'God's Not Dead'; 'Noah'

         

Protections under the First Amendment of our nation's Constitution have been in dialogue with our ethics of both confession and declaration.  From posting the Ten Commandments in a courthouse to the legislation of morality, our democratic conversation of what it means to express one's belief still has a live pulse. It should be no surprise this conversation has shaped our structure of education.  A good number of court cases have been contested by students, clubs and ministries who have had their religious freedoms tested in the classroom and curricula. The Christian film production company from Scottsdale, Arizona, Pure Flix Entertainment, recently released the movie, "God's Not Dead."  In this film, a philosophy professor (Kevin Sorbo from the 90's television series "Hercules") dares his students to declare that God is dead.  Many of the students easily make this declaration, for in doing so, they immediately pass 30% of the course.  One student (Shane Harper from Disney Channel's "Good Luck Charlie"), staying true to his core confession, decides to defend the antithesis, that God is not dead.  The lives of others in the local community are brilliant threads woven into this main story line between the teacher and student.  This film interweaves its characters who wrestle in the tension of what it means to both confess and declare that God is not dead.  The film invites reflection of how community and relationships and their imperfections inform our belief/unbelief. What makes "God's Not Dead" work -- and also not work -- is the irony that this film will offend moviegoers with its predictable, linear agenda.  Like everyone in the classroom, we are confronted with a choice to see something more real than our own freedom and suffering.

As the rain washed away the pollen, I was herded in one of two lines at the box office to watch Darren Aronofsky's latest film, "Noah."  And as I took my seat in the shelter of the movie theater, I found myself being drawn in to another world, away from my own, to the imaginative world of its creator. What is beautiful and also terrifying about the creative process is the mystery of its creator.  Our expectations as mere subjects are in flux because of the unpredictable outcome, and we are afraid of what we do not know.  It should be no surprise then Aronofsky's extravagant retelling of the Genesis narrative is rocking the audience's boat. Aronofsky ("Pi", "The Fountain"), who was raised culturally Jewish, portrays a primitive world where the heavens are a dome over the earth and the Nephilim (Genesis 2:4) are transported between.  The style of the scene in which Noah (Russell Crowe from "A Beautiful Mind") tells his household the story of how the Creator makes something from nothing sheds light into Aronofsky's core earthy (environmental) and earthly (humanist) confession. Aronofsky is reading between (and outside) the lines found in Genesis and paints his picture of the human-ness and messiness of creation's free response to the Creator's will and covenant. Watching both "God's Not Dead" and "Noah" within a week of one another, I am reminded of what is said in James 2:19: 'You believe that God is one; you do well. Even demons believe -- and shudder.'  In a world where we worship the idols we create, the belief that God is One is only the first step towards the life we are meant to live.  Step two involves Love (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:28-34).