Christmas Cameo Month: I Still Believe

I Still Believe (2020)
This film is an anomaly for 2020 -- it's a new film that debuted in movie theaters (admittedly, I watched it via streaming on Hulu). I Still Believe seems to join I Can Only Imagine in a new genre: Contemporary Christian Music hits made into biopics. ICOI was about the founder of MercyMe and his troubled relationship with his father. I Still Believe is the story of Jeremy Camp’s first romantic love.

There is very little Christmas in the film (we take what we can get), and there isn’t much church in the film, but there is an interesting observation about clergy.

The film opens in Lafayette, Indiana in the fall of 1999 (shout out to my brother- and sister-in-law and family in said city). Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) is preparing to go off to school at Calvary Chapel College in Murrieta, California. Even if IMDb didn’t tell me, I would know this wasn’t filmed on location but instead in Mobile, Alabama. The school seems to be right by the beach instead of the 45 miles across southern California freeways. And Pacific Ocean beaches look different from Gulf Coast beaches. For instance, I can't think of anyplace on the California Pacific coast where the sun rises over the ocean as it does in the film when Jeremy’s love interest, Melissa (Britt Robertson), goes for a morning jog.

At his new school, Jeremy makes friends with Jean-Luc LaJoie (Nathan Parsons), the front-man for a Christian music group, The Kry. Jean-Luc and Jeremy bond over their love of music, but unfortunately, both have feelings for Melissa. If you ever had to deal with a tedious love triangle like this when you were in school, do you really want to relive it in a film?

It is here Christmas makes its cameo appearance. Jeremy goes home to Indiana for Christmas to be with his parents, Tom and Teri (Gary Sinise and Shania Twain), and his brothers, Jared and Josh (Josh is disabled). That house is well decorated for Christmas, tree, lights and all. At home, Jeremy receives a call from Jean-Luc who tells him that Melissa is very sick. Jeremy drives back to school in his father’s Pizza King delivery car. (Won’t this impact family finances during the holiday season?)

Jeremy drives straight to the hospital back in California and learns that Melissa has stage 3 liver cancer. It is at this time that Melissa and Jeremy admit their love for each other. Jeremy goes to the hospital chapel to pray (a bit of church). I found it a little strange that although Melissa and her family are all devout Christians, we never see clergy -- or anyone else -- from their church visit Melissa. 

Miraculously, Melissa seems to recover, and six months later, Jeremy and Melissa marry.

I was hoping for a church wedding, for the sake of the blog, but the happy couple marries on the beach. I was looking for a clergyman at the wedding, but I didn’t think I saw one. Then I realized that Jeremy’s father, Tom, performed the ceremony. Because the wedding is -- supposedly -- in California, and Melissa’s family pastor doesn’t perform the service, I realized that Tom is probably a clergyman of some kind. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would get his ordination from the back of Rolling Stone Magazine or online (especially at the turn of the century).

But when Jeremy and Melissa return from their honeymoon, she becomes ill again. As Melissa returns to the hospital, Jeremy begins to question his faith. He sings Melissa a song he wrote on their honeymoon, “Walk By Faith”, and then Melissa dies. We don’t see a church for the funeral, but rather a graveside service, again officiated by Jeremy’s father, Tom.

Jeremy talks to his father about his disappointment with God and the seeming futility of his prayers. He asks his father about his disappointments in life, about the prayers God didn’t answer. “I remember I prayed and prayed in this room for Josh to be born healthy. And you prayed for your ministry and nothing. And I prayed for Melissa. What am I supposed to do with that?”

So apparently, Tom had hoped to be in full-time ministry but was unable to make his living in ministry. One of the great disappointments in life is not being able to pursue what you believe you're called to. Think of those who want to be in show business or professional sports when those dreams die. I know the pain of those who feel called to ministry (for myself and friends) when things don’t work out. You can feel like you've disappointed God as well as yourself.

But Tom’s answer is interesting. He says, “Josh’s disabilities were disappointing, sure. Did I have big dreams that didn’t come true? Yes. Do I know why Melissa isn’t here? No, I don’t. But I have had a full life. I don’t know how to answer your questions. But my life isn’t full in spite of my disappointments....It’s full because of them.”

