God's Not Dead: We the People (2021)

When I watched the first God’s Not Dead for Sunday “Bad” Movies, I expected something in the stereotypical religious movie realm. It was going to be a movie that preached about Christianity, forcing it on the viewer. Christians who wanted their beliefs pushed would be happy to see the movie. People like me, who weren’t Christian, probably wouldn’t. It ended up being exactly that, and I was disappointed.

I go into every movie hoping for the best but bracing for the worst. Though I expected God’s Not Dead to be the movie it was, I hoped that it would be something a little different. There were some good aspects to the movie. The core concept that a college student would fight for his right to believe when his professor told him he couldn’t was a good idea. It just happened to be coated in the Christian film ideology of pushing Christianity as the only thing to believe in. The story about a woman who didn’t believe the same religion as her family before being forced out of her home for her beliefs was an emotional one, weakened by the heavy-handed “Christianity is good while Islam is bad” messaging included. Pastor Dave and his friend Jude keeping their faith that they would get to Disney World was a fun story, ruined by the ending, really. There were things that could have been good stories if spun differently.

God’s Not Dead 2, which I covered the same week, took a step in the right direction. The storylines were pared down. There weren’t as many, with the movie instead really only focusing on two. One storyline was about a teacher who was being sued because she spoke about The Bible in class. Separation of church and state and all that. This could have been another standard playing-the-victim storyline, and it was to an extent. But it was also made explicit that the teacher wasn’t influencing students to become Christian. She wasn’t trying to preach to her students. Someone simply asked how a lesson related to her religion, she answered, and she moved on. The court battle wasn’t about the right to preach. It was about the right to mention religion in school at all. The other storyline had to do with Pastor Dave and his sermons.

All in all, God’s Not Dead 2 toned down the preaching religion enough to make it a more palatable movie. It was no longer forcing Christianity on any non-Christian audience members. It was still playing into the Christian persecution complex that many faith-based films have, as the prosecutor claimed that he was going to prove once and for all that “God is dead.” And the Christians were the victims in both storylines. The movie, however, wasn’t trying to convert in the same way as its predecessor.

God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness took another step away from preaching to viewers about how good Christianity is. Pastor Dave was back and having problems with his campus church. Vandalism, a death, and a college board that wanted the church off campus all came to a head at one time. Pastor Dave was going to fight for his church and brought in his brother as a consultant. Through discussions with his brother, Dave realized that his church could move off campus and people could have different beliefs.

Once again, the movie was a little heavy handed and used the Christian persecution complex as a crutch, but it was another move in the right direction. The series was no longer saying that Christianity was the one true religion. By the end, Pastor Dave was ready to let people believe whatever religion they wanted. He was moving his church off campus because the campus should be open to people believing whatever religion they choose. One religion shouldn’t have priority over the others. That, and the Christians from his church would follow him to wherever he relocated in the nearby town. There’s room for everyone. A nice message.

And then there was God’s Not Dead: We the People, which I watched this week. Rebecca (Francesca Battistelli) and Mike (Antonio Sabato Jr.) ran a home learning co-op. Pastor Dave (David A.R. White) sponsored it through his church. One day, an unannounced social services worker showed up and decided that the teaching wasn’t sufficient. She got a judge to order them to send the children to state-funded schools. The parents, as well as Pastor Dave, decided to fight back and take their battle to Washington D.C. for a hearing about the future of education and home schooling.

God’s Not Dead: We the People was as Christian persecution complex as a movie could be, while tying Christianity into what it means to be American. Pastor Dave, Mike, Rebecca, and single mother/widow Taylor (Amanda Jaros) went to Washington D.C. to fight the government and show that America still deserved freedom. Though, their idea of freedom was faith-based home-schooling. I didn’t completely follow their logic with what they were fighting for.

What I mean by that is this. Mike and Rebecca home-schooled their two children. Rebecca also led a class of other kids, including Taylor’s son, in a Bible school kind of scenario. Rather than go to public schools, the parents brought their kids up through relating all the subjects to Christianity. Pastor Dave would also show up to teach. The social services worker who showed up was super harsh on them. She made a couple good points like the fact that they wouldn’t be able to properly teach science without, you know, some lab equipment. But she also said they were completely unfit to teach anything, which wasn’t true. Mike and Rebecca’s argument was that they should be able to raise their children however they wanted and that a public school wouldn’t teach the children anything about religion. In fact, the schools would try and turn children against religion. So, it wasn’t so much a fight for school as it was a fight for religion disguised as a fight for school.

That’s a little confusing. I get it. I was a little confused by about the halfway point of God’s Not Dead: We the People and that confusion never went away. I didn’t understand the villains of the movie, the congressional committee who were tasked with determining the new standards for home schooling. The movie was making it out to be that the progressives, the liberals, were implementing the new rules. In the real world, it is typically the conservatives that place limitations on education. They strip away funding for extra-curricular activities and the arts. They try to control things for the sake of, I don’t know, having power maybe. Placing the real world on the movie, it would seem like the villains were Republicans, which would be a strange battle for the Christian heroes to be having. You know, since a lot of the Republican voting base is Christian. Or Catholic. Or any Christ-based faith.

