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 ...

~ by Craig Detweiler ~ How strange to see the battle over a comedy show devolve into tragedy. Yet the Leno versus Conan debate reflects an underexplored generation gap. One more baby boomer refusing to retire, blocking the path to a patient (but ultimately frustrated) Gen Xer. NBC’s late night talk show drama has echoes of royal succession plans (with all the accompanying skullduggery). Only five hosts have occupied The Tonight Show throne. When Johnny Carson was tapped to replace Jack Paar, he was under contract with ABC. It took a couple of months to make room for Carson, who ...

Many people consider TV shows and movies good bad based on the amount of violence, sex or language present. In recent years several films have challenged this notion. The Passion of the Christ was embraced by many Christians despite its R rating while the Harry Potter films (rated PG) were rejected due to perceptions of occult material. Can we judge entertainment so easily? I don't think so. I believe we need to develop skills of discernment and eyes to see beyond the surface issues. In this article (thanks to Craig Dunham for finding this) in Time magazine author Nancy Gibbs provides ...

Wes Pickering is one of my favorite new artists. Andrew Osenga (formerly of Caedmon's Call) first introduced me to Wes and a song he wrote titled "Little Darling" which was written to a friend struggling with an eating disorder. Wes donated that song as a free download on the True Campaign, a non-profit organization I co-founded. As a result, Wes and I struck up a friendship, primarily through email and Facebook. During my last visit to Nashville Wes introduced me to ...

District 9 2009 • Rated R Directed by Neil Blomkamp When I’m on a business trip I usually try and take along a “guy” movie to watch on my laptop or catch a new release at the theater. I do this because with two pre-teen kids and a wife with a low tolerance for aliens, bloody battles or orcs, fantasy movies like Braveheart just don’t make the Family Movie Night cut at our house. On my trips I’ve seen the likes of Tropic Thunder, Apocalypto and The Shooter ...