I saw the God’s Not Dead 2 trailer play before Woodlawn a while back and couldn’t believe my eyes. Who knows why Pure Flix waited two weeks to put it online (mysterious ways, etc.), but now you can share in my astonishment. It’s every bit as incredible as you’d imagine a movie called “God’s Not Dead 2” might be.
GOD’S NOT DEAD 2 centers on Grace (Melissa Joan Hart), a Christian teacher, who is forced before a judge for honestly answering a question about Jesus in the classroom. With the principal and superintendent joining forces with a zealous civil liberties group, Grace faces an epic court case that could cost her career she loves and expel God from the classroom.
It also stars Robin Givens, Jesse Metcalfe, Ghostbusters‘ Ernie Hudson, and former Senator Fred Thompson, in his final film. As you can see, the plot is a sort of reverse Scopes trial where all the fundamentalist right’s bogeymen show up. Including (gasp) the ACLU!
The big-city types naturally descend on a small, God-fearing town looking to tear it apart at the seams, led by Ray Wise, who sneers “We’re going to prove once and for all… that God is dead.”
What, nothing about Sharia Law? The message is clear: The government’s jack-booted thugs are coming to take your Jesus away! And then the trailer ends with a band singing the title of the movie in a Bon Jovi-esque rock song – God’s not dead / he’s surely alive. Eat your heart out, Kenny Loggins. Honestly, this is how all trailers should end. The Martian’s not here / He’s really on Mars… Creed’s Apollo’s son / he punches the guys… It’s a Bridge of Spies / It’s really got spies…
The plot would be hilarious if it weren’t such an accurate representation of lots of people’s real fears. We have a leading presidential candidate who talks about the Marine Todd meme (seemingly the inspiration for God’s Not Dead and the sequel) like it’s a real thing that happened:
wow pic.twitter.com/mj3wrTgJYA
— Jon Ward (@jonward11) October 25, 2015
College professors and the ACLU teaming up to demand you renounce Jesus is like some weirdly pervasive, fundamentalist Christian version of razor-blade-filled apples — this urban legend that’s impossible to refute.
A few weeks ago, Fox News even had a sweetheart profile of some heroic high school football coach who is bravely defying his school district’s ban on organized prayer by praying at the 50-yard line before every game.
There’s a scene in the great football film “Facing the Giants” when the coach decides to implement a new coaching philosophy – to praise God no matter what the result. Joe Kennedy, a football coach at Bremerton High School in Washington, was so inspired by the film he decided to embrace that philosophy – knowing that to do so could cost him his job. […]
Since 2008, Coach Kennedy would walk to the 50-yard line where he would offer a short prayer of thanksgiving for the safety of the players, the fairness of the game and for spirited competition. [FoxNews]
The article (written by the author of God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values) talks about a “draconian” letter the school superintendent sent the coach. Conveniently ignoring the part where the coach has been doing this for eight years, and has faced no disciplinary consequences other than a firmly-worded letter. We’re defining “attack” rather broadly here, no? (To say nothing of “traditional values”). Also, you guys know we have these things called Christian schools, right? And that you’re free to go there and organize prayer during school hours as much as you want? Just a thought.
God’s Not Dead 2 opens April 1st, 2016.