Since before its release, I’ve been hearing about a little movie called “God’s Not Dead.” It has a 16% rating with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but a 78% rating with audience members—presumably Christian audience members. That is the same audience that turned a profit for the 2-million-dollar film with a 60-million-dollar box office, leading to a sequel that will be arriving next year. (It will release on April Fool’s Day, continuing the original film’s tradition of unintended irony.)
I knew enough about the film to know that the antagonist is an atheist professor, played by Kevin Sorbo. As an atheist professor myself, I wondered how my “kind” were being represented. I decided to satisfy my curiosity and give the film a watch. I also decided to satisfy your curiosity by recording my thoughts along the way.
The following should read like a “Cliff’s Notes” version of the film, with commentary. I hope that I have captured the core experience of enduring – sorry, watching – “God’s Not Dead.”
Okay, at least it’s well-produced.
Uh-oh! Am I watching the wrong movie?
Shew. That’s better.
The film is showing an array of characters at this point, but it hasn’t really introduced them yet.
The main character, Josh Wheaton, is immediately likeable, so the movie gets props for casting.
He’s arriving at college and the advisor encourages him to switch to a different philosophy class. Apparently, this professor has a bad reputation with Christian students.
Who would want an “I Heart Evolution” bumper sticker? Are there actual people who would want that?
At least they’re representing humanists along with atheists, though.
We just learned that the humanist is an ambush reporter.
Here we see the film’s token atheist eating a baby.
Just kidding. Actually, this scene was sweet and well done. (The old lady is senile and her daughter is visiting. We just learned that the daughter’s lack of a wedding ring is “complicated.”)
Enter the atheist!
This introductory scene was mildly funny and even made him slightly likable.
I'm pretty sure that kid in the back is not of college age.
Anyway, Professor Sorbo declares that the God debate is basically settled and doesn’t want to waste time on it in class, so he’s asking every student to write “God is dead” on a piece of paper and sign it. The idea is to get that debate out of the way so they can move on to other things. (But he’s tying it to their grades for leverage, which is clearly unethical.)
It would have been more appropriate if he had asked them to sign a “skepticism pledge” or something similar, promising to leave their preconceived notions at the door to enable an open discussion of philosophy. However, that wouldn’t have given the movie a catchy title or created an interesting conflict, so I’m willing to let it slide.
On the bright side, he mentioned that he was using the phrase “God is dead” metaphorically and said that he viewed God as a myth which primitive humanity used to explain things it didn’t understand. It’s nice that he’s not playing into the Christian narrative that atheists are just angry at a god they secretly believe in—at least not yet.
Of course, Josh wouldn’t sign the “God is dead” claim, so now they must fight! With words. In the next three classes. And Josh will have his grade unfairly damaged unless he does the impossible. Sorbo’s claim to the moral high ground is getting weaker.
(Yes, the teacher’s name is Jeffrey Radisson, but I’m just going to call him “Sorbo.”)
Side note: Sorbo just assigned Bertrand Russell’s “Why I Am Not a Christian” essay as a reading. I wonder how many Christians watching this movie actually bothered to read that essay.
Josh’s girlfriend is pretty controlling and doesn’t want him to do the debate. That doesn’t matter, though, because I’m pretty sure this cafeteria worker is going to hook up with Josh by the end of the movie. She hasn’t done any actual work during this scene of them talking.
Wow, the ambush reporter is ACTUALLY going to ambush this guy. At this point, I’m expecting her to jump out and yell, “Surprise!”
And yes, that’s the guy from Duck Dynasty.
Willie Robertson is a better actor than his wife.
Also, the reporter is getting annoying. She was snide for no reason when she asked him about Jesus, and she has this “shocked and horrified that you kill ducks even though I’m ambushing you because you kill ducks” thing going on. (See the “meat is murder” bumper sticker from earlier.)
Plus, she was going to do a hard-hitting interview, but she just stood there dumbly while he made general statements about life and Jesus.
