A freshman student from China is consistently urged by his father to stop thinking about “foolish” religious ideas and concentrate on his grades, but the young man refuses. In a subplot, a young Muslim student is willing to sacrifice her family relationships for her belief in Christ. The hero of the movie, a young university freshman named Josh Wheaton, is willing to sacrifice his relationship with his fiancée, his university career, his future job, and his reputation to stand up for God’s existence. Perhaps the most powerful and pervasive message of God’s Not Dead is that any person who calls himself or herself a Christian must be willing to sacrifice everything for Christ. The often-overlooked fact is, theistic, creationist, and Christian-oriented students and professors are frequently the target of liberal, atheistic, and/or evolutionary professors and department heads (e.g., Kingkade, 2013 Bergman, 2008 Stein and Miller, 2008 see also Miller, 2011). ![]() There was obvious bullying and intimidation taking place. Several months later, another student from the same university confirmed that the same thing happened in one of her classes. Sure enough, toward the end of the semester the professor posed the question again, “How many of you believe in God?” Only one student stood up. The professor then went on to say that by the end of the semester not one of them would stand up when he asked that question. Seven individuals out of a fairly large class rose from their seats. Sometime ago a gentleman, who had been a student at a well-known university in the southeastern United States, visited with us after one of our lectures and recounted how, at the beginning of one particular semester, a science professor asked students in the class to stand up if they believed in God. The fact of the matter is, belligerent criticism of theism and Christianity has been occurring on college campuses all over the country for years, and it is very appropriate for God’s Not Dead to raise awareness of such bullying from various intolerant, liberal professors. Claudia Puig of USA Today has alleged that “the contrived premise of God’s Not Dead is anything but credible.” Puig dismissed the idea of a professor at a respected academic institution ever criticizing religion as “primitive superstition,” saying, “Even if a teacher believed this, it’s highly unlikely he would declare it to a class full of students” (2014, emp. Although the Hollywood Reporter had a few positive things to say about the movie, in their “bottom line” they referred to it as a “simple-minded sermon” (Farber, 2014). ![]() ![]() rated the movie with one star, as only 15% of the Web site’s approved critics gave the movie a positive review ( God’s Not Dead, 2014b). Though many Christians and pro-Christian organizations around the country have been fairly complimentary of the film, general reviewers have not been so kind. ![]() Since then, more than 1,000 other theaters began showing the film, which grossed over $41 million in less than one month-pretty good for a movie with a budget of only $2 million ( God’s Not Dead, 2014a). On March 21, 2014, the movie God’s Not Dead was released in 780 theaters across the country.
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