#god’s not dead

[artist-issues]

so here's something I'm curious about: God's Not Dead. The films, not the statement itself.

I first saw the first film when I was younger and I hadn't yet embarked on my journey on examining just what i was taught and what I truly believed, but I remember finding the film a little uncomfortable.

I saw the second film and Ive never watched the third, and I think what I really don't like the first film is how it bashes other people's walks of life (Muslim father, three brands of athiests, and how it continues the myth that Christians in The United States are being Persecuted for their Faith Right Now.

Oh yeah and how the plots are really really dumb too, since the first film centers around a philosophy class with a professor that is skipping a very important part of most College degrees and the second takes place in a Bible Belt State with a high school teacher answering a students question comparing Marting Luther King Jr to Jesus's Sermon on the Mount and being taken to court over it.

I was twelve or so when I saw that movie and I honestly was not convinced by the film That God's Not Dead (in terms of the actual arguments in the class scenes.

The specific Denomination that I grew up with (Adventist) focuses a LOT™ on the end times so I do know about the future persecution thing well but like, I don't think we're there yet.

Anyway if you don't know those movies, feel free to ignore this ask but I'm genuinely curious about your thoughts on them, wether positive or negative or neutral

Hi! I saw the first God’s Not Dead in theaters. Never re-watched it. Did not see the sequels.

The good thing about God’s Not Dead is that people worked hard to make something that might shine a counter-cultural light on the truth that the God of the Bible exists. Stories that try to point to truth are on the right track, baseline.

The bad thing about God’s Not Dead is that it took things that are real, and genuine, and true…and it made them feel fake. By telling the story with strange conclusions and weird-triumph moments.

The thesis of the movie, that God is not dead, is something that only non-Christians would need to be convinced of. But the movie is clearly made for Christians. So. Yeah, it’s uncomfortable.

But you shouldn’t find every experience that the movie tries to portray uncomfortable because they don’t happen. You should find it uncomfortable because they don’t happen in that cheesy, Hallmark-grade way.

When a student stands up to their professor and says, “no, I’m not going to go along with this, and this is super weird that you’re trying to draw this line about the specific Christian God,” guess what? The whole classroom doesn’t usually get up and agree with you. They normally barely react. So even though some professors do put their foot down and try to mock or “kill” God in the classroom, and some students do push back, no. It doesn’t normally happen in that victorious way.

Just like how some young Muslim converts to Christianity genuinely are treated poorly by their families, or their community, not just in America, but absolutely, certainly around the world. Absolutely, certainly. I literally can think of not one, but two examples I’ve recently heard of, directly, from people I know.

Like I said, the events and life-experiences that the first God’s Not Dead movie are based on do technically happen all the time in America, and the West, and the world in general. They just don’t normally come with crowd-agreement, impactful music, wise one-liners, and celebrity appearances. The worst thing that the God’s Not Dead movie does is show you hints of things that are real, and really happen in real life, but cheeseball way it shows you those things, and the caricatures it turns people into, makes the real thing look fake.

As far as “the myth that Christians are Persecuted Right Now in America” goes…you just have to decide what you mean by “persecuted.”

If you mean, are we getting our heads run over by cement mixers, or dragged out of our homes and imprisoned for studying or even owning a Bible, or kidnapped by hired hitmen once our families find out we’re Christians, like they are in Yemen or Africa or basically anywhere outside the West…no. No, we’re not facing persecution like that. We’re not persecuted.

But if you mean, in the context of this conversation, that “atheists and professors and people in the professional sector of our education systems don’t have a weirdly specific bone to pick with Christians,”then you’re wrong. They do. They have. For a long time.

My second semester in college, in my plain old World History class, the Professor legitimately opened his class by explaining to us students that if we wanted, he would allow us to replace our midterm and our final exams with book reports as long as we read two specific books he assigned us. One was a book about how Jesus of Nazareth was not the Messiah and the Bible was false. The other book was a fictional short novel with heavy themes criticizing specifically Christian religion. Those were the two books he picked for his students to skip taking the midterm and the final, if only they would read those two books. And those were the ones he chose.

Not only that, but literally in the first class, I remember being stunned when he flippantly opened his summary of the 18th century by saying, “If anyone ever tells you you should check out the God of the Bible, and follow him, laugh in their face. Don’t do it. He is the kind of God who likes to make His people promises and then strand them in the desert for forty years!” First class. Out the gate. Like it was a joke.

It’s not a joke. Dude just openly mocked two out of the three major world religions that people identify with across the globe. Explain to me how telling someone never to convert to a specific religion and to mock it instead is anything other than “discrimination?”

Can you imagine a Professor getting up in front of a class and saying, “if anyone ever tells you that you should check out Allah ] and follow him, convert to Islam, laugh in their face! And here’s one short novel and one historically inaccurate essay criticizing Allah and making fun of Islam; if you’ll read these, tell you what, I’ll let you skip the two most stressful exams of the semester!”