This was an interesting scene. The Muslim father (who’s very gentle and sympathetic) says, “I know they look happy, but...” when describing all of the people at the school. Just before this, another girl told her, “You’re very beautiful. I wish you didn’t have to cover your face.”
I think that we, as the audience, are supposed to think it’s a shame that her religion is forcing her to be unhappy and repressed. Yet, from the outside, many would say the same thing about the Christian culture that’s producing this film.
In this scene, Josh goes to church and gets advice from Pastor Dave, who is – unsurprisingly – likeable. (This movie makes it very easy to tell who you’re supposed to like.)
The pastor lends a sympathetic ear and tells him to check out a few Bible verses, to which Josh replies, “That’s all? It can’t be that simple.” The pastor answers, “It’s not easy, but it’s simple.”
This echoes the Duck Dynasty guy from earlier when he said, “That’s it. That’s what we’re goin’ with. Pretty simple, idn’ it?” This movie has a strong underlying theme of taking religious matters at face value, which is ironic in a movie structured around philosophical debate.
Josh just texted the pastor to say he’s going through with the debate. The pastor texts back, “Don’t try to be clever. Be content to tell the truth.” Like a lot of things said in this movie, it’s a nice sentiment. They’re working really hard to resonate with your better nature and use that to earn your trust.
The ambush reporter just learned that she has cancer. I would make a joke about how she was ambushed by the news, but...
Okay, I just made that joke.
Yeah, this relationship definitely won’t last. She’s so selfish and bossy!
The guy on the right is Pastor Dave. The guy on the left is a missionary from another country visiting America. They had a big day of sightseeing planned, but now the car won’t start. However, the missionary is taking the news pretty well, because his level of likeability is so high that it dwarfs the likeability of all other likeable characters we have liked so far.
Ooh! Debate time! Josh starts out by acknowledging that no one can prove or disprove the existence of God. That’s fair.
Josh then quotes an atheist physicist, Steven Weinberg, in his description of the Big Bang, suggesting that it evokes the phrase, “Let there be light.” I’m not sure what that proves, but at least it means this movie isn’t from a Creationist perspective.
Here’s where things get sketchy. Josh points out that, for 2500 years, most scientists agreed that the universe had no beginning, while the Bible always said that it did. He ties this observation up with a bow by saying, “For 2500 years, the Bible had it right and science had it wrong.”
Hoo boy. That’s a very strong conclusion to draw from a single, cherry-picked comparison. Especially when you’ve just discarded the rest of the Biblical creation story by validating the Big Bang!
Sorbo looks worried. Josh continues, “In the real world, we never see things jumping into existence out of nothingness, but atheists want to make one small exception to this rule, namely the universe and everything in it."
Wow. Josh is appealing to everyday experience in the realm of physics, where everyday experience does not apply. He is also treating one particular attitude about the Big Bang as the attitude of all atheists.
Continuing to talk universal origins, Josh says, “Both the theist and the atheist are burdened with the same question of, how did things start?” (Okay, good point. Let’s see where he takes it.) “If you don’t allow for God, you’d be pretty hard-pressed to find any credible alternative explanation for how things came to be.” (D’oh!)
Sorbo fires back with a quote from Stephen Hawking, heavily emphasizing the fact that Stephen Hawking is respected in his field.
Josh is suggesting that it’s silly to believe “the universe came from nothing,” but he overlooks the fact that atheists don’t necessarily believe that. Sorbo is wasting his time arguing that the universe did come from nothing, but he should just be arguing that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions (like “God did it”).
Sorbo just grabbed Josh’s shoulder and said, “Do you think you’re smarter than me?” Then he made a bunch of arrogant threats about ruining Josh’s future if Josh embarrasses him.
No wonder he’s worried. He’s a philosophy teacher and he’s terrible at philosophy debates.
Now Josh’s childhood sweetheart is breaking up with him because of the debate. I can’t believe they lasted six years together, because she’s a controlling ass-monkey.
On the bright side, she is the only unlikeable person in this movie who’s not an atheist.