Jeremy returned to his music. His songs “Walk By Faith” and, of course, “I Still Believe” inspired by the events depicted in the film, became enormous hits. If Tom, in the eyes of the world, didn’t have much of a ministry, he raised a son who ministers to millions.

That said, how would the clergy and church -- such as they are -- in this film do with our steeple ratings? I give Tom Camp (and his ministry) a solid three steeples.

Back to Back to School Month: Catching Faith

Catching Faith (2015)

I know I need to talk about churches and clergy in these films, but I have to deal with another issue here at the start, because it bothered me the whole time I was watching Catching Faith.

A Christian high school football team is a major part of the plot of this film. The son of the family, Beau Taylor (Garrett Westton), is a senior and a star player -- presumably on the varsity team.  The football games are played on school days (Fridays?) in the afternoon. My high school had some varsity day games, but they were on Saturdays.

Surely this school has a junior varsity team. If the Varsity plays after the end of the school day and after a JV game (and perhaps after a freshman game) in Wisconsin in the fall, surely the sun would not be burning bright as it is during all the games in this film -- including the end-of-season championship game.

Okay, there is one other thing that bothered me in this film -- let me vent, and then we'll get to the part where we talk about the church and clergy. Early in the film, the mother of the Taylor family, Alexa (Lorena Segura York) is asked, “What do you do?”

Her answer was, “We have twins. My son is the star of the football team. My daughter is a valedictorian.” I have all kinds of problems with this, including, of course, that this woman defines herself solely by her offspring, but that's not even my biggest issue with this. Something else that bothers me more is that she calls her daughter, Ravyn (Bethany Peterson), a valedictorian. Since the football season is in process, this is obviously the fall (even though the sun sets inexplicably late), so that year's valedictorian is months away from being decided. We also see Ravyn's dad (Dariush Moslemi) hand her a thin, business-sized envelope at a football game. The skinny envelope contains early acceptance at some great college (anyone who watched Gilmore Girls knows skinny college envelopes don’t have good news. You want a fat envelope. Also, this movie is from 2015 -- didn't that kind of thing come in an email or online portal?) Ravyn's parents give her a quick pat on the back and then go back to watching the game. 

Also, the letter says she has to keep her grades up to keep her acceptance,t wasn’t  so it isn't really an acceptance letter.

Alright, enough of preliminaries. Is there any church or clergy in this film (since that's what we're here to talk about)? We do see Alexa leaving a church service. The building is a big brick edifice; I’d guess it was a mainline church. We never go inside that church or meet clergy from there, but there are two other Christian institutions depicted in the film: a Bible study and a Christian school.

Alexa has just started attending a small group with women who all seem to be about her age, all attractive, well dressed, and able to meet during the day. It could well be that this is a Bible study affiliated with a church, but they never talk about a church. It certainly isn’t Bible Study Fellowship, but if it is some other parachurch organization, we never hear what it is.

The group is starting a new study which doesn’t focus on any particular book of the Bible or concept in Scripture, but rather on self-discovery. (At the end of one session the group leader does say, “Read I Kings chapters 17 and 18,” but we never hear the group discuss that, or any other Scripture.)

Alexa seems to like the people in the group, but initially, she's unwilling to discuss anything personal. She feels pressured to share more deeply, and snaps at one point, “You don’t like or accept my answers.” But eventually she seems to find the women in the group to be a source of encouragement and strength.

The big conflict in the film is when Beau goes to a drinking party after a game. The police bust the party, but let Beau off. But the school has a Code of Conduct that says drinking, among other offenses, makes him a student ineligible for extracurricular activities. Beau’s parents insist on Beau reporting himself.

The school coach, Coach Z (Bill Engvall), doesn’t try to work around the school rules to have Beau play. He lets Beau sit on the bench, but he doesn’t let his star play. And he encourages Beau by telling him that just as a receiver must trust the quarterback, on the field of life each of us must trust God as our quarterback. As a teacher at a Christian school, he does serve a pastoral role and does it well.

