“The church has the advantage of story.  God gives us his truth largely in the midst of story –stories filled with anti-heroes and moral ugliness wherein even those who wear the white hats have very fatal flaws.  This is the story of grace.  If there is a quest for redemption that is shown in the... Continue Reading

Gary Kurtz confirmed the sequel would focus on Liddell’s life and agonising death on Chinese soil. The Hollywood veteran – who produced the 1977 classic Star Wars and sequel The Empire Strikes Back said : “We are going to be shooting in various places in China.   The 1981 low-budget blockbuster finished with the Christian... Continue Reading

Thank goodness I made myself watch the actual documentary. Ken Burns and his writer, Geoffrey C. Ward, steered clear of presenting a mythological hagiography, and instead gave us vivid, insightful, fair-minded biographies of three immensely important, but oh-so-human Americans.   By now, you’ve probably seen or heard about Ken Burns’ 14-hour documentary on the three most famous... Continue Reading

Unfortunately, however, while “Left Behind” may prove itself to be a mediocre box office success, it represents a severe misinterpretation of what the Bible actually says about the topic. To put it bluntly, and perhaps to the chagrin of some readers, the idea of a “rapture” is simply not biblically based (and that’s where I’ve... Continue Reading

Look behind those abortion clinics, PBS. Whose bodies are in the hazardous waste containers? Whose corpses are incinerated by the thousands? Whose heart is injected with poison? Whose spinal cord is snipped? The abortionists? Or the babies? You answer that question, and then tell me who needs the humanizing around here.   Dear PBS, This... Continue Reading

More than that, I wept as I saw short-sighted, impatient adults who just couldn’t have mercy on this hurting, awkward kid. I wept as I considered all the time when, in the whirl and bustle of our lives, I am diligent to maintain discipline and order (as is absent in this family often), but I... Continue Reading

You have to track with me that hero’s journey (monomyth) movies perpetuate a certain philosophy, a certain religion, if you will.  They are not existentialist—they are neo-Platonic or gnostic.  There are similarities with existentialism—a distrust of reason, society, and rationality, to name a few.  Existentialism stands firm, however, in the conviction that there is no... Continue Reading

“The Giver” will provoke political commentary. Few movies make a stronger case for the value of diversity. No movie, in my memory, involves a more explicit depiction of infanticide, conducted at the Nurturing Center by Jonas’s father with a horrifying cheerfulness. “They hadn’t eliminated murder,” Jonas realizes, “they had brought it home. They had just... Continue Reading

As I went around the room with my students, I asked what their home churches had taught about the ultimate things: heaven, hell, kingdom, and so on. Most of them said their churches were reluctant to say much at all, beyond generalities. Many of their churches, it seems, were fearful to talk much about eschatology... Continue Reading

Despite Obvious Child’s attempt to be a gritty, independent film, the realism is limited to Donna’s millennial attitude. Here Juno distinguishes itself again. Juno, which won an Oscar for best original screenplay, allowed its story to remain first. The writer, Diablo Cody, wasn’t a pro-life lobbyist with a checklist. But in Obvious Child, the story is reduced to... Continue Reading