The Muslim girl just came home, closed her bedroom door, and fell asleep on her bed listening to (gasp) a Christian sermon. Her creepy brother enters her room without knocking (seriously, look at that creepy screenshot), apparently to steal her phone so he can play games.
She catches him, grabs him by the arm, and goes full-on Batman.
“Swear you won’t tell!” SWEAR TO ME!!
Oh yeah, Dean Cain is in this movie. I think his name is Mark. Is it Mark? Let’s go with Mark. (I just looked it up. It’s Marc. With a “c.”)
“Marc” is apparently dating the ambush reporter. (I should really learn their names.)
In this scene, he announces that he made partner at the firm, and she ruins his good mood by telling him that she has cancer. He reacts in a completely absurd way and breaks up with her. His behavior makes no sense, and it also makes him a total jerk. (More like “Mean Cain,” am I right?)
Josh encounters another student in the library, who asks him why he is doing the debates.
This is the scene that establishes how Josh’s testimony is working in his classmates’ hearts, or something. It delivers on a suggestion made by Pastor Dave earlier, when he said that most of those students would not set foot in church, putting Josh in a unique position to reach them.
Pastor Dave and the missionary waited until 5pm for a rental car, and now it won’t start either. I’m sure that “God is working in mysterious ways” somehow, so I’m curious to see where this is going.
Apparently the woman from earlier – the one visiting the old lady – is Marc’s sister, and she’s telling him to visit their senile mom. He responds, as before, with an almost inconceivable level of asshattery.
Oh, it looks like she’s Sorbo’s girlfriend. And her name is Mina. And she’s a former student of his. And their relationship started after she aced the midterm in his class. (Apparently, the writers felt that he hadn’t done enough unprofessional things yet.)
Their conversation just revealed that she’s a Christian and it’s causing friction in their relationship.
We’re back to the storyline with the car that won’t start. The rental guy brought another one and it has the same problem.
In this screenshot, Pastor Dave makes the face that I’ve been making throughout the movie.
Sorbo is throwing a dinner party for his academic friends. Unsurprisingly, they are also douchebags. Mina is acting like she’s a waitress.
The academic conversation turns to the God debate in Sorbo’s class and Mina timidly admits that she’s a Christian. Sorbo shuts her down politely, but condescendingly.
The Asian student is on the phone with his dad. He tested out of math (no stereotypes here), but he’s concerned about Sorbo’s class. His dad tells him to just believe whatever the professor believes.
Back to the dinner party. Mina left the wine in the car earlier today, and now it’s ruined. Instead of being polite, the guests put on their Gordon Ramsay hats and insult it in colorful ways.
Mina admits her mistake and Sorbo responds with a Greek quote that she doesn’t understand. A minute later, he explains: “Know your limitations.” Obviously, he loves her but doesn’t respect her.
Unsurprisingly, she refers to herself sarcastically as “the help” and leaves, while trying not to cry. I would feel bad for her if the whole situation hadn’t been so obviously contrived to victimize her.
The ambush reporter is in the hospital again, this time for an MRI.
So much emphasis was given to this sign that I thought she was going to blow up or something.
Back to the debate! Josh is responding to the Stephen Hawking quote from last time. Josh responds with a rebuttal from John Lennox, another smart guy, who declares that Hawking’s reasoning is circular.
The continuing focus on empty appeals-to-authority frustrates me. It strikes me as an attempt to suggest that scientists and/or atheists also derive their beliefs from “faith” in “holy writings.”
Josh gets a nice “burn” moment with this quote, also from Stephen Hawking. (If Sorbo thinks Hawking is right about everything, is he right when he says that Sorbo’s career is dead? BURN.)
The scene ends with this, and Sorbo is getting frustrated. So am I. Nothing of any substance was said in this portion of the debate. They just argued about whether Stephen Hawking is right all the time.
Mina’s meeting with Pastor Dave and she talks about her relationship with Sorbo. Dave says, “You’re looking for his approval to give you a sense of self-worth instead of generating it internally.” It sounds like he’s giving good advice, until...
“If God is incapable of mistakes, and he made you in his likeness and image, then it follows that he cares about you, right? To the wrong person, you’ll never have any worth. To the right person, you mean everything.”
