Christian Martyr Complex - God's Not Dead : A Light in Darkness | Renegade Cut

[Applause] [Music] the thesis of the god's not dead film series is that Christians and Christianity are under siege in America and that the way to fight back is through use and misuse of the First Amendment primarily in academic settings in the first film a college freshman named Josh out debates his impossibly antagonistic straw man atheist philosophy professor on the subject of the existence of God the professor is violently killed at the end and dies but not before becoming a last minute born-again Christian what happened here tonight is that cause for celebration in the second film a high school teacher named grace ends up in court after answering a student's question about Jesus she wins the case defeating the villainous ACLU lawyer even though the ACLU would probably be the one to take Grace's case in the real world in the third film the historic church on a public university campus is vandalized and a man is killed what happened here tonight is that cause for celebration the University decides that this is a good time to remove the church and put up the long-awaited Student Center in its place Dave the pastor finds this unacceptable and sees it as God being removed from the lives of Americans in case you hadn't noticed two out of three of these narratives are not about God being dead or the existence of a creator and all three deal more heavily with the erroneous idea of Christian persecution in my country these movies aren't about God they're about America yes [Music] [Music] God's not dead a light in darkness begins with Pastor Dave arrested for not turning over his sermons to the authorities he is immediately released because this is actually unconstitutional all three God's not dead movies tell us the story of persecuted Christians in America it provides a false narrative to its target audience that the Christian majority in America roughly seventy five percent is the real marginalized group and that other groups who have no power actually do have all the power in sociology the term majority does not always refer to a numerical majority rather it refers to the group that has power in the case of Christians in America it is both numerical and a case of power and privilege okay this next bit is going to be so 101 that it shouldn't even need to be said but for the audience of God's not dead apparently it does a dominant group whether in the numerical majority or not holds privileges that the minority does not usually some combination of social status access to education wealth and political power obvious examples include disproportionate policing of racial minorities in America housing discrimination due to race and other things that the racial majority in America white people do not face the majority or dominant group passively receives privileges that minorities or the subordinate group do not again this is super obvious that some people are treated differently than others but you would not believe the defensive nosov the majority about this in America the majority religious group is Christianity making up roughly seventy five percent of America this supermajority grants Christians social status and political power that minority religions and the non-religious do not possess in God's not dead however Christians are portrayed as the oppressed class the subordinate group and an actual bonafide minority group atheists are portrayed as having greater social status and political power two of the features that I might know does not actually possess it's backwards but it's what many Christians genuinely believe is the case in the real world in reality obviously Christians do not face nearly as many hate crimes as religious minorities they do not get labeled terrorists simply for existing and they do not face challenges being elected into public office the majority enjoys privileges that the minority does not now that does not mean white Americans or Christian Americans do not have problems because everyone has problems everyone gets laid off or has their car break down sooner or later but their problems are not the result of being white for being Christian nobody is denied housing as a direct consequence of being white in America nobody is unelectable for public office as a direct consequence of being Christian in America every American president has either been a Christian or in the early days a deist someone who still believes in God heaven help you if you're an atheist seeking public office the year before the last presidential election almost half of Americans said that they would outright refuse to vote for an atheist even if they were nominated by their chosen party among Protestants the largest form of Christianity in America it's more than half meaning in order for an atheist to become president they would have to capture literally every other demographic and every stray voter in the country who didn't immediately dismiss them sight unseen including an inordinate amount of voters from the opposing party atheists have no real power in America due to their limited numbers and lack of representation in government there are no self-identified atheists in Congress anymore and only one listed as unaffiliated only about 3 percent of Americans openly identify as atheists but tell that to these movies God's not dead showcases atheism as an enemy that is both incredibly strong and incredibly weak strong because it has the backing of evil but weak because it is opposed to God the film wants us to believe that the minority religions and secular minority in America help each other through a secret web of mutual assistance they are crafty and control the media this feeds into real world fears among socially conservative Christians at America that they as the majority religion face comparable or even worse discrimination than minority religions of course that is not how power structures work society generally establishes systemic power in the majority it does not have to be codified in law though simply by a majority existing the social attitudes and social interaction favors santé majority the creators of films like God's not dead create a fiction in which Christians the majority in both senses of the word in America are the marginalized group this is a misconception that is unfortunately widespread and exists outside of the confines of Christian exploitation films a 2016 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute states that nearly half of Americans believe that discrimination against Christians in