Evan Almighty

Sarah and I check it out last night. Initially I was a bit cautious. The first film, “Bruce Almighty”, was humorous, but sacrilegious content has a tendency to ruin a movie for me turning what most find to be funny into not-funny-at-all for me. After my future father-in-law told me he had heard a few good things about the content and message of the movie my interest was peaked and so Sarah and I checked it out.

First off, this movie is more like a spin-off than a sequel. It still has Morgan Freeman playing “God” but other than that the movie doesn’t really match up with “Bruce Almighty”. And second, I had a hard time finding sacrilegious content at all. Sure there was off or inaccurate comments being made about God but looking at it from the angle of people who know little-to-nothing about church their comments were probably what most un-churched Americans would say. In fact, that was an awesome point in the movie. The movie had a good bit of dialogue where “God” (Morgan Freeman) would correct misconceptions about himself and they were actually Biblical (Hollywood actually got something right about God!). There are also some awesome parallels drawn between Noah and faith, truly trusting God, through asking the question, “what if Noah was here today and was asked to build the ark?”.

I don’t want to provide any spoilers here for the movie, but this movie would be awesome to take un-churched friends and you should be prepared to explore some of the misconceptions about who God really is. This movie would also be ideal for the person who claims they’re a believer but doesn’t really trust God. The movie won’t answer any of these questions for you and it will only explore these things to a small degree but it certainly opens the door pretty widely for you to have the kind of conversations people need to hear and people need to be having.

Rolling Stone

So my car is being worked on, nothing special, just an oil change and inspection, and I decided to pick up a magazine to pass the time. I saw Johnny Depp on the cover on an issue of Rolling Stone, expecting to read something interesting about Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

Now, I haven’t picked up a copy of Rolling Stone in over 10 years and even then I really don’t remember what the content was about, I’ve never had much interest in reading magazines, but I was rather shocked by its content. I saw women scandalously dressed, pro-legalizing marijuana content, vulgar language, etc. As I flipped the pages two things came to mind: this was like an R-rated movie where graphic content rarely skipped a page and the writers of Rolling Stone have a nasty hatred of George W. Bush.

I picked up a second copy of Rolling Stone and discovered the exact same content.

This was a bit distressing. It was distressing because someone had the freedom and say and show these things, but rather it had become acceptable to use the freedom we have in our country to see these things as acceptable content. It is good that we have the freedom to state what we’re against and what we’re for, but something about the content in Rolling Stone struck a nerve with me. I had a hard time believing that the writers were striving for what is right and good, but rather they seem to be striving for whatever gratifies them.

How could a believer examine such content and not feel remorse for the human condition and acknowledge the great need for so many to come to know Christ? That so many people groups within our own country who are not being reached. The entertainment/media industry is definitely seems to be lacking in ministry from the church. So many people read and delight in Rolling-stone, and similar content.

I hear the message of the world saying “do whatever feels right to you” and “do whatever makes you feel better about yourself”. I see this voice getting stronger and stronger in the short time I’ve been alive. . .or have I just began to really listen?

The other day Sarah and I were discussing the old Cosby Show, which we both get a kick out of, but such shows are dead today. People won’t sit down and watch them. There’s no violence, no sexual content, no vulgarity and people are not attracted to sitting down and watching something clean and wholesome.

I don’t know where I’m going with this so I’ll step down from my soapbox and leave my thoughts there. . .