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Saturday Night Live (SNL) has been poking fun at Christians for years. The question I want to ask is: is there any validity to their jesting? Or more importantly, can we learn anything from it?
A few weeks ago SNL did a sketch mocking the film God’s Not Dead (and the sequel), mixed with the recent controversy about Christians refusing to provide services for gay weddings.
I was watching the sketch with my teen daughter and her response was, “Honestly Dad…I’m not trying to disrespect Christian films or anything… but, God’s Not Dead kinda did feel like this. All the nonbelievers were depicted as evil, vindictive people.”
Here’s the SNL sketch followed by some discussion questions I’ve provided (Ministry Leaders: use this to provoke discussion with your leadership team).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
So, instead of getting angry… let me ask you: what can we learn from this sketch about the world’s perception of us?
Is this how we really are?
Is this how most unbelievers are?
What is the best way to reflect Christ to people who think we’re like this?
Read I Peter 3:15-18 and ask yourself this: Why would someone ever ask you to give the reason for the hope that they see in you? (hint… they’d have to see it in you AND see you as someone they’d respect enough to ask. More on applying this verse in this free training video.)
How can you live your life this week so others see Christ in you?
Posted in Entertainment Media, Evangelism, Faith, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment
Is this how we really are? Not all of you, no. Definitely a lot. Depends on your proximity to the Bible belt I guess. I live in Lynchburg Virginia. Falwell Country. Oh yes, Christians are like that here. Oh yes. Not all, but you hear enough to make the eyes roll into the back of your head. Oh yes, I’m very militant, and love “Discussions.”
Is the how most unbelievers are? Not all, but definitely some. More on the social justice warrior side though. Unbelievers have no real choice, but to be militant. I think most Christians and Atheist(or other believers of other faiths) get along fine. It’s the holy rollers who have an agenda, even when they believe they don’t, who’re are the problem.
All that being said that mock video was pretty spot on. Maybe if you watch both the mock trailer and the actual Gods Not Dead trailers side by side you’ll finally get why those movies make Atheist very very agitated. Those movies do not invite discussion, they start fights. Which is the idea. They are the rallying call to Christiandom to make a stand against a world that no longer allows them to get there way. Which is definitely how Atheist see Christians.
I’m a Youth Minister, and a devout follower of Christ. I’m also an English major and a movie lover. I find watching a lot of these movies really, really painful.
A big problem is the fact that many, many Christian films are not good movies. They have no complexity, are poorly written\direted, things are very black\white (right\wrong), and non=believers are portrayed as uncompromising villains.
They feel to me to be some of the worst kind of pandering. I don’t buy that they are made as evangelization tools; I think they’re made to appeal to a very specific audience, and get them to watch and say “yeah!!!”. A lot of these movies aren’t trying to be good art, or tools to spread the Gospel: they’re propaganda trying to make money.
South Park did a pretty accurate parody of this about a decade ago, joking that all you have to do is sing about Jesus and Christians will buy your stuff whether it’s good or bad.
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