America is as common as discrimination against African Americans and other minorities among Christians that belief is greater than half in truth attitudes toward minority religions in America are much worse for example attitudes toward Muslims in America are worse and disprove the idea that Christians are discriminated against as much as or more than religious minorities most Americans still believe Islam is and this is a quote here at odds with American values and way of life that includes white evangelical Protestants often thought to be the target demographic of God's not dead here are some examples of cases of so-called Christian persecution that God's not dead wants us to believe is happening in America we know that these movies want us to learn about these cases because they literally put them in the end credits let's examine them state of Washington v Arlene's flowers the state of Washington and a same-sex couple sued a florist because said florist discriminated against them on the basis of their sexuality this is not Christian persecution it is persecution of homosexuals Cryer v climbed a same-sex couple sued a cake artist and her business for discriminating against them on the basis of their sexuality again not Christian persecution persecution of homosexuals Cochrane V city of Atlanta the fire chief of Atlanta sued the city after it fired him for expressing his religious beliefs about marriage in a book he wrote now that's the version God's not dead wants you to hear but he was actually fired for proselytizing on the job handing out copies of his book to his subordinates who did not ask for it and creating a bad working environment Katyn V Anderson Wiley a counseling student sued a university for what she believed was a violation of her religious freedom in reality she was counseling gay people to go to conversion therapy which is illegal in many states and widely understood to be both incredibly harmful by the psychiatric profession and outright quackery as well the rest are a series of cases about companies who are mandated to provide proper health care to their employees which includes contraception and more and more and more anti-gay discrimination and demonization masquerading as religious freedom as I was writing this a Christian anti LGBT hate group called the Alliance defending freedom has appealed a case to the Supreme Court which would allow employers to fire employees based purely on the basis of being transgender and they call this freedom now some Christians argue that they should be able to deny service to any group or class of people but historically that leads to creating second-class citizens this is not religious freedom it is freedom to reinstitute a new form of segregation if these businesses refused to perform services for an african-american couple we would call them bigots but because they don't want to serve a gay couple they think they are being discriminated against instead in short when you are accustomed to privilege equality feels like oppression God's not dead a light in darkness offers a backdrop for a debate about the role of Christian faith in the modern political climate and as seen in previous offerings its role in academia it tells us that ranting Facebook commenters might have a good point but more disturbing is the idea that the young white male who commits violence against the church only did so because of a broken heart that is dangerous rhetoric surrounding school shooters at the moment rather than tackling the systemic problems in our society and our laws that allow such violence it is blamed on something abstract like anger and heartache that cannot be dealt with NRA spokesperson Dana lash makes a cameo in the film interviewing the protagonist so the messaging here is frightening to say the least one antagonist in the film is clearly modeled after a black lives matter protester which is noticeably problematic and speaks to the film's inherent right-wing politics and false equivalencies the best and worst part of the film comes when Dave is in a predominantly black Church complaining about his problems and the Reverend says well the who do you think you talkin to I'm a black preacher in the deep south I could build you a church with all the bricks been thrown through my windows in this moment and a couple others in the film it almost seems like a light in darkness is reevaluating the first two films but in the end a light in darkness is no different it cannot begin to imagine what sacrifice and persecution really looks like and because of this it stretches the truth God's not dead a light in darkness opens with Dave in jail for not surrendering his sermons and the media hounding him God's not dead is citing the real case in which this was attempted but not actually followed through in the real world when the government attempted to do this the ACLU that God's not dead hates so much actually supported the church's rights also nobody has tried the same thing again it is settled law and the Constitution is the Constitution but that is unimportant - God's not dead because the implication that it could happen is enough the prior movie had grace in court over saying Jesus in her classroom even though the manner in which he said it did not violate church and state separation school prayer guidelines or the law and no such case exists but again this is unimportant - God's not dead because the implication that it could happen needs to be enough for the audience and the first movie is just a facebook anecdote that absolutely did not happen once more does not matter - God's not dead these films are fiction yes but the target audience is meant to believe that similar cases are happening all the time citing half-truth court cases christian exploitation movies do not teach you to think for yourself and it does not give you new ideas that you might not have considered instead they instruct Christians what to think how to behave and how to confront those whose beliefs are different from their own the first God's not dead film is literally a debate primer designed to both inform Christians how to shut down atheists and preach misconceptions and myths about atheists in general these films treat Christians like children or uneducated the Bible is meant to leave a lot of room for its readers to think listen and respond which is owed a lot to its Jewish roots Christ teaches us humility Christian exploitation films have no such humility if God's not dead a light in darkness has a central theme a core message it is trying to impart on its target demographic it