God's Not Dead 2 [2016]

[Cross-posted on the Bad Movie Night Facebook page.]

After the madness of "God's Not Dead" last week, we had to experience the sequel and not just because we bought them in a two pack. Curiously, the main character from the first movie, Josh Wheton, is mentioned but does not appear and we get a new main, a history teacher named Grace. The useless subplots and all their characters are back however, I guess to anchor the stories in the same universe. And i do this universe is the most apt name.

Story Time. There's a teen book by David Levithan called "Boy Meets Boy." The story is a pretty standard gay romantic comedy in every way except for the universe it exists in. Instead of happening in the world as we know it, a world of heteronormativity, the book takes place in this one town that is especially LGBT+ friendly where phrases like "the drag queen quarterback" and "the three straight members of the boys lacrosse team" set the viibe of the town. As long as you can accept the conventions of this queer utopia universe, the book is a fun little read, but if you think that the book exists in the world as we know it, you may just find it unbelievable and hard to get into. I mention this because I think the idea is similar for the "God's Not Dead" movies. The movies exist in a world, or maybe just town, that is separate from the rest of the world, and you have to accept the conventions of this town in order for the film to work. Of course, in this case the thing that is different about this town is a distinct hosility towards Christianity that is supported and upheld by fervent, evil atheists.

The main plot surrounds a non scandal in which Grace is teaching about Martin Luther King Jr. and a student who is finding Jesus in the wake of her brother's death asks a question that compares MLK to Jesus. Grace answers the question in a totally public school friendly way, quoting scripture with citation to "the author of the book of Matthew" and treating Jesus as a historical figure. AND YET, this somehow turns into a huge situation where Grace is accused of preaching in the classroom and instead of just accepting that she made a mistake and moving on, or alternatively arguing that she didn't do anything against policy (because she didn't and for the reference, the writer of this blog is a very secular public school teacher), she decides to take the situation to court to "fight for her beliefs." What exactly she's fighting for makes no sense whatsoever. The rest of the movie is focused on the trial, and it is impossible to tell what the stance of the two sides are because the goal here seems to change constantly. The opposition is, ridiculously, the ACLU because in this universe the ACLU is the bad guy and no one wants to take Grace's case except a young libertarian lawyer (who miraculously doesn't go through a conversion by the end). In the real world the ACLU would be all over supporting Grace but whatever. Somehow the end conclusion of the film is proving again that God's not dead because . . . they proved that Jesus was a historical figure. Okay, movie. Also, the film ends with another Newsboys concert and then an after credit scene of the comic preacher getting arrested for not producing his sermons during the case. Set up for the third one!

We played Christian movie Bingo. Adam got Bingo first, followed by Keith, then Kay, and then Sarah. We literally all won there were so many stereotypes.