(REVIEW) The film’s best elements still chaff under faith-based genre tropes. The genre that Kingdom Story Company has conquered so successfully is built on an audience that highly prizes good messages and family friendliness. Both of these are good things. But that has often rewarded tropes that work against the genre being both truthful or beautiful. These have often become more noticeable as the quality of the movies have otherwise improved.
Read More(REVIEW) Author of “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism,” author Katherine Stewart picks up where that 2020 book left off in her new work “Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.” In it, she surveys a horizon that has only grown darker. It is a landscape overshadowed by a well-organized, well-funded consortium of oligarchs and billionaires and others.
Read More(REVIEW) The film follows Roya Mahboob, an Afghan woman whose passion in life is giving young girls a chance at a better life by teaching them computer programming. She decides that the only way to gain popular support for her endeavors in a patriarchal society is to start a women’s robotics team and win global competitions. But this will be harder and more dangerous than she suspects. It may go without saying, but the movie has a worthy message based on inspiring real-life people.
Read More(REVIEW) More progressive critics have said Hays doesn’t go far enough. Perhaps it’s not so much that God’s mind has changed on homosexuality or slavery, but God was always pro-LGBTQ and against slavery. The early Christians weren’t ready for the concept of individual human rights. Instead, one could say God was so merciful and patient, he allowed the human church to catch up with God’s gracious understanding of such issues.
Read More(REVIEW) In “The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance,” Jamar Tisby provides a survey of leaders whose devotion to racial justice resulted from their belief in God and commitment to God’s work in the world. In time for Black History Month, the church has been given a resource that explores people of faith and their work in racial justice. Christians of all races and ethnicities can benefit from knowing those who made a connection between their faith and justice and acted accordingly.
Read More(REVIEW) Bryan Johnson went viral several times before the recent release of his Netflix documentary “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever.” The title says enough about his goal and the source of his virality — but his story, of course, goes deeper than his obsession with extending his lifespan.
Read More(REVIEW) In “Immigration and Apocalypse: How the Book of Revelation Shaped American Immigration,” Yii Jan Lin narrates how some Americans have used the apocalyptic vision from the Book of Revelation to idealize the United States as a new holy land, while simultaneously marginalizing immigrants. The U.S. is portrayed as the New Jerusalem, with immigrants viewed as outsiders exhibiting unethical behaviors.
Read More(REVIEW) The film also gives a fairly actuarial picture of our culture’s modern move toward the supernatural. As people are abandoning organized religion, they’re not becoming secular, but embracing “new age spirituality” — with beliefs in some kind of God and/or spirits and various occult or folk methods of connecting with them. This is particularly true of young women.
Read More(REVIEW) Compelling and comprehensive, this book may nonetheless be an uphill climb for lay readers with little more than a basic Sunday school education. Helpful maps, a glossary and a timeline offer context and reorienting for those who may get lost in the thickets of such esoterica as apocalyptic hypostasis. None of this should dissuade the curious who want a deeper understanding of Christianity’s complex, layered early history.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Almost two decades ago, the reigning editor of The New York Times admitted, during a speech to the National College Media Association, that the world’s most influential journalism cathedral had changed one of its core doctrines.
Read MoreIn a special year-end edition, Weekend Plug-in counts down the Top 10 most popular ReligionUnplugged.com stories from the past 12 months.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Here we are, doing a top ten list of faith-based films for 2024. It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since “The Passion of The Christ” helped launch the modern era of faith-based films. Since then, such movies have gone from a mostly-mocked niche genre to one that has entered the mainstream. Here’s what made the top 10 list in 2024.
Read More(ANALYSIS) President Donald Trump is returning to the White House, convinced — after a close encounter with an assassin's bullet — that he had God on his side in the election. While opinions differed on that theological question, Trump drew support from voters that frequented pews. Members of Religion News Association selected the presidential election as the year's top national religion story.
Read MoreAs 2024 draws to a close, the Christian community in India reflects on a year marked by increasing challenges and persecution. Data from various organizations paint a sobering picture of the difficulties faced by this religious minority, which comprises approximately 2.3% of the country’s population of 1.45 billion people.
Read MoreUnlike “The Chosen,” which spends a lot of time on the Jewish rituals that shaped Jesus’ life and that of his followers, “The Carpenter” makes no attempts to authentically portray life and practices in ancient Israel. It doesn’t even portray biblical events. The two plot lines — Oren’s journey to the Jerusalem competition and Yeshua’s serenely intoned life lessons — have seemingly nothing to do with each other.
Read More(REVIEW) “We Who Wrestle with God” is a solid compilation of Peterson’s views on the continuity between biblical testimony and the human condition. If he’d been more disciplined with his prose, the good in his work would have been more readable. And if he’d taken more seriously wrestling with the text itself, there would have been a lot more good to read.
Read More(REVIEW) “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” is an eight-episode docudrama series following the lives and sacrifices of saints: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Each episode features a dramatization of their lives, narration by Scorsese and a panel.
Read More(REVIEW) In 2018, Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared on the East African nation’s political scene almost from nowhere. Claiming to be responding to an assignment by God, the young Pentecostal Christian promised democratic salvation and national unity to a hopelessly divided nation.
Read More(REVIEW) Despite its flaws, “Agatha All Along” gives a refreshingly honest look at grief, relationships, the false promises of power and selfishness. In a world that churns out superhero movies with nothing to say, this is a welcome thing. In a world that tries to idealize the witch lifestyle, this show gives a far more accurate take than most forms of media have the guts to. The world of “Agatha” is one without hope in the face of death.
Read More(REVIEW) “Conclave,” the fictional thriller that outlines the Catholic process of selecting a new pope, does the audience the service of stating its intended message outright. In a controversial homily that begins the proceedings, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence declares that “certainty is the great enemy of unity.” The movie also goes on to demonstrate that lesson in a variety of ways, as conspiracy abounds and tension grows.
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