Dieu n'est pas mort 2

The life of the Creator/Deity of the infinite universe of time, space, and matter gets a second go round in God's Not Dead 2. In this film, Advanced Placement History teacher Melissa Joan Hart is suspended when she quotes from the Gospel of Matthew in answer to a student's question concerning Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. Somebody tapes the lesson and Hart's hauled up before the school board and then put on trial. For what I'm still not sure as this is not a criminal matter. Now what John Thomas Scopes was put on trial for teaching evolution back in the 20s, that was a criminal matter. All that should be happening here is a legal appeal of an administrative ruling and certainly that is civil.

I remember many years ago in New York City in the Bronx I believe there was a teacher fired for bringing up Jesus as her evangelical faith tells her she has to. She was told that she could not be talking about religion. With all seriousness and ingenuousness she replied she wasn't talking about religion to her students, she was talking about Jesus. That got her deservedly canned. Poor woman had not a clue.

The school board retains the biggest villain in the evangelical modern world, the American Civil Liberties Union. Ray Wise is a properly smarmy lawyer whom if he wore a handlebar mustache would be twirling it. Hart's lawyer is Jesse Metcalfe late of the revived TV Dallas and he's the hero of the piece saving Hart's job and right to her beliefs.

I brought up the Scopes Trial and those of us who've seen any version of Inherit The Wind remember that the judge ruled out scientific expert testimony about evolution. That's not what happens here as Jesse Metcalfe is allowed to bring in religious 'expert' testimony from some real folk playing themselves. I guess different rules apply in Judge Ernie Hudson's court. Mike Huckabee is playing himself as Fox New commentator and he's probably cursing the fact that God's Not Dead 2 was released after he called a halt to his presidential campaign.

The original God's Not Dead was a Christian propaganda piece, but in terms of the film the story was interestingly presented. This one played like a long episode story from the 700 Club. I'm sure it will play heavily on the Christian film circuit and will be rented a lot by youth pastors all over the Bible Belt once it goes to DVD.

It's a truly simplistic world these folks live in. They're right, the Bible is the word of God not to be questioned or given alternative interpretation. And those who don't believe are either sinners beyond redemption or a fertile evangelical field to be plowed.

Seeing the united front the kids give Melissa Joan Hart in support you know this is a Bible Belt community she's from. I wonder if there are any kids openly saying that she was wrong. God help them, the gay kids must be very deep in the closet there.

For those wondering if it's worse than the first one.... wonder no more, it certainly is.

This film is set in an alternate reality, in which the United States is run by smug, douche bag atheists. In this world, Christians are persecuted against in all aspects or life, Christians are all classy, attractive, happy, and non judgmental individuals.

Melissa Joan Hart is a teacher, she dares to mentioned Jesus in class, the establishment is outraged, she must be taken down. What follows is a ridiculous court farce, in this court, no one knows what the constitution is, and all those smug atheists have a serious bee in their bonnet.

I won't spoil the ending.... but needless to say, it is something more akin to a fantasy novel.

God's Not Dead 2 follows an ensemble cast (some old, some new), all flung into the sticky tendrils of a flimsy courtroom drama surrounding a history teacher and her answer to a contentious classroom question. Because Ms. Wesley (Hart) had the temerity, the gall, nay the malicious, impudent daring to draw parallels to Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus Christ, the public school, teachers union, local government, and the ACLU are all out for blood. Will Ms. Wesley be able to continue professing her faith? Will she lose her job? Will Reverend Dave (White) finally be able to start his car? And did Tituba really see Goodie Proctor with the devil?

Okay let's dissect this bloated corpse of a movie by first highlighting the good parts. Director Harold Cronk has sure learned a lot since 2014 though some of the elevated crane shots and glossy establishing scenes may have something to do with a bigger budget. His ability to manipulate his audience to well up in a flurry of sanctimonious pride and self-adulation is not to be underestimated. Thankfully, God's Not Dead 2 doesn't outright vilify atheists and doubters like it's prequel; in-fact one of our heroes, scrappy attorney Tom Endler (Metcalfe) is an agnostic who doesn't become a convert by the end credits. Also as far as acting goes, returning cast member Paul Kwo is given much more to do than be a walking Asian stereotype. He exhibits a sincerity we never saw before and one can't help but think if the movie were about him, it'd be a hundred times better. Then there's Melissa Joan Hart who truth be told is a much better central figure than Shane Harper, who's pious college freshman was more weaselly than anything.

