11/9/2022 0 Comments Gods not dead 2 theaters![]() ![]() It’s up to Reverend Dave and his estranged lawyer brother (John Corbett, embodying the token atheist who comes to realize that he was in the wrong) to fight the good fight, recognize that “Jesus was the ultimate social justice warrior,” and prove that God’s not… you know. Exercising eminent domain, they threaten to demolish the church. Things only go from bad to worse when the university recognizes the disaster as a golden opportunity to cleanse its campus of those pesky bible-thumpers once and for all, as Hadley - once a Christian institution before it was purchased by the state- now regards its last remaining house of worship as nothing but a lightning rod for controversy. Nevertheless, the incident is assumed to be a hate crime, even though it would be the first time in the history of the United States that a church was burned down for that reason. ![]() Manning), who vandalized the church in anger after his girlfriend, Keaton (Samantha Boscarino), essentially dumped him for Jesus. ![]() We soon learn via flashback that the inadvertent perpetrator of the fire was a faithless undergrad named Adam (Mike C. Rookie writer-director Michael Mason is completely lost when it comes to areligious small talk, so most of the chatter between these two men involves waffles, and how much they want some.Īlas, the good Reverend Jude is not long for this world, as an unidentified assailant throws a brick through a church window, which pierces a gas main, which explodes when the immigrant minister pulls on a bulb in the basement (a light in darkness, if you will). Onyango), and drops by the church they share on the campus of the fictional Hadley University. Anyway, Reverend Dave gets out of the clink, meets up with his old Ghanian friend Reverend Jude (Benjamin A. Well, all who are willing to accept that diversity is vaguely satanic, and that NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch (playing herself in an interview segment) is a voice of reason. Reverend Dave is hardly the only recurring character here, but “A Light in Darkness” isn’t inaccessible to newcomers - all are welcome here. A supporting player in previous episodes, he’s the blandest and most benign hero this series has ever had, which makes him a natural choice for the blandest and most benign movie this series has ever produced. White, Reverend Dave is something of a cross between Joel Osteen and Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger, but with less blood-sucking charisma than the former and less raw Canadian songwriting power than the latter. Played by actor and Pure Flix co-founder David A.R. Picking up where 2016’s “God’s Not Dead 2” left off (God’s still not dead), and set in an alternate-reality Arkansas where a member of the clergy might be thrown in jail for refusing to share the text of his sermons with the government, “God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness” opens with the beloved Reverend Dave rotting in a prison cell, his signature goatee still perfectly intact. Fittingly enough, the third chapter of this hacky franchise begins with a pastor dying in a fire. So far as the God’s Not Dead Cinematic Universe is concerned, Christians are under constant attack, heathen liberals having grown so intolerant towards Jesus and his teachings that simply going to church on Sunday is enough to make someone feel like Joan of Arc. At a time when antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise and America is openly hostile towards its own Muslim community (to say nothing of the Trump administration’s dehumanizing attitude towards immigrants, people of color, and the LGBTQ population), “God’s Not Dead” contends that white Christians are the real victims here.Īccording to these movies, secularism has silenced them to the point where they can barely hear themselves think - to the point where they believe that everyone else’s progress comes directly at their expense. These movies are fundamentalist propaganda aimed at people who are convinced their religion is under attack in this country just because it doesn’t exempt them from the Constitution. ![]() Whereas other recent offerings like “Heaven Is for Real” and last week’s “I Can Only Imagine” are largely harmless in how they preach to the choir and prostrate themselves before Evangelical audiences, Pure Flix’s “God’s Not Dead” saga has been defined by a persecution complex large enough to crucify Christ the Redeemer. Essentially the “Why We Fight” series for The War on Christmas, the “God’s Not Dead” franchise has - with its first two installments - asserted itself as the chintziest and most intellectually counterfeit branch of the lucrative faith-based film wave that it’s helped to define. ![]()
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