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| Pastor Dave and his friend from a better movie |
A Review of God’s Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness by
Nick Olszyk
MPAA Rating, PG
CNS Rating, Not rated at the time of this review
Reel Rating, Two and One Half Reels
God’s Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness
is the third installment in the most successful independent Christian franchise
of all time, and it begins immediately where the previous
film left off. As Grace was victorious in her free speech court case,
Pastor Dave Hill (actor and PureFlix founder David A.R. White) faces imminent
disaster as he refuses to comply with a court order to submit copies of his
sermons for legal review. If this sounds too Orwellian for a democratic society,
it’s actually based on a
real case. What follows is more of a character study than an apologetic
treatise like the first two films. The result is a movie that in some ways is
more courageous in tackling the practical difficulties of living in a country
that is becoming aggressively anti-Christian yet the solutions seem more in
line with Scorsese’s recent film Silence
than C.S. Lewis or Billy Graham. It’s not an overly defeatist picture but,
frankly, a poor choice for the Easter season.
Pastor Dave
finds himself in prison for his act of civil disobedience, but soon Christian
social media and Fox News shed a light on his plight, which pressures a higher
court to release him. Only five minutes into the narrative, this is the high
point of the film. Embarrassed by the whole debacle, the university looks for a
way to kick him off campus. His parish, St. James Church (denomination not
mentioned), was the main place of worship before the university converted from
a private to public institution many decades earlier. His claim of its historic
as well as spiritual importance is waning as students begin to protest the
church, claiming Dave is a bigot for insisting that Jesus is the only way to
salvation.
The university’s
president Thomas Ellsworth (Ted McGinley) uses an eminent domain claim to force
Dave to sell the parish to the board so they can raze it and build a student
union. Dave enrolls his estranged brother and civil rights attorney Pierce
(John Corbett) to sue the university and save the church. Things quickly
escalate as a divided community protests on either side. Soon Ellsworth and his
family are receiving death threats and the church itself becomes a victim of
arson, killing the visiting associate pastor from Uganda.
David A.R. White
finally finds a role worthy of his decades of work in the independent film
industry. His acting work, even in the previous films of this franchise, has
been spotty, but here he brings one of the best performances of the year. While
Pastor Dave is firm in his conviction to save St. James, he also has a strong
desire to make peace. Ellsworth is an old friend, and he hates that they have
been put in this situation. He is often conflicted and admits he isn’t sure
what to do. Corbett equally does an amazing job as an agnostic, sarcastic,
worldly foil to his righteous brother. There’s a lot of pain in their mutual
past that set them off in different directions with strong echoes of the
prodigal siblings. Their conversations are deep and meaningful without the hokeyness
that plagues many Christian themed productions.
The media has
recently jumped on Pope Francis’ latest “quote of the day” about the importance
for young people to speak out:
The temptation
to silence young people has always existed. There are many ways to silence
young people and make them invisible. There are many ways to sedate them, to
keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty
and plaintive. You have it in you to shout even if we older people and leaders,
very often corrupt, keep quiet.” – March 25th, 2018
God’s Not Dead 3 has jumped on this bandwagon as well, highlighting
the frustration and social media action of several college students, none of
whom has the gumption or piety of Josh in the first film. “You spend so much
time telling us what the Church is against,” laments one post-millennial, “but
what is the Church for?” When pastor Dave discovers who killed his friend and
has a momentary lapse in judgement, attacking the twentysomething, his friends
are quick to jump in with cell cameras rather than bandages, and you can bet
the university is only too happy to exploit the situation. As a high school teacher,
of course I want my students to get involved in the world around them and
inquire about their place in life. Yet, there are not yet fully formed humans
and need the guiding hand of just authority, not the pretentious entitlement
the world offers.
Many,
many cinematic critics – in and outside Christianity – criticized this series
for being too triumphant, and unfortunately the filmmakers listened. When faced
with the worst opposition of the series, Pastor Dave – like the Israelites in
the desert – seems to forget his
previous successes and takes a new route. He agrees to drop the lawsuit and
sell the Church to university which promises to allow Christian students to
continue to meet and worship in a center at the future Student Union. In a
dramatic ending, he and Ellsworth stand together, passing out candles to
protestors and supporters alike. Instead of preaching Jesus Christ, he tells
them the lighted candles represent their shared values of “peace, hope, and
love.”
This action
“works” in the sense that it brings protests to an end and even gets the
college students to praise Pastor Dave on their periscope accounts. Yet, what
good is Ellsworth promise? Even if the students can meet, their generic grey
cubicle will be squished between an LGBT dating service and the Rastafarian
relief fund, just one of many equally bland organizations. This same discussion
is happening not in China, where the Communist government seems poised to
appoint Catholic bishops with the full support of the Vatican, ignoring Nostis et Nobiscum and centuries of
martyrs. Pastor Dave defends himself saying “the people are the Church, not the
building.” It is true that this world is not the Kingdom but that souls that
are in it are. Of Pastor Dave’s three options: legal success, legal failure, or
compromise, this was the worst.
The whole of the
Christian world is celebrating the Easter season where “Christ has risen from
the dead and grants life to those in the tombs.” Considering this historical
fact, why is Pastor Dave so afraid? Why are teenagers so conflicted? We don’t
have to win; the battle has already been won. It is understandable to desire
peace and limit persecution but never at the risk of watering down the gospel. God’s Not Dead is a masterpiece of world
cinema. God’s Not Dead 2 was decent
and enjoyable. God’s Not Dead: A Light in
the Darkness had real potential but went out with a whimper. What a sad way
to end a franchise.
This article first appeared in Catholic World Report on March 29th, 2018.
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