I'm in Love with a Church Girl (2013)

The social circles that I tend to frequent, both online and offline, don’t typically dive into faith-based films. That’s probably because the people who I like to talk to don’t tend to be devoutly Christian or Catholic. Sure, some of the people may go to church. They might believe in a higher power. And that’s quite alright. But they’re also the kind of people who don’t feel the need to push that on others, or even talk about it with people who don’t share their beliefs. They just believe and let other people do what they want.

I took it upon myself, at some point, to broaden my horizons to include some faith-based films in what I watched. It has certainly been an eye-opening experience. Many of the movies have been filled with messaging about how believing in Christianity is the one true belief. You need look no further than Saving Christmas to see that. One man lost his entire Christmas spirit because he no longer believed, and Kirk Cameron made it his purpose to return the guy’s faith in the Lord because that was the only way to celebrate the holidays. Other faith-based films, such as the God’s Not Dead franchise, have been about Christians being the victims of any religious situation. They weren’t allowed to believe in God, they weren’t allowed to talk about religion, and they weren’t allowed to preach. The non-believers took away their religious rights and they had to fight to get them back.

This week’s movie was a little bit different. It was a faith-based movie that didn’t make the believers into the victims. It wasn’t about pushing the audience to believe if they didn’t already, though it suggested that having belief in God could be a good thing. It was a simple romance about a non-believer falling in love with a church-going woman and learning to bring faith into his own life. It was I’m in Love with a Church Girl.

Miles Montego (Ja Rule) was a wealthy man who made his money in the drug business. When he went to a party hosted by his friend, Nicholas Halston (Vincent Pastore), Miles met and fell in love with Vanessa Leon (Adrienne Houghton). She changed Miles for the better. He stopped dealing drugs. He stopped spending all night at clubs. He even started attending church after leaving many years before. His life was looking up. But when two tragedies occurred in his life, almost back-to-back, his recently renewed faith was put to the test.

I’m in Love with a Church Girl began with the standard faith-based film trope of a narrated monologue about God, setting up the faith-based story that would follow. Miles spoke about how God changed his life, how a run-in with the police made him rethink his priorities, how a church girl entered his life and made him a better person. The same sort of monologue would wrap things up at the end of the film, making it more of a narrative bookend than a monologue, really.

That would be about as much preaching as the movie would do. The influence of Christianity was still all over the film. It was a faith-based film about a man regaining his faith after heading down a wayward path, after all. But it wasn’t as pushy as many of the other faith-based films out there. It was promoting Christianity without constantly forcing it on the viewer as the only way to go. It felt more like a suggestion, saying that faith helped other people. There wasn’t any dire need to believe or victimization going on.

The acts of going to church and praying were essential to telling the story of I’m in Love with a Church Girl. Vanessa was a church girl, after all. She attended a local church with her mother, father, and two sisters on a weekly basis. When she met Miles, one of the first things she asked was about his relationship with the church. He mentioned that he was in between churches. That made sense. Miles had been dealing drugs and helping his friends do the same. He was making the money that would fund his extravagant lifestyle, allowing him to transition into a successful musical career. His connection with God had been broken when he entered his criminal career. Vanessa made it her mission to bring him back into the holy fold.

They began attending church together. The writers of I’m in Love with a Church Girl used this time to showcase a different side of the church. They highlighted a church that was a little different than what people might think. The minister wasn’t the standard stiff in a suit or priest’s robe. He was wearing comfortable street clothes and a New York Yankees hat. His approach to speaking to his congregation made it feel like he was one of them, rather than above them. He was the true bridge between the people and God, rather than a stand-in for God. It made church look a little more fun than the stereotypes.

Yet, the movie was still an advertisement to get non-believers into church and confirm the stance that men and women of faith had. Miles wanted to thank the minister after his first time attending that church. He had a conversation with the minister about how church could be whatever you wanted it to be. It was about believing in God and being there with one another. People could present it in whatever way they wanted. They could make it fun or make it stale. It was still a place of worship, regardless of appearances. Clearly, this was meant to pique the interest in people who might not have wanted to go to church because they thought it would be boring. I’m in Love with a Church Girl wasn’t forcing religion on people and saying they had to believe. It was simply giving them another side of worship and showing that there were different ways that one could participate, if they were curious.

