'God’s Not Dead' Scratches an Evangelical Itch

Quick to Listen

Christianity Today

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Christianity

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You’ve heard the story before. Christian filmmakers make a movie about themselves. The title: God’s Not Dead. The focus: Evangelical persecution in the United States. Their $2 million creation opens on the big screen. It grosses $60 million during its theatrical run. Two years later comes the sequel, God’s Not Dead 2. Okay, so maybe we haven’t heard this exact story before. So how did Pure Flix, the production company behind these films, strike gold? Film critic Alissa Wilkinson discusses this question with Morgan and Katelyn in the latest episode of Christianity Today’s weekly podcast, Quick to Listen. Wilkinson, CT’s critic at large, recently reviewed the film for Flavorwire and analyzed the film against the Christian movie genre for the Thrillist. (Wilkinson previously juxtaposed the original to Fifty Shades of Grey.) “In the Bible, winning looks very different for people than it does in this film,” Wilkinson noted about the movie, where a teacher goes to court after quoting from the Bible in her classroom. “Sometimes you won’t win, even if you believe all the right things and have your apologetics straight.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.0	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.
0:14.5	Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.
0:25.6	Music Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com. Hi, you're listening to Quick to Listen, the Christianity Today podcast where we go
0:30.0	beyond hashtags and hot takes and set aside time to explore the reality behind a major
0:34.4	cultural event.
0:35.6	I am Caitlin Beatty.
0:36.6	I'm the print managing editor of Christianity Today
0:38.8	magazine and I'm joined as always by my lovely co-host, Morgan Lee. Hi Morgan. Caitlin, how are you?
0:44.2	I am doing just fine. How are you? Everything's going really well. Hi, everyone. I'm an assistant editor
0:50.2	here at Christianity Today and today we are joined by Alyssa Wilkinson. She is CT's critic at
0:57.3	large. But you can also find her writing in a lot of other places, including the Washington Post and
1:02.1	Pacific Standard and New York Magazine's Vulture. Alyssa, how are you? I'm doing well. Good to talk to you
1:09.0	guys. Yeah, good to hear your voice. We see your byline so much, but we rarely actually hear your voice. So thanks for joining us today. I really exist. Yes, you do. So as we know, most controversies and topics in the news come with a lot of complexity and tension. And on the podcast every week, we
1:28.0	first try to acknowledge those tensions and then work out among the three of us with a guest,
1:33.3	how Christians can respond. This week, we are going to talk about a movie that just came out
1:39.0	last Friday. You've probably heard of it. God's Not Dead, too. This is clearly the sequel to God's Not Dead. It opened this past
1:47.2	weekend fourth in the box office. It was far behind the Batman versus Superman drama. Did you watch that,
1:54.9	Caitlin? Absolutely not. It was a little bit behind another sequel, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, and it garnered about
2:02.4	8 million worldwide.
2:04.2	Now, most listeners probably have heard of the original God's Not Dead.
2:07.4	It was an independent film that was released in 2014.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Christianity Today, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Christianity Today and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.