The Art of Godliness, Episode 8: Entertainment

Today I’ve got a new episode of The Art of Godliness for you to listen to. Through this episode (and all the others before and after it) Paul and I hope to provoke you obey God in leading a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This time we focus our thoughts and conversation on entertainment, and especially the entertainment Christians enjoy through pop culture. We hope you find it helpful! Recommended Reading “I Don’t Understand Christians Watching …

Calvinist

In some ways it seems like the New Calvinism has been around for a very long time. In other ways, it seems like it’s still a brand new thing. Whatever the case, it has lasted enough now that people are beginning to trace its roots, evaluate its accomplishments, and project its future. While this has mostly been done through books, blogs, and magazines, Les Lanphere has chosen to do it through film. His crowd-funded documentary Calvinist has just been released …

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Why I Won’t Be Seeing (or Reviewing) The Shack Movie

The day The Shack sold its hundred thousandth copy, it became likely there would be a movie adaption. The day it sold its millionth, it became practically guaranteed. And, sure enough, it comes to theaters March 3, starring Sam Worthington, Octavia Spencer, and Tim McGraw. For some time, I have been considering whether I should see and review it. I am quite sure that watching and reviewing The Shack would prove to be a wise business decision. I could get …

Sex on the Silver Screen – Outsourcing Depravity

I once read a memoir by a man who, as a teen, had been a Shabbos goy. A Shabbos goy is a non-Jew who performs some of the Sabbath-day functions that that are forbidden to the devout. Traditionally, a Shabbos goy would extinguish candles and lights, or he would stoke up a fire on a cold Sabbath morning, all actions considered work by strict interpretations of Jewish law. But since those regulations pertain only to Jews, some would hire Gentiles as a means of circumventing the law. The primary task of this young man was to sit in an elevator and push the buttons. Pushing buttons involves closing an electrical circuit and this was considered a violation of the Sabbath within that community. They outsourced the work to him.

October Baby and the Challenge of Christian Film

Hannah is in college when she receives the shocking news her parents hadn’t ever shared with her—she is adopted. Not only is she adopted, but she is the survivor of a failed abortion. Angry, confused and upset, she turns to her oldest friend Jason to help her through this difficult time. Along with his friends she embarks on a Spring Break road trip that leads her to go looking for her roots. That’s the plot of October Baby, a feature …

Divided the Movie

Your church is heavily influenced by evolutionary thinking. It is founded on principles created by pagans and for pagans. You have succumbed to hellish thinking and imposed it upon your church. At least this is the case if your church has a nursery or a Sunday school or any other kind of program that involves dividing people by age. That is the rather audacious claim of Divided, a documentary that is being heavily promoted by the National Center for Family Integrated …

The Most Grotesque Ugliness Imaginable

There are many who consider Janet Leigh’s murder in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to be the most terrifying scene in the history of film. The setting, the mood, the music and the camera work combine to create a scene of absolute terror. Her screams were impressed upon the memories of many who watched her macabre death on the silver screen. Since 1960, when the film was produced there have been tens of thousands of horror films made, but in the minds …

Movie Review – Fireproof

Kirk Cameron totally stood me up. “Come to a screening of my new movie,” he says. “I’ll be there and it would be fun to meet up.” So off I went yesterday, along with Aileen and our friends Julian and Stacey (yes, I think all of my friends have their own blogs), to attend a pre-screening of Fireproof in Buffalo, New York. But conspicuously absent was Kirk. He was a no-show. It hurt. (Though shortly after the movie ended, while …

Pictures Aren’t Words

Yesterday the Resurgence blog posted an article by Greg Wright, a writer and film critic. The article was titled “Movies, Morality, and Ratings: A Hard Look at Our Opinion of Films.” He begins like this: Consider this graphic Hollywood plotline: A man travels to Las Vegas to retrieve his cheating wife. On the way back to Los Angeles, the two stop at a rundown motel in Death Valley. During the night, a mob of sexual degenerates surrounds their cabin, threatening …

Evan Almighty

A week from today, the movie Evan Almighty will hit theaters across the continent. A projected summer blockbuster, it is the sequel to 2003’s hit comedy Bruce Almighty which starred Jim Carrey and pulled in over $200,000,000 at the box office. Evan Almighty is, I believe, the most expensive comedy ever made with a budget said to exceed $175,000,000. Clearly the studios are expecting it to be as successful as its predecessor. I did not see Bruce Almighty. It struck …