One other thing that I’m in Love with a Church Girl did was show that religion might not be the answer to all of life’s problems. Having something to believe in could help with someone’s drive, but it didn’t solve anything. In the later portions of the film, Miles experienced two tragedies in his life. His mother died of a cancer-like disease, if not cancer itself. Religion didn’t help her overcome her illness, which was a refreshing take for a faith-based film. Most movies of this type would bring a miracle into the story at that point. If someone were to pray hard enough, they would recover from a fatal illness. That wasn’t the case. The other tragedy was that Vanessa ended up in a car wreck, which put her into a coma in the hospital. Miles was by her side the entire time. He prayed and prayed and she didn’t wake. He went to a church to speak to God. He let out all his feelings in an emotional monologue. Vanessa eventually recovered and they lived happily ever after. Well, mostly.

While Miles and Vanessa were working their way through a standard relationship of finding out secrets, being jealous, and growing closer together, there was a team of DEA agents hot on Miles’s tail. They wanted to finally bust him for his shady dealings. Miles’s friends were arrested. Even Miles was taken into custody. Nothing could stick with Miles, however, and he went free. The same couldn’t be said for his friends, who were still in the business. They went directly to jail, didn’t pass GO, and didn’t get their two hundred dollars. It was then revealed that the bookend monologues that Miles gave were spoken to his friends in jail. He was reading a letter he wrote to them about how religion had turned his life around and made him a better person. Perhaps it could help them too.

I’m in Love with a Church Girl was clearly meant to be a way to get more people into religion while reenforcing the stance of people who already believed. It was a romance by way of church. Two people grew romantically close. One of them went to church and urged the other to try going. He went, he was enraptured, and it changed his life. He went from dealing drugs and partying all night long to having a stable relationship and becoming a minister. It was a movie meant to show that finding religion and a place in the church could change a person’s life for the better. But it didn’t push the message as hard as many of the other faith-based movies out there. It didn’t make any of the main characters victims because of their beliefs. There was no message about religion being the only right way. It was simply a story about characters who were helped by having something to believe in.

Faith-based films can be a tough thing to get into. Many of them are about Christianity being the only right way to live one’s life. Movies like Last Ounce of Courage spend their time fighting against oppressors trying to take away the religious rights of Christians. They use examples like the Bible being banned from schools, or people not being able to sing Silent Night with the proper lyrics. Rarely, they take an approach like God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness and posit that there is no one right religion. As long as people have their beliefs, regardless of the religion or method, things will be alright. Few faith-based movies don’t feel like religious propaganda.

Most people don’t watch faith-based cinema beyond the high-profile movies that gain traction in the mainstream. At least, few people in my social circles do. I’m sure many faith-based movies are popular within religious communities. And the movies cater directly to that demographic. As an outsider looking in, by seeing a faith-based film here and a faith-based film there, it would be nice to see a few more broaden their demographic and become accessible to people who don’t necessarily believe in that religion. Whatever religion it is. Usually Christian. It would be nice if they were a little more inclusive.

Now for a few notes to wrap things up:

• Saving Christmas (week 212), God’s Not Dead (week 230), God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230), God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (week 319), and Last Ounce of Courage (week 369) were mentioned in this post.
• Vincent Pastore made his third Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance in I’m in Love with a Church Girl. His other appearances were in Money Train (week 109) and Return to Sleepaway Camp (week 150).
• Another three-timer in I’m in Love with a Church Girl was Stephen Baldwin, who returned from Bio-Dome (week 124) and Fred Claus (week 265).
• The final three-timer this week was Michael Madsen, who has now been in Die Another Day (week 153), Not Another Not Another Movie (week 402), and I’m in Love with a Church Girl.
• Milan Lee was in Birdemic: Shock and Terror (week 100) and I’m in Love with a Church Girl.
• Adrian Bustamante returned from Sharknado (week 190) to appear in I’m in Love with a Church Girl.
• Finally, Martin Kove appeared in I’m in Love with a Church Girl. He was also in 2 Lava 2 Lantula (week 290).
• Have you seen I’m in Love with a Church Girl? What did you think? How do you feel about faith-based films? Leave any of your thoughts in the comments section or get a hold of me on Twitter for a discussion.
• Let me know what movies I should be checking out for Sunday “Bad” Movies by getting a hold of me. Twitter and the comments are where you can find me and suggest movies. I’ll be making the next part of the schedule soon and could use some suggestions.
• As always, check out Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram for some bad movie fun.
• Next week should be a fun week. Wrestlemania is coming up, so I decided to tie the movie in through someone who will be playing a prominent role in the biggest wrestling pay-per-view of the year. Edge was in a movie last year that gained some infamy. Money Plane was the name, and that’s what I plan on writing about. I’ll see you next week for that post. Come on back now.