In short, he says that she’s looking for Sorbo’s approval instead of generating her self-worth internally, and then he tells her to derive her self-worth from God’s love... instead of generating it internally.
Oh goodie! We’re on the topic of evolution now. This should be good.
Josh said, “Evolution only tells you what happens after you have life.” Then he emphasized that we don’t know where life came from in the first place. Both are valid points.
Josh mentions that life might have started in primordial ooze after a lightning strike, but says, “It’s just not that simple.” The statement is incredibly ironic because “it’s just that simple” is the message that this movie keeps trying to send about Christianity. (Recall Pastor Dave: “It’s not easy, but it’s simple.” Recall the Duck Dynasty guy: “That’s what we’re goin’ with. Pretty simple, idn’ it?”)
Josh quotes Darwin: “Nature does not jump.” Then he says something rather vague: “If you can picture the entire 3.8 billion years that scientists say life has been around . . . most major animal groups suddenly appear in the forms in which they currently hold, not slowly and steadily as Darwin predicted, but in evolutionary terms almost instantly.”
Rather than refuting (or even mentioning) the scientific explanation for this fact, he says, “How do theists explain this?” and then puts a Bible verse on the screen.
Josh concludes, “In other words, Creation happened because God said it should happen.”
Prove it, Josh. You’re not allowed to dismiss a scientific idea by saying, “It’s just not that simple,” and then act like the origin of life is THIS simple.
Cancer-ambush-humanist-reporter-girl (I still don’t know her name) is at the hospital again. The doctor asks if there is anybody that she’d like to have with her, and she realizes that she has no one.
Wow, Sorbo actually does the villain clap here.
Josh says, “It’s easy to dismiss what you don’t understand, or what you don’t want to understand.” Once again, the irony is incredible.
Sorbo’s still a jerk, but this scene is the most I’ve liked him since the beginning of the movie. He actually says a few things I support, for once. He starts by quoting the Bible at Josh, challenging the assumption that atheists just haven’t read it yet.
Instead of answering the content of Sorbo’s remarks, Josh responds to the tone of his remarks. He asks, “What happened to you?” We learn that Sorbo’s mother died of cancer when he was 12. He prayed for her to be spared, and she wasn’t, so now he’s jaded.
When Josh dares to tell him, “Sometimes God says no,” Sorbo says, “Tell that to me the day that you lose someone you love. She died believing a lie. She died believing that someone out there loved her, even while he was strangling her to death. A god who would allow that is not worth believing in.”
Sorbo is more emotionally and rationally compelling here than Josh, but he’s playing into the Christian misconception that atheists are secretly angry at God (and/or emotionally damaged).
The Muslim girl’s father just learned that she’s been listening to Christian sermons. He was so gentle and sympathetic earlier in the movie, so I’m sure he’ll confront her with love. I look forward to hearing his wise words on the matter.
Holy shit!
After literally slapping her off of the bed, he follows her around the house, demanding she renounce Jesus. In one of the most painful line deliveries of the movie, she breathlessly exclaims, “No, Papa! Jesus is my Lord and Savior and he died to save me from MY sins!” Then she gets slapped again.
This painful line is followed by a painful sequence in which he physically throws her out of the house. He cries, she cries, her little brother cries, the dog cries (probably), and a female vocalist sings a soul ballad. Then he collapses on the staircase, wondering why he agreed to do this movie.
On the bright side, now atheists aren’t the only non-Christians being portrayed badly!
The Asian student is on the phone with his father again. He says, “There are many arguments in my class about God. They seem to make sense.” The father’s face captures my feelings.
Amy! Her name is Amy!
...But “cancer-ambush-humanist-reporter-girl” still has a ring to it.
Come on, another tearful montage set to music? We just had one of those.
See, what they should have done is intercut this tearful montage with the other tearful montage and try to emphasize some kind of thematic link between them, like...
...Oh, who am I kidding. If I wanted to watch people crying to music, I’d watch Les Miserables.