I appreciated how Beau and Ravyn were depicted dealing with real temptation and moral choices and their relationship with each other. I was disappointed that the film culminated with the Big Game. (Will there be a way for Beau to play in the playoff game? Will the school win the game? I’ll leave you in suspense.)

The school and Bible study do encourage the Taylors to see God and live in integrity, so I’m giving them Three Steeples out of Four. (If that Bible study actually studied the Bible, they might have rated higher.)

Old School Christian Movie Month: The Restless Ones

The Restless Ones (1965)
World Wide Pictures was founded in 1951, and American International Pictures was founded in 1954 -- and the two studios have a surprising amount in common aside from the grandiose visions of global supremacy found in their names.

This might surprise some who are familiar with the filmography of the two studios. After all, AIP is known for such titles as Scream Blacula Scream, Teenage Caveman, and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini while WWP had more tame titles such as The Hiding Place, Road to Redemption, and For Pete’s Sake!

There is common ground, though. Both studios were independent when big studios were at their height, but about to fall. Each studio was closely associated with one man. Roger Corman was the face of AIP, a filmmaker who became a mogul while taking on the big studios. WWP was almost synonymous with evangelist Billy Graham, with a rule that the preacher must appear in every film and present the Gospel. Both studios provided opportunities to young talent, with AIP famously providing first opportunities for such luminaries as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Jack Nicholson. Both studios exploited hot issues of the day for profit.

AIP focused on teens, using sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll to make a buck. WWP explored first two to proclaim the Gospel. WWP made films that touched on drugs (Two A Penny), rebellion (Time to Run), and crime (Wiretapper) to reach the lost. They even made a film that focused on teen sexuality (chastely, of course) in 1965’s The Restless Ones.

The film tells the story of Stephen and Gina Winton, television writers doing a story on “today’s youth.” They’re also the parents of one of “today’s youth,” David. (I need to say a bit about the casting of these films. Georgia Lee, who plays Gina Winton, appeared not only in last week’s WWP film, Oiltown U.S.A., but went on to secular exploitation films Big Bad Mama, Linda Lovelace for President, and Switchblade Sisters. Johnny Crawford plays her son, David; a few years earlier, he played the son on TV’s The Rifleman. Robert Sampson (Stephen Winton) was on one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek, “A Taste of Armageddon.”)

The story opens in a church. David is with a group of young hooligans who have broken into the sanctuary at night. David is obviously uncomfortable, and one of the others says, “He’s afraid someone will know he’s in church.”

(Note the tag line: "Takes you inside the turbulent world of teenagers")

April, the one young woman in the group, says “It’s kinda spooky, isn’t it?” (April is played by Kim Darby, a few years before her star-making role in 1969’s True Grit and the title role in another great episode of Star Trek, “Miri.”) One of the kids starts tearing pages out of a Bible and throwing them about, saying, “Let’s spread the Word.” They drive away singing “When the Saints Go Marching in,” but cops catch them and take them to jail. They’re eventually released, but the judge lectures David’s parents on parenting.

While researching their story, Stephen and Gina are surprised to learn about the thousands of teens attending the Billy Graham Crusade in town. They get press passes and attend one night, listening to Billy’s sermon on young people’s obsession with sex. “The Bible is not hush-hush about sex. There is nothing wrong with sex. God gave it to us for certain reasons, but only in the bonds of marriage. It is normal to have sex hunger, but say ‘no.’ Don’t go so far in petting that it goes too far to call out to God.” (It is rather amazing to see the footage of the Crusade of the day with all the men, including teens, wearing coats and ties and all the women, including in teens, in dresses.)

Billy goes on to urge people to live wholesome lives but says that in that day and age they can’t do so without the power of Christ. He urges the crowd to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and the Wintons marvel at the number of young people who come forward.

At the end of the meeting they seek out the man in charge of ministry to teens, Youth Pastor Reverend Tim (“Call me Tim”). He tells them the young people are at the meetings because “they want to have purpose and direction.” Reverend Tim invites them to the next gathering of youths at Crystal Cove, a beach in Malibu.

