What must it be like to be the kind of person who needs this film? I keep asking myself this question because I’m trying to envision the mentality that can observe 2.1 BILLION Christians worldwide, well over 150 MILLION in this country alone and still feel threatened by atheism. That’s atheists – a non-religious minority group that doesn’t advertise, promote or recruit in any fashion and yet somehow threatens you. Jeez, how strong is your belief system, pal?
Two years ago, Harold Cronk delivered one of the worst and most offensive films I’d ever seen in God’s Not Dead. The sequel didn’t improve anything. Cronk’s God’s Not Dead 2 is equally as offensive and defensive (hey, that’s a neat trick) as the original, if factorially less interesting for lack of a true villain.
Grace Wesley (Melissa Joan Hart) teaches history at, I dunno, Atheist High School (the same place that’s used in a half a dozen films; the one with the black cougar statue out front). True believer and genuine saint Grace answers a question in class about Martin Luther King, Jr. and compares the Reverend with Jesus, quoting the bible to illustrate her point. Uh oh, ya done did it now! Before you can nail 95 theses to the teacher’s lounge, Grace is on trial. Yes, literally, a trial to defend her actions. The mentioning of Jesus is, apparently, an actionable offense.
The film can be summed up in her obstinate failure to settle: “I would rather stand with God and be judged by the world, than stand with the world and be judged by God.” Bravo. Brav-o. You’re self-righteousness is a pillar the entire movie-going community.
Don’t you see? To be Christian is to be brave. All 2.1 billion of ‘em are rebels, not a conformist among, all willing to risk their worldly possessions to keep their souls in tact. On the dark side, prosecuting attorney Ray Wise (apparently still channeling his Devil from “Reaper”) cackles, “We are going to prove once as for all that God is dead.” Fight on, you brave Chistian soldiers; rid us of those terrible atheists slowly poisoning the world of all faith and kindness.
Good Lord. Where do I begin? As I said with God’s Not Dead, I truly hope my Christian friends feel the same way I do here: this film offends us all. The orginal provided the valuable and completely errant lesson that without God, man has no moral compass. Really? Man wouldn’t know right from wrong without a belief in God? God’s Not Dead 2 provided us with this little gem – without God, men don’t have hope. [Jaw drops] You know, for not being an atheist, you sure know squat about them, huh?
Let’s get to the trial, where a key point, I swear to God, was proving Jesus existed. (If Jesus is historical, then he can be discussed as a person in a history class, no?) Hence, defense attorney Tom (Jesse Metcalfe) took great pains to tell us facts. Facts?! Seriously, FACTS?! OK, you want to go there, let’s go there – Jesus lived, that is fact. Reasonable persons of all faiths and non-faiths don’t deny the existence of Jesus. Nobody of a reasonable educational background attaches the word “alleged” to the existence of Jesus or biblical words attributed to Him. Of course, reasonable intelligent people of all faiths also accept as fact the Earth is slightly more than a few thousand years old.
Ah, but “this is WAR,” as local head clergyman Fred Dalton Thompson explains. Just as in the mythological War on Christmas, Christianity is on the line here, donchaknow? Look, Christians(and I’m not talking about all of you, of course), what’s it to ya if somebody is not into faith or Jesus? I mean, more God for you, am I right?
I love Harold Cronk’s effort to endear his theology to a younger potential God-lovin’ crowd – in a way it’s like marketing cigarettes to children. Yeah, yeah, let’s make sure the “cool” lawyer never shaves properly or wears a formal suit to court, that’ll get the kids … and if that doesn’t, include the Christian rock band Newsboys. Wow, Newsboys! They’re like the ABBA of God.
This whole movie is foul, condescending and sanctimonious. (Haven’t you ever wanted to use the word “sanctimonious” properly?) It assumes stupid, mean, Hellbent non-Christians can’t tell the difference between discussing and prosthelytizing. And 
here’s what people like me object to – promoting your personal religious agenda in a classroom. God’s Not Dead 2 wants it both ways – it presents us with the straw man case of a poor pious teacher wrongly disciplined for discussing the historic figure of Jesus in a classroom. But then it wants to make the case that our founding fathers really didn’t care much about separation of church and state – don’t even get me started there.
Tell you what — let me describe the following: Let us take your disgusting little movie set at a public school with the good God people fighting for justice and the evil atheists infiltrating like a disease and let’s switch every mention of the word, “God” with the word “Allah.” Also replace every mention of Jesus with Mohammed, every church with a mosque, and every mention of The Bible with The Koran (with some equivalent passage as well, of course). Finally, one last thing, replace every cross we see in the film with a woman in a burqa. Every.single.one. Now, tell me you aren’t threatened. Tell me our constitution favors (by omission) the mixing of church and state. Tell me you still feel the same way about this material, that this film comes from a place of inclusion and love and not fear and bigotry. Because the film I saw? It came exactly from a less-enlightened place.
Oh isn’t life just such a riot
Mocking those of very low piet (y)?
Not enough for calm self
Gotta put ‘em on a shelf
When fear is your daily diet
Rated PG, 121 Minutes
D: Harold Cronk
W: Chuck Konzelman, Cary Solomon
Genre: Lack-of-faith shaming
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Harold Cronk
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Non-Christians
