Part Two in a series written by Denis Haack of Ransom Fellowship addressing the problem on how to live faithfully in a culture largely ignorant of God. The following is a portion of his article "A Model for Faithfulness" (originally posted at www.ransomfellowship.org - used by permission). ~Travis Stewart A Model for Faithfulness The Babylon Series, Part 2 ~Denis Haack Where Evangelicals Are Today At the time of the First Great Awakening (1735-1743), ...

In the winter of 2001 I had a choice to make; either I take a one week class in New Testament Greek, continuing my work on a Master's of Divinity degree or switch degree programs and sign up for a class called Movies and Theology taught by Denis Haack. Considering that I didn't feel called to ordained ministry and having parsed my quota of Greek verbs I choose to learn the language of film over the language of the ancients (after all, I figured, I know a lot of guys I ...

Gentlemen Broncos 2009 • Rated PG-13 Directed by Jared Hess Review by Ron Reed New Yorker's Richard Brody is rare among film critics in finding things to praise about GENTLEMEN BRONCOS, the third film from Mormon film maker Jared Hess (NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, NACHO LIBRE). One of the most audacious American movies of 2009, Jared Hess’s “Gentlemen Broncos” (on DVD from Fox) — a loopy comedy that blends frumpy down-market vulgarity with excremental humor and ...

From the time the Harry Potter books first crossed the pond from England there has been both praise and disparagement of the books. Most of the criticism came from Christian voices raising concerns about the glorification of magic and the dangers of the occult. Now that the final book has been around for some time and before we see the arrival of the final two movies (the last book is being split into two films because of the density of content as well as Hollywood squeezing every last dime it can from the franchise) we can take a step back and think a little more critically about these ...

Creation 2009 • Rated PG-13 Directed by John Amiel Coming soon to America: widespread fear, angry debate and frequent name-calling all because of a new movie about the life of Charles Darwin and his writing of On the Origin of Species. This film has been in release around the world for some time now but because of controversy and fears of a public relations battle with the "religious right" the film struggled to find a US distributor (interestingly enough it will be distributed by New Market films which also handled Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ). Based on a book by the ...

Avatar 2009 • Rated PG-13 Directed by James Cameron Warning: minor spoilers ahead Avatar is an scrumptious feast which sets a new standard for visual effects and imaginary worlds. That alone makes up for James Cameron using standard fare storytelling and tired cliches. The colors are so vivid and the imagination so active that I hardly noticed the flaws until the movie was long over. An oft repeated phrase in the film is “I see you” which the characters use to communicate a personal knowing and recognition. It is reminiscent of Native American language (as is much of the ...