Did they just reuse the opening shot?
OHHHH, Sorbo just got dumped.
Of course, along the way, he managed to hit a few more douche notes. When she walked up and addressed him as Jeffrey, he reminded her, “On campus, I’m Professor Radisson.”
The Muslim girl is hanging out at Pastor Dave’s. Turns out, her name is Aisha.
With 30 minutes left, the question is, “Will I learn everyone’s name before the movie is over?”
Say what you will about this movie, but it’s scientifically impossible to dislike Pastor Dave.
Just to capture the awkwardness of this elevator ride, I’m going to include the picture twice.
*elevator music*
Today on the debate: “If God is all good, and God is all powerful, why does he allow evil to exist?” Josh poses this difficult and interesting question, but never gives a satisfactory answer. Instead, he explains the existence of evil by saying that God allows free will.
In Sorbo’s response, he brings up wars, holocausts, tsunamis, and starvation... but completely fails to explain why they matter. He should have said that free will can explain wars, holocausts, and even starvation, but free will can’t explain “acts of God” like tsunamis.
Instead of addressing Sorbo’s poorly-made point, Josh changes the subject to morality. He admits that we don’t need God to be moral, but says that there’s no real reason to be moral without God, and no standards for what constitutes morality. Disappointingly, this doesn’t lead to a discussion of how a secular society derives morality. Instead, Josh says some more stuff that sounds good on the surface... and then the subject changes again. (That happens a lot in this movie.)
The debate is getting heated. Josh calls Sorbo out on being an anti-theist and forcing his perspective on his students, which is totally true. (Sorbo responds with something about how he’ll enjoy failing Josh, as if he hadn’t done enough unprofessional things in the movie already.)
Things get a little weird when Josh changes the subject again by asking, “Do you hate God?” When Sorbo dismisses the question, he changes it to, “Why do you hate God?” He keeps pressing, repeating the question louder and louder. Along the way – as the music fabricates a dramatic climax – he says, “You’ve seen the science and the arguments. Science supports his existence. You know the truth!”
“Science supports his existence,” Josh? When did you prove that? He says it quickly too, managing to squeeze it into a part of the debate where there’s no room for Sorbo to challenge it or the audience to question it. It’s a sneaky reinforcement of what the Christian audience already believes.
Of course, Sorbo plays right into the narrative and cracks, confessing, “Because he took everything away from me! Yes, I hate God. All I have for him is hate.” (Cue troubled reactions from the students.)
With sudden calm, Josh asks, “How can you hate someone if they don’t exist?” It’s clear that this is meant to seem like a profound “gotcha” moment, even though it’s a silly question. It only seems to carry weight because Sorbo is a strawman, contrived to fit the Christian fantasy that atheists are just secret believers, angry at God. This is one of the parts where I wanted to throw my popcorn at the screen.
Now the debate is over and the students must decide who won. We are forced to endure an “uplifting” scene where they rise to their feet one by one, starting with Asian Martin. (Yay, I learned another name!) To no one’s surprise, they stand and declare, "God is not dead.”
So the movie’s over now, right? God wins and everyone lived happily ever after?
I guess not.
For most of the movie, I have been wondering where the “car won’t start” storyline was headed. It just ended in the strangest way.
Pastor Dave and the missionary walked outside with their bags. The missionary prayed, “Please allow the car to start.” Dave was very pessimistic about the whole enterprise, but the missionary insisted that he have faith. He even insisted that Dave put the bags in the car before they tried to start it.
And it started.
Aside from the question, “Why didn’t they just pray for the car to start in the first place?” this leaves me wondering, “What message are they trying to send here?”
Earlier in the movie, Sorbo talked about praying (as a child) that his mother would live... and Josh had the nerve to tell him, “Sometimes God says no.” Now the missionary is sitting here telling Dave, “All the time, God is good,” just because God said yes to roadside assistance.
What?
Yeah, lady. That’s how I feel too.
It looks like Mean Cain is finally visiting his mother.