is that of a false civility that is possessed by American Christians but lacking in those who are not in the film a young man perhaps having too much to drink and unhappy with his Christian girlfriend needing space from him throw something into the window of a local church some Rube Goldberg happenstance later a man is killed in a church fire over and over the film tells us that anger at the church is poisonous and that civility must be reached between both sides the film prefers not to broach the legitimate complaints against the influence of the Christian Church in American life politics and academia and instead blame the conflict on an amorphous anger in the end Pastor Dave martyrs himself for the cause of this false unity this phony civility he gives up his church but really he simply builds a new one suggesting that he actually gave up nothing God's not dead a light in darkness does not address the concerns that non-christians have demands first civility function primarily to stifle the frustrations out cries protests and declarations of grievances of those currently facing real harm the oppressed the marginalized the minority calls for civility are a smokescreen to allow those in power to continue unabated such civility a neutrality of both speech and action is more useful to those currently enjoying the fruits of the status quo than it is useful to those hoping to affect the change or bring attention to their oppression and those calling for civility definitely know this it's a tactic to suppress protest and to falsely claim that both sides share equal blame for the unequal relationship between majority and minority many arguments for this civility that protects the status quo invokes the legacy of Martin Luther King jr. a great Christian leader they weaponized King and show his nonviolent protest as a Platonic ideal King is the exemplar for the so-called right way for abused and oppressed minorities in the country to protest and affect change God's not dead to also used King by name as a means of talking down to one of the film's only african-american characters this non-violent inoffensive civil rights activism of King used to scold and finger wag minorities is actually a completely false image their actions were militant and confrontational such protests may have been nonviolent but in order for change to occur laws had to be broken King himself went to jail dozens of times breaking the law was necessary because the civility of working within the system and the status quo provides few outlets for affecting nationwide change on such a massive scale King's tactics were not widely considered civil at the time and public opinion polls showed whites generally believed black protesters were agitators and were disrupting public order when God's not dead and contemporary politicians call for civility and unity it's important to understand motivation civility and unity are unassailable words they always carry an inherent positive connotation and because of this calls for civility and unity from the mouths of those in power the oppressors the majority can be said without much public outcry but the motivation for these calls are not benign it's an attempt to protect the status quo and those who benefit from it from the completely understandable anger and frustration of those it harms God's not dead a light and darkness uses a violent act as its catalyst to discuss the civility it demands of people it uses an unconscionable act burning down a church and killing a pastor to make its point through its own fiction but then in the film when people do protest peacefully even more peacefully than King Pastor Dave insists that they put down their protest signs see that is the tactic of those calling for an end to violent protests violence is decried and those to whom the violence is a response say that this is an unacceptable level of protest then a nonviolent protest occurs and this is deemed unacceptable as well the goal posts keep moving until those who benefit from the status quo be they white men the rich or conservative Christians can defame any protest no matter how civil because civility is not what they want the end of any protests or movements against them is what is wanted the term civility is a reflection of majority enforced social norms and attitudes not a system of effective debate or a manner in which sides that are given unequal time and unequal treatment can debate equally those not in power do not have equal representation in Congress and that requires those not empowered to protest to shout and guess to be angry sometimes God's not dead a light in darkness condemns any anger towards those in power but the truth is anger is sometimes a necessary catalyst toward action and that being true a call to remove anger has the intended side-effect of removing action let's use the target audience of the god's not dead films as an example that being evangelical Christians according to Pew Research the majority 55% of evangelical Protestants believe homosexuality must be discouraged it is also the position of evangelical Christian churches in America now what someone holds in their hearts may be no business of others and might seem unimportant but this has consequences outside of Sunday services a majority of white evangelical Christians in America 51% support a businesses right to discriminate against LGBT customers evangelical Christian politicians and their constituents help further discrimination against gay people and against trans people in everywhere from schools to bathrooms everything from women's reproductive rights to adoption rights are affected by the Christian majority in America and specifically the evangelical Christian influence on the American political system God's not dead a light in darkness either misunderstands or purposefully obfuscates the meaning of Tolerance the talking head journalist character makes the same argument that the majority always makes all of these college administrators they go on and on and on about diversity and tolerance and inclusion but yet when it's asked of them they run you off of campus tolerance for the minority or the oppressed is a means in which to protect the minority or the oppressed tolerance for oppression itself is not an equal concept tolerance cannot be a mandate for how the oppressed must treat their oppressor because it's not tolerance its culpability in the actions of the oppressor when Christian churches and Christian organizations in America can't do everything they want that's not persecution that's not intolerance that's a