Aubrey Malone
Chiwetel Ejiofor in a still from Come Sunday (2018) One of the ironies of the coronavirus (Covid-19) virus is that at a time when we really need films to give us some escape from the crisis unfolding around us, we can’t go to cinemas. I mentioned the New Faith Network a fortnight ago. Another option is Netflix. Many of you may already have access to this. If you don’t, you can purchase it for about €9 a month.
There are many Christian films you can watch on it. Come Sunday (2018) has Chiwetel Ejiofor as Carlton Pearson, an Oklahoma minister who was declared a heretic in 2004 by the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops. The main bone of contention was his belief that hell wasn’t eternal, rather an indeterminate time somewhere between “ten minutes and ten million years”. He later preached that hell was on earth rather than anywhere else.
I’m in Love with a Church Girl (2013) concerns a romance between a former drug dealer and a clairvoyant woman. It’s based on the life of Galley Molina, a Californian man who converted to Christianity while in prison.
The Long Goodbye (2019), not to be confused with the Robert Altman film starring Elliott Gould, is the story of Kara Tippetts, a pastor’s wife with terminal cancer who faces death with dignity and courage. She was the author of a memoir called The Hardest Peace, which won the 2015 Christian Book Award in the Inspiration category. Since she died, her husband has been leading the church they founded together in Colorado Springs.
The Young Messiah (2016) is a thoughtful re-telling of the Nativity story directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh. It begins with the flight to Egypt after Herod’s massacre of the innocents. When word reaches Mary and Joseph that he’s died, they return – but by now Herod’s son has announced his intention to carry on where his father left off. Adam Greaves-Neal plays Jesus.
No expense spared
The Gospel of Luke won the 2015 UK Christian Film Award. It’s based verbatim on the Gospel. No expense is spared with a computer-generated Jerusalem and voiceovers by Richard E. Grant and Derek Jacobi. As a partner piece to this you might like to watch The Gospel of John. Also done on a big scale, it has a cast of over 2,500. It stars Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus and is narrated by Christopher Plummer.
Other films you may enjoy are Footprints: The Path of Your Life (2016), Hoovey (2015), In-Lawfully Yours and The Apostle Peter: The Redemption. If you liked God’s Not Dead you might wish to check out the sequel, God’s Not Dead 2. It explores problems encountered in bringing the gospels into classrooms in America.
A Matter of Faith has a college student drifting away from her faith. She falls under the influence of a biology professor who teaches that evolution provides the answer to where we came from rather than anything more spiritual.