She is completely unresponsive, but he muses that she was a devout Christian her whole life, and her reward was to end up with dementia. He calls her the nicest person he knows, and calls himself the meanest... but his life is perfect and hers is wasting away. “Explain that to me,” he challenges.
In a sudden moment of clarity, she says, “Sometimes the Devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he doesn’t want them turning to God. Their sin is like a jail cell, except it’s all nice and comfy and there doesn’t seem to be any need to leave. The door is wide open. Then one day, time runs out, the cell door slams shut, and suddenly, it’s too late.”
At this point, the story logic of Christianity (as portrayed in this movie) has gotten really confusing. Let’s review:
• Evil exists because of free will, even though free will doesn’t explain tsunamis or cancer.
• God is good all the time, but he only says “yes” to our prayers some of the time. (Specifically, he says “yes” to auto repair and “no” to curing cancer.)
• The Devil says “yes” more often than God, but only to make our lives comfortable enough that we don’t choose God until it’s too late.
In summary:
Good things happen to good people = God.
Good things happen to bad people = the Devil.
Bad things happen to good people = free will.
Bad things happen to bad people = no one cares.
All of our characters are colliding at the Hastings Center for a Newsboys concert. (I Googled the Newsboys. They’re a real thing.)
Amy just marched into the Newsboys’ pre-show lounge, ready to do her ambush reporter thing. (I just noticed that she works for “The New Left.” Of course.)
She says, “You guys are going to go out there and you’re going to sing about God and Jesus, as if they’re as real as you and me. How can you do that?”
At the end of a brief exchange, they tell her that God is where they find their hope. Then they ask, “Where do you find your hope?”
After an awkward silence, she blurts out, “I’m dying.”
Sorbo is sad because he’s the only character who didn’t go to the Newsboys concert.
Nevermind. He’s going too.
Before he saw this newspaper, he tried to call Mina (but got her voicemail) and read a letter that was written by his mother shortly before she died. In the letter, she said, “I know God is in control. His ways our higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.”
I suppose this means that God isn’t supposed to make sense to us. (Maybe that’s why this movie doesn’t make sense.) But if you can’t understand God’s thoughts or ways, how can you decide whether to believe in him?
The movie keeps switching between two contradictory messages:
1. “God is good, God loves you, and it’s that simple.”
2. “God is too complex for us to understand.”
So which is it? Simple or complex?
The Newsboys are praying with Amy. They ask him to “save” her, which probably doesn’t mean “save her from cancer.” Instead, they ask for things like “letting her know she is loved” and “cleansing her.”
But not of cancer.
The weird thing is, I actually understand why this would make Amy feel better. It’s the first time in the movie that somebody has given a damn about her life. As far as this movie is concerned, she doesn’t have a single friend. She has been going through an awful thing alone. If KISS had treated her as well as the Newsboys just did, I’m sure that would have made her feel better too.
Having said that, “I was lonely and they were nice to me” seems like a bad reason to join a religion.
Now we’re watching some of the Newsboys concert. He sings, “Make way for the king. The king is coming.” Sadly, this did not herald the arrival of Elvis.
The music isn’t bad, though.
As Sorbo is walking to the Newsboys concert, it starts raining. Pastor Dave and the missionary are still in the car, and Sorbo walks in front of them at a traffic light.
Then he gets hit by a car.
Let’s all just stop and appreciate this screenshot for a moment.
Pastor Dave and the missionary jump out of their car to help.
The missionary apparently has X-ray vision, because he declares, “His ribs are crushed. His lungs are filling with blood. He doesn’t have long.” (Of course, he says this right in front of the dying man.)
Jumping straight to the point, Dave asks, “Do you know Jesus?” He goes on to say, “I believe it’s God’s mercy that brought me here right now. That car could have killed you instantly, and I’m sure right now you probably wish that it did, but I’m here to tell you that it’s a gift, because a God that you don’t believe in is giving you another chance—another chance to change your final answer.”
...I have no words for that, so I’m just going to move on.