No, of course you can’t imagine that. A Professor who did that about any other religion, creed, or god would be fired or taken to court or penalized or dragged on social media, at least. But the only student in the whole room who batted an eye when he said that about the Christian God was me. The only one who said anything was me. And it wasn’t a big stand up, dramatic declaration. Momentous music didn’t play in the background. My friends and classmates didn’t’] gasp or support me or stand up and agree with me.

It was just me raising my hand and saying in a shaky voice with a red face, after the sixth time he’d randomly deviated from talking about the Roman plumbing system to describe how the Apostle Paul and the other Apostles supposedly disagreed about who Jesus was (big lie, not true at all, but often used to “discredit” the Bible) to say, “sir, that’s not true. It doesn’t make sense. There’s a verse in the Bible where the Apostle Peter literally tells the church that the Apostle Paul’s words are directly from God.” And then he was like, “okay, I’m going to move on.”

I mean I just felt kind of stupid because the whole class was confused about the interaction; nobody was treating it like it was as important as me or the professor was, so it felt awkward to “make a stand.” But rest assured, all over the freakin’ country, people are excited to use up way too much of their brain power and emotional energy mocking, disparaging, and trying to discredit the God of the Bible and Christianity. They don’t believe in Him, but they’re so he’ll-bent on making sure nobody else does either?? Like, I don’t believe in Big Foot, but I’m not walking around trying to barter my students into reading anti-Big Foot books by giving them a pass on their midterms. But that’s how lots and lots of “athiests” treat the specific Christian God.

That’s not new. It’s not dramatic. It’s not persecution. It’s alllll part of the same old song and dance.

But it is real. The worst thing about God’s Not Dead is it made it feel fake and caricature, when it happens all the time and matters 🤷‍♀️ Anyway. Hope that answered your question.

#God’s not dead #cheesy Christian movies #cheesy #movies #Christianity #me #sorry about the personal anecdote #critical thinking

[leezarttime]

Pureflix film in the avatar universe titled “Ewya’s Not Dead” where Colonel Quatrich tries to force Jake to sign a waiver saying that he hates trees.

#god’s not dead #pureflix #avatar #avatar 2

[butchdykekondraki]

all queer discourse could be stopped if we all just remembered that in the eyes of conservative fascists we're all dirty queers polluting their kids minds who need to be eradicated at all costs

#[ren] #queer discourse doesnt matter they want us all dead equally. all of you are so fucking stupid good god

[waitineedaname]

I simply don't think that's true eBooks.com but thank you anyway

#i love getting automated emails from book stores #about authors who have been dead for decades ajdbfkdjdj #i had to read nietzsche for my existentialism class. god what a pretentious dude

[natalieironside]

We went from "#freethenipple" to "gay Internet communists will call you a pervert for admitting you sometimes jack off" in the space of like 3 years

#the dead hand of god #reactivate later

[gingerswagfreckles]

I hope they find the idiot rich ppl I hope a teenager doesn't have to die a horrible nightmare death and then I also hope they immediately get slapped with a $500,000 bill to repay the taxpayer cost of rescuing them from their idiocracy and then also another $1billion dollars inconvenience fee of making us all hear about this for 3 days straight.

#oceangate #gingerswagfreckles #titanic #they wont find them tho theyre dead :// or will be soon #i really dont find this funny at all but god what a mess

[hamletthedane]

Still laughing at Brian May offhandedly writing the greatest understatement in the history of academia in his astrophysics doctoral dissertation:

Ah, yes - “various pressures.” Like being one of the greatest guitarists ever and playing/writing/singing for the most legendary rock band of all time.

Those various pressures.

#queen #Brian May #just a rock and roll god and also an astrophysicist #it’s like Deacon casually inventing the technology for all modern bass stereos bc he was an electrical engineer #a side gig of being a genius #along with their friends ‘learned opera at 5yo and literally SAW music’ and ‘chaos tornado with a promising career in dentistry’ #Music #shut up e #these are twitter thoughts but twitter is dead so now I subject you all to them

[ceo-of-sloppy-men]

#destiny 2 #cyberpunk 2077 #red dead redemption 2 #the outer worlds #dragon age inquisition #death stranding #god of war ragnarok #mass effect #dragon age #fallout 4 #nick valentine #goro takemura #phineas welles #maximillion desoto #saul bright #varric tethras

[nyny-213]

Very late to the game but I really enjoyed this movie. The main character made great points and was really inspiring. I can’t see him as nothing more than Spencer from good luck Charlie though lol.

His ex girlfriend was irritating.

Sad that the Muslim girl Ayisha got disowned but happy she found community.

It was cool to see duck dynasty mentioned and the reporter lady any give her life to Christ at the end.

The newsboys sound like a nice band and the concert looked fun.

I’m glad the professor got saved at the end and is in heaven. I’ve noticed most people who are angry and hate God are just hurt.

Lessons I learned: always stick up for your faith, you might lose people who you thought cared about you, and redemption is for everybody.

