to run a review on it as soon as I could. The movie is God’s Club.
Analyzing Christianity
Checking All the Boxes of a Not-Pology In TGC’s Scandal.
In its scant 140-ish characters, this carefully-crafted, polished tweet manages to check off just about every single item on the list of features of a perfect Christian not-pology.
Analyzing Christianity
Love Sonnets from the Christianese
Christians’ coded communication can backfire around someone who knows what it means. I touched on this idea a little in a previous post by offering up translations for common Christian offenses against non-Christians, but today we’ll go into some more detail. We’ll be doing something a little different, though. We’ll be talking about why this language is used, not just what it means.
Analyzing Christianity
The Rapture Didn’t Happen in Tim LaHaye’s Lifetime After All
Tim LaHaye, co-author of Left Behind and general Christian reality-denier, has just died at the age of 90. Thus ends a career marked by denial, grandiose ideas, wish-fulfillment, and Endtimes fantasizing–and one that led its owner into positions of great influence.
Analyzing Christianity
A Match Made in Hell for People to Be “Loved.”
Preston Sprinkle, in his book People to Be Loved, expresses some truly atrocious ideas. Arguably the most offensive of the lot is his suggestion that gay people should marry straight people. Today I’ll show you why he thinks that’d be a great idea, and why he’s wrong.