Pastor Dave tells a story about God saying no to Jesus, and Sorbo replies, “He says no a lot.” Pastor Dave’s response? “He gives us the answer we’d ask for if we knew what he knows.” (You can’t see me, but I’m facepalming really hard right now.)
As if on cue, Sorbo starts quoting his mother’s letter about God’s thoughts being higher than our thoughts. There it is—the pernicious claim that it’s our fault when God doesn’t make sense. (Call me crazy, but I think that you should question something if it doesn’t make sense.)
Half of this movie is telling you to believe in God because it makes sense. The other half is telling you to trust in God when it doesn’t make sense. Writers, get your story straight!
Anyway, Sorbo accepts Jesus. Pastor Dave says, “In a few minutes, you’re gonna know more about God than I do, or anybody else here does. It’s okay.”
And then he dies.
Man, I am so ready to rage-quit this movie.
But, I’ve made it this far and there’s only 10 minutes left. I’m going to take a deep breath. I can do this.
It can’t get any worse, right?
GOD DAMMIT.
Duck Dynasty is back, and he’s talking about the debate at the college (which he heard about... somehow). He encourages every person at the concert to text “God’s not dead” to everyone they know. One of the Newsboys gives a shout-out to Josh, but without saying his name.
Aisha (the Muslim girl) is standing behind Josh. She reveals that she overheard him talking about the God debate with his girlfriend at the cafeteria. (Side note: I only JUST realized that the cafeteria girl and the Muslim girl are the same person. That scene happened before they introduced her character!) I guess I was wrong about her hooking up with Josh before the end of the movie, but they do share a very significant look before he turns around, so I’m going to go ahead and assume they get married.
The concert continues with a song that is actually called “God’s Not Dead.”
Meanwhile, we see several characters (Aisha, Mina, and Martin) texting the “God’s Not Dead” message to the people they know. Martin looks very reluctant at first, but he feels better after he sends the text. He starts clapping to the music and making this adorable face. And come on, look at this face. If accepting Jesus leads to making this face, I might have to consider it.
Mean Cain gets the “God’s Not Dead” text message from Mina, looks at it sternly for a moment, and then tosses the phone onto the backseat. (I’m kind of relieved that this movie isn’t going to end with the miraculous conversion of every single character.)
Meanwhile, at the fatal accident site...
Sorbo’s phone receives the “God’s Not Dead” text from Mina. Pastor Dave and the missionary shamelessly read the dead guy’s text message.
And then make this face.
And this one.
To be clear, they are still standing over Sorbo’s dead body.
The missionary says, “What happened here tonight is a cause for celebration. Pain, yes... just a few moments. But now, think about the joy in Heaven.”
Those are the last spoken words in the film.
And with that, I’m done. I’m out, guys. I am officially done with this bullshit movie.
Oh, just roll credits already.
As the credits roll, a message says that the movie “was inspired by the following legal cases where University Students and Campus Ministries were condemned for their faith.”
I Googled the first five, and none were similar to the movie’s plot. The first three involved students who were vocally opposed to homosexuality; the fourth involved a pro-life event that was canceled on a campus, and the fifth involved the reimbursement of expenses for a Catholic student club.
I would guess that these legal cases were listed because they add a layer of legitimacy to the movie’s plot. If you don’t Google the specifics, you might watch this film and think that persecution of Christian students happens in American colleges all the time.
Ultimately, “God’s Not Dead” is a fantasy story that affirms how some of its Christian audience sees America: as a place where the waning of Christian privilege is tantamount to Christian persecution, and a place where all non-Christians are either immoral or misguided.
Looking back, I doubt this movie was actually designed to convert people to Christianity. Instead, it was designed to preach to the Christian choir by pitting their champions against cardboard atheists. It exists to reinforce the attitudes the Christians already hold, while painting a false picture of atheists (and Muslims) as people without good reasons for believing what they do.
My advice to any Christian watching this film is to go out and meet a real atheist (or have a real conversation with one you already know). Learn what they really believe, not what other Christians believe they believe. Most of all, recognize that this film doesn’t make a strong argument for Christianity; it just makes the arguments for Christianity sound strong.
