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AR 21:34 - A sensitive, insightful look at UK evangelicalism
In this issue:
APOLOGETICS - popular film (and its sequel) shows a college student defending his Christian faith in an atheist's classroom
EVANGELICALISM - insights on misunderstandings about the movement in the UK
PROSPERITY GOSPEL - the love of money and its influence on American faith
Apologia Report 21:34 (1,307)
September 28, 2016
APOLOGETICS
"When a Movie Becomes a Movement" by Taylor Berglund -- begins with background behind the film God's Not Dead [1] which presents "the story of a college student defending his Christian faith in an atheist classroom." It all began as a book [3] of same name by evangelist Rice Broocks, co-founder of the Every Nation family of churches <everynation.org> and senior minister of Bethel World Outreach Church in Nashville, Tennessee. The film "has been seen worldwide by 25 million people - and that's by Broocks' own conservative estimates." Further, "'This isn't just a movie or a concert,' Broocks asserts. 'We're trying to create a movement, and the movement is a cross-denominational apologetics and evangelism movement that equips people of all ages to defend their faith.'"
Michael Scott, founding partner of Pure Flix Entertainment <pureflixstudio.com>, the film's production company, and co-producer of God's Not Dead, reports that "Based on initial surveys, we think 25 percent of the audience was unchurched or not Christians. ...
"Movieguide founder Dr. Ted Baehr says studies show Christian films go far beyond simply preaching to the choir: 'We know that 40 percent of audiences who wouldn't go to church have gone to a Christian film in the past year or two.'"
Scott predicts: "I think [this movement] will continue with God's Not Dead 2." [2] The second film "tells the story of Grace Wesley (Melissa Joan Hart), a high school teacher who is sued for quoting Jesus in the classroom. She and her defense attorney (Jesse Metcalfe) decide that the best way to prove her innocence is to prove Jesus was a real person, rendering her quotation no different than quoting Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. ...
"At the initial meeting with Pure Flix's owners in 2011, Broocks laid out his vision for the God's Not Dead movement: 'We need a million young people in this country alone who can defend their faith.'" Cover story. Charisma, Apr '16, pp28. <www.goo.gl/FNxBGP>
It's worth noting that not a few Christian reviewers (including some apologists) expressed serious misgivings about the first film - see, for example, <www.goo.gl/LBTbAO> and <www.goo.gl/vylySR>
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EVANGELICALISM
Aliens & Strangers? The Struggle for Coherence in the Everyday Lives of Evangelicals, by Anna Strhan (Lecturer in Religious Studies, Univ. of Kent) [4] -- insights from our counterparts in the UK. In his review, Ian Paul observes that "what is surprising ... is the poor level of understanding of evangelicals by others - and even at times the poor understanding of evangelicals by themselves. This makes Anna Strhan's recent book ... especially important. ...
"In my opinion this is a seminal volume of research on the nature of British evangelicalism in general and conservative evangelicalism in particular. ... As the author states, she offers 'a more nuanced portrait than the standard stereotypes of conservative evangelicals ... drawing out how features of their critiques of and uncertainties about aspects of late modernity ... resonate with concerns expressed by liberals.'
"Aliens and Strangers is the result of the author spending one and a half years as a committed member of a large well-known conservative evangelical Anglican church in London. ...
"The book opens with a chapter analysing the significance of cities for evangelicalism.... With half of humanity living in cities, projected to rise to two-thirds within 50 years, a study of the dynamic of Christian faith in a leading Western city is relevant to all of us. This is a study on 'urban religious piety ... in a pluralist environment'....
"There follow chapters covering the areas of gender and embodiment (Chapter 2), Speaking (Chapter 3), Listening (Chapter 4), Living life in a way that engages with God (Chapter 5) and the need to await a future city for ultimate fulfilment (Chapter 6). Each of these chapters includes extensive interviews, observations and reflections. This is set in the context of academic literature....
"The fourth chapter of the book focuses on evangelicals hearing God speak to them through the Bible. The pages given to describing a service at the London church are illuminating - rarely do we read careful observations that reveal so much about a church's priorities and theological concerns. ...
"Given that Conservative Evangelicals are portrayed in the media as overly intellectual or unconcerned for people, the portraits in this book of patient and quiet love for not only each other but also those living in difficult inner city settings is heart-warming. The uniting of loving actions with careful listening to scripture is observed at length." psephizo.com, May 31 '16. <www.hgoo.gl/BguoyF>
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PROSPERITY GOSPEL
The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American Dream, by Chris Lehmann, editor-in-chief of The Baffler <thebaffler.com> [5] -- this is an "eye-popping and prodigiously researched book" says reviewer Brian Bethune in Maclean's (May 29 '16) who writes that "the genius - the presiding spirit - of American religion has been the same as the genius of American capitalism. It's always been a money cult, with prosperity a sign of salvation and poverty something to self-help your way out of.
"New England Puritans did set out to build a 'shining city on a hill.' But that soon dissolved in a land where dissenters could simply keep moving west. ... Water divining and treasure hunting were big business on the frontier, a historical episode that leads Lehmann directly to the quintessential American religion, Mormonism.
"Founder Joseph Smith was himself a money-digger in upstate New York, where landowners kept him and others employed in the widely held belief the area was littered with hidden Spanish or pirate treasure. Perhaps not, but the revolutionary book of New World scripture Smith claimed to have unearthed in 1827 was inscribed on plates of gold. Lehmann, who delivers first-rate capsule descriptions of everything from the Great Awakenings to the Moral Majority, is brilliant in his treatment of the Latter-Day Saints. The most frequent expression in Mormon scripture is, 'if ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land,' and 88 of Smith's 112 divine revelations are concerned with economic, not spiritual, matters. The great question, how such an outwardly strange faith - plural marriages and all - could find a foothold in America, should be stood on its head, writes Lehmann. The disturbing outer trappings are the main reason such a congenial prosperity faith didn't drive all others into extinction.
"Wherever Lehmann turns his analysis, from the Second Great Awakening through Horatio Alger-type piety to Norman Vincent Peale's self-help books to prosperity gospel preacher Joel Osteen, the wealthy, smiling pastor of a 45,000-strong Houston megachurch, he finds the same intertwining of salvation and riches. And the same indifference to a collective response to social ills. The money cult, Lehmann concludes, rules in good times and bad." <www.goo.gl/vJgdJK>
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SOURCES: Films
1 - God's Not Dead (Actors: Kevin Sorbo, Shane Harper; Rated: PG; Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment; Released: February 2016; Run Time: 114 minutes) <www.goo.gl/DV0wIx>
2 - God's Not Dead 2 (Actors: Melissa Joan Hart, Jess Metcalfe, David A.R. White, Robin Givens, Sadie Robertson; Rated: PG; Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment; Released: August 2016; Run Time: 121 minutes) <www.goo.gl/ZQVqo6>
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SOURCES: Monographs
3 - God's Not Dead: Evidence for God in an Age of Uncertainty, by Rice Broocks (Thomas Nelson, 2015, paperback, 284 pages) <www.goo.gl/57Z0B8>
4 - Aliens & Strangers? The Struggle for Coherence in the Everyday Lives of Evangelicals, by Anna Strhan (Oxford Univ Prs, 2015, hardcover, 288 pages) <www.goo.gl/MHahJ4>
5 - The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American Dream, by Chris Lehmann (Melville, 2016, hardcover, 432 pages) <www.goo.gl/G1lxHv>
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