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Why 'God's Not Dead' won't die
The “God’s Not Dead” series isn’t taking anyone by surprise these days.
The franchise shocked Hollywood in 2014 by raking in more than $62 million on a microscopic budget.
The latest disturbing headlines power 'God’s Not Dead' as much as its faith-friendly demographic.
The fifth film in the saga, “God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust,” will earn decidedly less based on shrinking receipts from previous installments. That doesn’t diminish what the franchise means to both Christian conservatives and pop culture in general.
The first film, starring Kevin Sorbo, Dean Cain, and David A.R. White, gave Christians a rare, red-meat view of the culture wars. The story focused on a secular professor (Sorbo) matching wits with an evangelical student. If the young man didn’t declare “God is dead,” he would fail the class and crash his academic dreams.
Critics savaged the film. Witness the movie’s 12% “rotten” rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Subsequent films faced similar brickbats from Critic Nation. Christian audiences lined up anyway, eager to see stories reflecting their worldviews. Hollywood, by and large, does the opposite, then and now.
The saga’s durability is part of an overall hunger for faith-friendly fare that continues today. The recent Kendrick brothers drama “The Forge” has earned an impressive $20 million in just three weeks. That’s more than mainstream titles like “Borderlands,” “The Crow,” and “Blink Twice” have generated. “The Forge” follows a young black man (Aspen Kennedy) who turns his life around by embracing his faith.
The “God's Not Dead” franchise also has a knack for riding the zeitgeist in uncomfortable ways. The 2018 sequel “God’s Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness” tracked clergy members under fire for allegedly using their pulpits to promote political causes.
The 2021 sequel “God’s Not Dead: We the People” dramatized efforts to squash the rise of Christian homeschooling in America.
“In God We Trust” finds lawmakers singling out people of faith, demanding that religion stay far, far away from the government.
If any of this sounds a bit too close to real life, that’s no accident. Christians are routinely slammed by Hollywood, but in real life it’s often worse. Pro-life protester Lauren Handy, 30, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison earlier this year for a 2020 incident blockading an abortion clinic.
Meanwhile, countless examples of extreme far-left violence go unpunished. Church arson attacks are commonplace in Canada. Closer to home, the FBI’s “Richmond Memo,” according to the House Judiciary Committee, fingered “traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists.”
And who could forget how the U.S. government kept churches closed but liquor stores open during the pandemic? Even the New York Times noticed.
It’s no wonder “God’s Not Dead” refuses to fade away.
“It’s almost as if [White] has a crystal ball, or he’s being guided in some direction,” Scott Baio, who co-stars in the latest “God’s Not Dead” feature, told "The Hollywood in Toto Podcast" of the saga’s co-star and producer.
The latest disturbing headlines power “God’s Not Dead” as much as its faith-friendly demographic. That isn’t all that the saga does.
The franchise offers work to actors whose conservative bona fides keep them out of Hollywood Inc. Think Cain, a co-star in the latest installment, along with Samaire Armstrong, Scott Baio, and Melissa Joan Hart. All worked steadily in Hollywood for decades before their openly conservative views caught up with them.
These aren’t walk-on roles, either. “In God We Trust” co-stars Armstrong as a single mom helping Reverend Dave (White) defeat a cruel Democrat (Ray Wise). Baio shines as the Democrat’s right-hand man, a smooth operator eager to exploit any opportunity for his client.
Many conservative actors keep quiet for fear of losing work. And they have a point. Sorbo says his agent left him more than a decade ago due to the star’s Christian conservative beliefs. He’s been forced to create his own projects outside the Hollywood bubble to stay active.
Oscar nominee James Woods, another outspoken conservative, hasn’t had a major film role in a decade.
If stars see their like-minded colleagues keeping busy with new projects, it may embolden them to speak out, too.
The “God’s Not Dead” series doesn’t represent peak cinema. The films preach to the choir and lack the razzle-dazzle of bigger-budget movies. They still offer an alternative to audiences and a chance for right-leaning stars to do what they do best: entertain us.
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