mild amount of pushback against the overwhelming majority we are under no obligation to be tolerant of intolerance being tolerant to intolerance does not create more tolerance it creates more intolerance this all might seem like a paradox but it's one that's easily solved by not tolerating intolerance when the central character of God's not dead a light in darkness calls for an equal civility and equal tolerance on both sides of this argument he is doing what those in power always do he's drawing a false equivalency now the character is portrayed as selfless and heroic and is sacrificed but that's because the movie has created a debate for itself to win pastor dave is the peacemaker and the minority characters who question the church come to see him as a hero because of course they do because the movie wants us to believe that the word civility when used by those in power is euphemistic for control here's an example that you probably know someone does or says something absolutely monstrous is called out on it and then he says hey come on don't be so divisive yeah it's a ploy and not a very good one - King it was the moderate who was the greatest threat to the minorities of America people devoted to order more than justice those who preferred a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice so when those who call for a false civility whether they are politicians or the bad filmmakers behind a bad series of bad Christian exploitation films use King as a bludgeon they are in fact engaging in the behavior that he most famously denounced [Music] so let's go back to the end of the film here this only makes sense on a superficial level as if the problem is more about how we talk to each other than what we do bear in mind that the evangelical Christian base that watches these films believes it is being persecuted Dave's argument about getting better sounds nice but he doesn't address what that means to the church getting better means repealing same-sex marriage and reproductive rights to his opponents it means protecting those things if two sides have opposite goals the problem is not their tone of voice an attempt by the majority to settle down and oppressed people is an attempt to stifle them not make peace with them and give them what they want a call to stop shouting plays differently to its audience the movie doesn't take the arguments that contradict its own seriously and doesn't ask the audience to either what the film wants and what the film tells the people is that they really need to start listening to Christians Dave's argument meaning God's not dead argument is not in good faith he may as well be paraphrasing Dana lashes video where she ranted against protesters who shut down interstates and airports and in her words bully the law-abiding citizens Dave's sermon is an unaccredited darkness is far too weak to take on any such problems because they fly in the face of the persecution complex with which it wants to brand itself some will undoubtedly argue that there are bits and pieces of truth in the god's not dead films but of course there are bits and pieces that's how you get people to believe a lie you sprinkle in a reference to something that happened exaggerate it or use it as the foundation to tell falsehoods that's how lying on a large scale works it's established by making the story believable and with just enough of it provable that the parts that are not true the parts that the liar really wants to sell you are swallowed whole Christians are not a persecuted class in America but if you cite court cases that do exist and intentionally leave out the most important details you can convince enough people of your lie there's this scene in elated darkness that encapsulates the entire cluelessness of the film series Pastor Dave is talking to his estranged brother and says yes some people have used violence in Jesus's name but he wants to talk about the here and now and he wants to talk about the good Christians and that's the thing God's not dead is made by people who think they're the good Christians the ones that people should emulate when atheists talk about problematic Christian teachings and actions they must be talking about some other Christians right not us not we the creators of God's not dead and you know what it's in this nonsense that movies and ideas contained within it are propagated is it ignorant that allows the creators of these films to believe this or do they know the truth but knowingly lie to their audience I can't rightly say which one is worse Dave's liberal brother in the film claims Christians love to play the victim a way of preemptively justifying the film and diffusing reasonable arguments on what the film is really about and that's God's not dead a light in darkness and really the whole series a complaint in favor of the majority in America about their perception of being pushed around and treated the ways minorities are actually treated God's not dead is created under the presumption that Christians either already do or should believe it's propaganda but my experience with Christians and this is admittedly anecdotal is that most of them either despise these films or are embarrassed that these films exist my experience with Christians is that they are concerned that these films spread a dismal version of the faith that means so much to them this is presumably the last God's not dead film but it's not the last Christian exploitation film so long as those with privilege want to maintain it they will make themselves out to be the victims to distract from the actual victims but considering the origins of this religion I suppose a martyr complex was inevitable hi everyone if you like what I do please click on the orange patreon link below that's how this show happens it's also the only way to request an episode also please like share subscribe and click on the notification Bell so that you never miss an episode I'll see you next week

Channel: Renegade Cut

Views: 394,870

Keywords: god's not dead, god's not dead 2, god's not dead 3, god's not dead a light in darkness, god's not dead newsboys, god's not dead trailer, god's not dead rhetoric of christian propaganda, god's not dead interview, problem with christian movies god's not dead, god's not dead full movie, god's not dead best scene, renegade cut, god's not dead scene, atheists watch god's not dead, god's not dead review, god's not dead analysis, god's not dead 2 review, god's not dead 3 review

Id: -5uu6bUzI2c

Length: 30min 27sec (1827 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 31 2018