movies

Jesus Camp movie

Jesus CampI saw Jesus Camp, an Oscar-nominated documentary that looks into a fundamental Pentecostal church camp for kids called Kids on Fire. I did not like the documentary for several reasons:

First the documentary was random and failed to meet its own goals. It missed the point in its own argument. It tried to tie things together that did not really fit together. Part of the time the documentary was examining a church camp, a children’s ministry, and the leader of the organization (Becky Fisher). Then random parts of the documentary talk about how Christians are playing a huge role politically in America. Why sure the Evangelical vote is huge in America, there is not much of a correlation to this one particular children’s church camp wit hteh overal Evangelical vote. Even more so, this one paticular camp is not responsible for all the political issues that the documentary was attacking.

Second I did not like the approach to this documentary. Sure the documentary is implying that this camp is not the only one and that in America there are tons of other church camps where children are “brainwashed” into Evangelical beliefs, but the documentary is stretching its own argument quite a bit (without any facts). First there are not tons of camps JUST like this one. Second, the documentary did a bad job of portraying true Christianity even Evangelical beliefs. They went to the most exetreme example they could find, an intense charasmatic subsect of the Pentecostal kind. Even Rich Tatum, a Pentecostal was upset about how his denomination is portrayed in the film, has written a commentary for CT Movies titled, “Brainwashed in the Blood.”

An uncredited writer at MovieGuide calls it “a sarcastic documentary that paints evangelical, fundamentalist, charismatic, and politically concerned Christians as very shrill, warlike, and dangerous.” – This is simply NOT the case and a FALSE portrayal!

Finally I hated how this paticular camp ran. I hated what this camp portrayed . I actually thought that this paticular camp was way too extereme. As an evangelical church goer and even summer camp goer, I have NEVER seen or been a part of a church, camp, or a organization that was so militaristic, extreme, and scary. This camp in my opinion even used these kids to make political points. I AM TELLING YOU THIS IS NOT TYPICALL!

Go to fullsize imageI also did not agree with some of the startagies and Pentecostal beleife andlike I siad these beliefs DO NOT portray all evangelicals!
1. speaking in tongues
2. extreme love and dealings with President Bush
3. dealings with government, anti-government beliefs
4. the Tim Haggard interview

The film gets some things right:
1. Jesus is the right way
2. The Bible is the evangelical belief system ( now, the Pentecostals sometimes get some things wrong with in the Bible)

a stat that did not surprise me that I learned in this document:
75% of all homeschoolers are devoted evangelicals.
The film pointed out how homeschool kids are taught a more balanced education, which scares liberals. As it should they want every one to belief in their lies, their religion, evolution.

Finally a great summary quote from Christianity Today review:
“When a documentary explores a subgroup of a large contingent and implies that this defines the whole, then it is appropriate to call ‘foul.’ This is the case in Jesus Camp. … The implication is made that Pastor Fischer is a prime example of Evangelical Christians’ beliefs and practices. This is not only untrue but it also leads to a pervasive misunderstanding.”

Narnia review

I saw Narnia a couple of weeks ago. I thought the movie itself was pretty good. Nice effects, cool digital features, good background music and just a fun movie in general.

The movie was of course a little-watered down and condensed, which you almost expect from Hollywood today. I was glad that Narnia made it to the big screen though.

Awkward situation: Aslan says to Lucy in a dream…”I grow as you grow…” After Lucy says “You are bigger than I remember…”

This is not how C.S. Lewis dialogues this conversation in the book. It was frustrating that they did not take the extra minuet or two it would have taken to get that particular conversation correct.

I can relate to Peter…it would be tough to go from being a respected aged high king in Narnia
and then have to go back to real life and deal with real people.

I am in awe of CS Lewis and his imagination whenever I pick up a Narnian book. And in this movie that sense of creativity was displayed.

Faith of Lucy

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set a example for the believers in speech, in life, in faith, and in purity. 1 Tim. 4:12 (NIV)

Lucy is the youngest of the Pevensie children, and as such, she possess the heart of a child, seeing the good within those around her. She is the first to enter the Wardrobe, but because of her age, no one believes her about Narnia. Yet, she does not let this destroy the faith she has in herself.

We see Lucy’s child-like faith again in Prince Caspian. Lucy sees Aslan off in the distance and tell her siblings to follow her. None of them believe her again.

But this time, Lucy does not step out ahead of her siblings in faith as she did in the Wardrobe. Despite that fact, Aslan is good and forgives Lucy.

We can learn a lot about faith from Lucy today.

Thoughts on Expelled

I am not posting a comprehensive review of the movie. I know that my post of the movie will not be sufficient, compared to the dozens upon thousands of well-written posts on the movie. I do have some strong thoughts about the movie i do want to share:

First I thought that movie to be very thought provoking! It was put together very well.

The movie made me mad. Several occasions through-out the movie, I was ticked off and wanted to do something about it. I still do.

I do not know why the movie got such bad reviews. In my opinion that movie was not at all biased. Sure it was propaganda, and effective propaganda, but the movie did not start out biased and was not bluntly one-sided. Sure there is no way to prove that the people who were fired were fired for the reason of Intelligent Design (I.D.) solely. But the movie barely tipped the ice-burg mentioning just a few of the people have been affected becuase of an association with I.D. the movie started out.

What strikes me the hardest is the fact that this movie is more about Intellectual freedom than being about I.D. or Creationism. The irony is that all of the big wigs who were agianst the movie before they even knew what it was about, would have nothing to do with this movie. Other big wigs who do know about the movie, and maybe even seen the movie, continue the sick cycle of elitism. They are not allowing intellectual freedom. they are not allowing ideas of I.D. in Universities.

I.D. is NOT a water-down version of Creationism. I will post more about this later. But they are not the same at all. I.D. guys are not even religious for the most part. And most religious, (especially Christians,) people are Creationists. Most are NOT I.D. supporters. Many “fundamental” Christians do not even know what I.D. is all about. More about this later, I promise.

What makes me mad is that our Universities and education system is not allowing true free thought. It is not being intellectually wise or even politically correct. It is not truly scientific. If we are seeking truth and knowledge. We should have the freedom to study all aspects and all research all of the evidence, no matter what topic we are looking into. And if the evidence points to evolution, so be it. If it points to something else, then we should be able to look at that, with or without religion. In fact, religion should be a non-issue. Be willing to look at the evidence and let it guide you. If it leads you to I.d., then so be it. If it leads you to God in your personal life then, so be it. But I am upset that Universities are not open to the evidence and allowing studies on I.D. and the evidence that exists.
There is a way to look at the evidence without worrying about religion. Despite personal religous views we can all coloborate tpgether publically and civilly even if all of the scientist have different diverse religious views. Why can’t we study the evidence. Why can’t we have free thought? Why can’t we collaborate together and put religious beliefs aside?

Also I have a lot of thoughts on Darwinism and evolution….but I will post more about these topics later also. And remember that Dawkins is technically a proponent of I.D. too. (He said o himself and then later disclaimed it, but it still happened.)