Yet what the movie gets wrong, it gets very wrong; starting with it's representation of a legal system gone rogue. While confusing and conflating basic legal concepts like "precedent" and "discovery" and "defendant", the film nevertheless aims its sights on drumming up accusations of religious persecution while playing to the very tired culture war clichés we've gotten sick of twenty years ago. Much like the film's predecessor, God's Not Dead 2 isn't based on any specific case of religious persecution. It's more cobbled together out of a few lower court cases taken out of context and those dubious Facebook posts your angry Uncle from Omaha wishes were true but aren't. In a side story, returning character, actual producer and Keystone Kops impersonator David A.R. White has to turn in three years worth of notes on his sermons to the government because of...reasons. While doing so he confronts a grotesque bureaucratic flunky who warns him in an exchange so over-the-top you'd swear the movie was hinting at a vast Atheistic conspiracy.

In response to the film being called an example of "fake persecution" by an Atheist blogger, White stated, "It's an interesting thing, because, if it wasn't real, why do they get so offended by it...I don't think it would annoy people if it wasn't true." Of course if we followed that logic every teething toddler at a Dennys would be considered a sage. Religious persecution is a big deal worldwide as explicitly stated when Reverend Jude (Onyango) warns Martin of his plan to preach the gospel in Communist China. Despite Christianity being the largest religious doctrine in the world, Christians are harassed, discriminated against and oppressed in many places all over the world. And yes it does sometimes happen in the good 'ol US of A though despite some limitations you can still express your religion at home, school, work, church, billboards, park benches, television, radio, magazines and newspapers. Why cheapen a very real problem with a false conceit? Especially one even committed Atheists and the ACLU would side with the plaintiff.

Thankfully the main takeaway in God's Not Dead 2 is something most people can get behind; we shouldn't stifle religion nor any exchange of ideas or perspectives, even in something as revered (or in this case vilified) as the hallowed halls of a public school. That message is certainly a cut above God's Not Dead's (2014) all Atheists are whining children who never got what they wanted for Christmas. With a door wide open for yet another sequel to this drivel, I honestly would rather hear the rabble in Inherit the Wind (1960) sing "Give Me That Old Time Religion" in a loop for two hours.

Firstly, I'm an atheist. I was raised a devout Episcopalian but I often refer to myself as a secular humanist & non-believer but raised with culturally Christian views. Having said that, I noticed right away at the scene in the history class that nothing Melissa Hart said actually violated any hard & fast 1stAMD separation issues. She was within her rights to share those historical facts. She responded to a question in a history class about historically specific correlations between traditions in non-violent protest and passive resistance. Maybe she could have omitted the lengthy scripture quote from the Gospel---but a sound argument could be made that even that was academically relevant too. So...IMHO it was quite relevant and legal. Remember...I'm not a "believer". No school board would take this complaint seriously. I actually think that the ACLU might have defended Melissa Hart!!! It's obvious that the movie makers are trying to unfairly demonize the "freedom from religion" crowd (a rapidly growing demographic BTW) as fanatically unreasonable and angry. In fact, I've found that the exact opposite is usually true. Just research the landmark Kitzmiller vs Dover School board case. As to the ongoing portrayal of atheists and liberal religious types throughout the film, it's an inartfully constructed "straw man" set up for the express purpose of getting easily knocked down. Poor Christians! They have a Biblical persecution complex and are happiest when they can imagine being burned at the stake by the ACLU and a shouting, un-Churched mob of pagan non-believers! Wait 'til you see how they depict the ACLU lawyers as basely motivated by notoriety, power politics and publicity. Not very good...and not persuasive. I think most people can see through this bit of evangelical agitprop whether religious or non-religious.

Sequels are the Achilles heel of most movie lovers. Sure the viewer gets to experience the same feeling they had when they watched the first movie, but it almost always never lives up to the potential. God's Not Dead 2 never has that problem because you simply can't get any worse than its first film God's Not Dead. GND2 takes everything that was hated in it from the first film and puts it right back in a second time around. Atheists are viewed as rude, demanding, and willing to go to great links to take away Christians religious freedoms. Christians are seen as innocent, content, and victims of the violent belief that is Atheism. Odds are if you are going into this movie you either wanted to see this train wreck of a film for yourself or being forced to go with your parents/overly-religious friends. If the later is this case try very hard to fight the urge to scream at the movie and run out of the theater because, trust me, it will happen. Overall the plot is incoherent, the characters bland and lifeless, and the overall theme of the movie is a slap right in the face to anyone who doesn't believe in god. You've been warned 1/10