9/10 rating for me

#christian #christianity #christian faith #christianblogger #god is good #jesus loves you #amen #movie review #God’s not dead #spencer from good luck Charlie

[lieu-rey]

first meeting

#rdr2 #red dead redemption #red dead redemption 2 #arthur morgan #issac morgan #man sees baby for the first time ever and is surprised that theyre tiny little creatures #arthur being the man he is mustve had SO many emotions holding issac for the first time. and this is all he manages to say in the moment #im lowkey projecting bc when i met my niece i absolutely REFUSED to hold her until i saw her the second time and i was like. #oh my fucking god shes so fucking tiny #anyway. i hope nothing bad happens to them ever<3 #btw arthurs clothes come from an edit of a young version of him that i saw #and i also saw a video of someone managing to find a repurposed model of eliza in rdr2s data and shes got dark hair! #so i gave issac dark hair (and arthurs blue eyes<3) #arthurs definitrly into people with dark hair #pspspspsp arthur i have dark hair pspspspspspspsp #AHEM anyway- #sorry i cant draw babies even tho i see one all the time now LMFAO #my art

[notebooks-and-laptops]

People do not talk enough about how amazing Lae'zels voice acting is. Devora Wilde put her whole ass pussy into some of those lines but nobody pays attention and calls laezel one note and angry. But have you listened? Have you heard her voice shake as she cries "what good - this heart of stone - for it to be shattered?" Have you heard the conviction where she declares that Vlaketh has sinned against her? Have you listened to the fear in her voice, the slight tremble when she is talking of becoming a mindflayer and the way that she has utter awe in her tones when she experiences something that is truly spiritual to her? Like. It's such a subtle and great performance.

#bg3 #lae'zel #the other voice actors are also incredible #wylls voice actor creates the charming prince so easily #but still manages the tough moments #karlachs act 3 gortash dead speech and the pain in that??? #astarion gets all the praise anyway i dont gotta mention him #and gale and SHADOWHEART #god #such good performances in this game

[thankstothe]

this show rewires you fundamentally in 60 seconds and then just goes on to have more seasons. audacity

#house md #gregory house #james wilson #hilson #screencap #s03e02 “cane and able” #imagine bringing the receipts to the ceo of bodylanguage #“does sound like you though” #“worried your wings would melt” #“god doesnt limp” #are you kidding me? this is rapid fire and im already dead #havent stopped thinking about this #I do like that Wilson is wrong about House's ego here #he tries but he doesn't really get house #idk being worried and so wrong then doing stupid shit with all that is just very human #house isnt even mad and goes along with it #long post #longpost

[lazycranberrydoodles]

this is how the post-lqq interaction went right

#obsessed with this hua cheng tbh!!! hes so cute!! #‘dont idolize someone’ hua cheng is built different #‘nobody wants to worship a scrap god’ hua cheng is built different #‘how can you protect your beloved if you’re dead’ hua cheng is built different #‘slaughtering people have been the best way to make a spiritual weapon’ hua cheng is bu #art #my art #tgcf #tian guan ci fu #hob #heaven official’s blessing fanart #heaven official’s blessing #xie lian #hua cheng #hualian #lmao #tgcf meme

[troutreznor]

text transcribed under readmore

SMALL DOG SYNDROME 

small dog you’re so funny when you snap small dog you’re so funny when you shake small dog you’re so bad when you bark small dog you never learned the rules

small dog lays flat on the floor  and sighs and whines  while it waits for you to come back from wherever you go  all day small dog doesn’t know if you’re coming home small dog hides under the bed to puke does it quiet eats its shame before you ever smell it  small dog’s bark is worse than its bite  small dog you are so funny when you bite  small dog it’s so funny when you’re mad  so by all means pick it up throw it around  lock it in a cage while you laugh small dog you are so funny when you cry

small dog can’t remember being a wolf  can’t remember being big  howling in harpstring harmony  like a plucked and quivering note in a catacomb  sleeping in a warm pile of bodies in a dry place that smells like family  the taste of fresh hot blood and wet bone iron fire honey salt 

small dog run free beneath the moon in your dreams

small dog is so happy you’re home!! small dog loves you!!!

JMGD

#my writing #spilled ink #spilled poetry #idfk how to tag this #poetry is not dead #words words words #ok to rb #this has very minimal editing and i havent written shit in a long long time now so be nice to me for the love of god

[oornithologistt]

vultures amirite?

og image below the cut

#vultures #vulture #how hungry #but i suppose in this case it's #how dead #birds #bird #meme #funny #god. putting the meme funny tags on my post killed me a little inside #anyway i found the image on pinterest thank you pinterest i love you #i wish i could give credit to the photographer though #so also curse you pinterest #for not having reliable image sources #birdblr #turkey vulture #i think?

[bishy437]

couple's tee

#i care them #original was ‘god won’t let me die’ but HC is already dead 😝 #tgcf #heaven official's blessing #hualian #xie lian #hua cheng #tian guan ci fu #mine