God’s Not Dead: We the People went back to the first movie’s method of storytelling by having three practically disconnected stories. They were somewhat tied together, of course, but they felt like completely different stories just thrown into the same movie. Mike and Rebecca’s teenage son bought a car and fell in love with a girl, whose mother just happened to be the judge who sentenced the parents. The reason it felt disconnected was that the son never interacted with the judge. He didn’t even know that the girl’s mother was the judge. He simply told the girl what happened and she confronted her mother later on. His side of the story, the connection between the parents and the judge, was a love story, not a persecution story.

The other story had to do with a girl from the first film who was kicked out of her Muslim family for finding faith in Jesus. She was back after two movies away and wanted to be back with her family. Her father also returned and had a very quick turn away from his Muslim faith and into Christianity. I don’t want to spoil exactly what happened, but it felt very out of character without a real reason for the turn. Yeah, there was a reason to find faith. That was there. He already had faith, though. It didn’t seem right for the character to go from his Muslim faith to the Christian faith so quickly. This storyline was barely connected to anything, outside of the girl talking to Pastor Dave at the beginning of the movie.

These two stories, as well as the main fight against the government that was taking religious freedom away from parents, were only there to fulfill the Christian persecution complex and show that Christianity was the right thing to believe. The parents were being attacked. They walked into Washington D.C. and tied their religion into the foundation of the country. They made sure that everyone knew religious freedom was what the country was built on. It was the meaning of liberty. The son was seen as weird because he was home-schooled. He showed that home-schooling wasn’t strange, that he was a well-adjusted person, and that his faith allowed him to be that way. Honestly, it was maybe the best storyline in the movie because it wasn’t positing that Christianity was the best thing. It was simply saying that he believed and it didn’t make him strange, which was a commendable message. The third story was simply that Muslim faith was wrong and Christianity was right, which was bollocks.

See, the God’s Not Dead franchise was moving in the right direction. It began as a Christian persecution complex in movie form. The first movie was about Christians being put down when they needed to spread their Christianity. The second film was about Christians being forced to hide the fact that they were Christian because it offended people. The third movie was about Christians realizing that they shouldn’t always play the victim and that other religions deserved some respect as well. Yeah, there was still a bunch of victimization in the movie, but there was also a lesson where that might not be the best way to fight. Then the fourth movie backtracked all the way to the first film by trying to act like Christianity was everything.

There are a couple other quick notes about God’s Not Dead: We the People that I want to mention before finishing off here. Not the notes at the end of the post. Not yet. Just a couple other points. The reason I keep coming back to these movies is David A.R. White. As much as I don’t like the messaging in them, particularly the first and fourth films, David A.R. White is a good on-screen presence. I enjoy watching him. Note number two, The Newsboys weren’t in the movie. Their song was, since it shares its name with the franchise, but the musical group wasn’t in there. It was the first God’s Not Dead film they didn’t show up in. There really weren’t many people, if any, playing themselves in this one.

I have been watching God’s Not Dead movies for a while now for Sunday “Bad” Movies. They have varied in quality. I didn’t like the first one. I appreciated what the second one did, even if it didn’t do it well. I liked the third one. And now I’ve been disappointed by the fourth. I’ll still watch a fifth if they ever make a fifth. I’m always curious about these movies. I expect them to do something. I just don’t know what they’ll do.

It’s not too often that you get to see a franchise grow in a good way. Usually there are diminishing returns, where each sequel is worse than the last. Sometimes the franchise changes completely, starting as one thing and morphing into another, making it tough to compare earlier entries to later ones. Most of the time, there’s some sort of spotty quality where you never know what you’re going to get. Like a box of chocolates. Like the God’s Not Dead franchise. It seemed to be improving, and then just took a nosedive. Who knows what another movie would bring?

Now let’s get a few notes in here:

• Here are the posts for God’s Not Dead (week 230), God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230), and God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (week 319).
• God’s Not Dead: We the People marked David A.R. White’s fifth movie for Sunday “Bad” Movies. He was previously in God’s Not Dead (week 230), God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230), God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (week 319), and Brother White (week 379).
• Benjamin A. Onyango has made appearances in God’s Not Dead (week 230), God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230), God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (week 319), and God’s Not Dead: We the People.
• Paul Kwo was in God’s Not Dead (week 230) and God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230). He then took a break for a movie before returning to the franchise in God’s Not Dead: We the People.
• One of the villains of God’s Not Dead: We the People was played by William Forsythe. He was in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (week 20) and Stone Cold (week 423).
• Marco Khan and Hadeel Sittu were in God’s Not Dead (week 230) and God’s Not Dead: We the People.
• Jeanine Pirro played a judge in both God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (week 319) and God’s Not Dead: We the People.
• God’s Not Dead: We the People featured Isaiah Washington, who was also in Exit Wounds (week 93).
• Vincent De Paul returned from Sex and the City 2 (week 370) to pop up in God’s Not Dead: We the People.
• Finally, Anna Zielinski was in both Brother White (week 379) and God’s Not Dead: We the People.
• Have you seen God’s Not Dead: We the People? What did you think? What do you think of the franchise as a whole? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.
• Any suggestions for future movies to watch for Sunday “Bad” Movies are appreciated. Drop them in my Twitter timeline or in the comments.
• Sunday “Bad” Movies is on Instagram with more Sunday “Bad” Movies fun.
• Finally, let’s take a quick look at next week’s movie. It’s one starring one of the stars of the Scream franchise, and it also stars someone from the WWE. I’ll be checking out a movie called Bending the Rules and I have absolutely no idea what to expect from it. You’ll find out next week. I’ll find out a little bit sooner so I can write the post in time. See you soon!