The teens at the beach aren't wearing bathing suits, but most of them are in Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirts. There are guitars and other instruments along, and the kids sing a rousing version of “He’s Everything to Me.” Then the young people share how Jesus changed their lives.

“We all have hang-ups, hurdles to get over, but Christ is there to help.”

“Do you know what bugs me? This kooky idea that being a Christian means having no fun when actually life becomes fuller.”

Rev. Tim gives a talk, noting that the “new standards of freedom” aren’t helping anyone. VD was spreading among teens. “That’s where God comes in the picture… He comes to bring abundant life.”

Afterward, Stephen and Gina discuss Rev. Tim and the youth group. Gina says, “Tim is quite a guy, not your stereotypical minister.”

Stephen says, “They all made it seem so vital, so immediate. Is this something we should consider?”

Gina responds, “I don’t think teenagers should have a monopoly on the Almighty,” and together, they both pray to receive Christ as their Savior.

Davie is not impressed with his parent’s new “church jazz.” He says “that sin bit...is so corny.” He’s also desperate for April’s attention, but April has been living a wild life. She buys alcohol with a fake ID (under the name Alice Cooper). Eventually, we learn that she’s been seeing an older man and is pregnant with his child.

Davie sees the error of his ways and agrees to go to the Billy Graham Crusade with his parents. Billy is preaching on sin (including “racial hate” along with lying and adultery). Like his parents, Davie, too, decides to follow Jesus, and we know the Winton family is going to be okay. (Though I really doubt they'll get their show about teens on network TV with all that religious content.)

I’m giving Billy Graham and Rev. Tim our highest Movie Churches rating of 4 Steeples.

Courageous (2011)

I watched Courageous in the most difficult of circumstances for watching a Christian film: in a church. Home video is ideal for watching a Christian film, providing the maximum opportunity for snarking at shoddy production values, awkward dialogue, and inane plot developments. Even in a movie theater, it's dark. You can whisper sarcastic remarks quietly.

But I watched Courageous in the worst of circumstances. The lighting is never quite dark enough in a church. To make things worse, I was on staff at the time. The interim pastor introduced the film with a big build-up of the greatness of the film. So me snickering about cheesiness during the film wasn't going to sell well. But we're not here to talk about my difficulties in sobriety during film viewing.

We're not even here to discuss the quality of the film, which was, in fact, surprisingly mediocre rather than bad. We're here to talk about the Church in the Movie. Since it's a Christian film, you can be pretty sure a church will be there.

The film is about a group of police officers on the force in Albany. One of the officers goes through a great tragedy, causing him to rethink his responsibilities as a father. A church plays a big part in that parental affirmation.

We first see a church during the funeral of a child. I'm sorry. I should have had a trigger warning about that. The death of a child is a pretty upsetting plot twist -- it's bad enough in a review but you're now warned before you see it in a film.

In the eulogy, Pastor Rogers says, "Silence seems to be the only expression that fits." And yet he keeps talking. And the other things he says he says are pretty much true and appropriate. "We speak because because we have a living hope. Our hope is found in the fact Jesus is no longer entombed."

The father of the child, Officer Adam Mitchell, goes to see Pastor Rogers for help. I sort of wondered why Adam had to go to see the pastor. It seems like when parents lose a child, the pastor should be checking on the parents.

Anyway. Adam says, "Pastor, thanks for meeting with me. I can't make sense of anything."

The pastor responds, "The grieving process take time. It's like an amputation. You heal, but something is always missing. But those who go through an experience like this and trust God experience a closeness to Him like no other. You'll need to choose whether to be angry for the time you didn't have or be grateful for the time you did have."

The pastor asks how he can help and Adam responds, "Teach me to be a father."

So Adam begins studying parenting in the Bible. He comes up with a pledge that he and other fathers can take to be a good father. They have a Father Commitment Ceremony officiated by a couple of pastors. Four men sign the resolution with families present (except for the guy who abandoned his daughter and is trying to make things right.) They recite a pledge, "I solemnly resolve before God to care for my wife and children as the spiritual leader of the home."

Pastor Rogers exhorts the men, "I bless you in the name of the Lord. But I warn you that you are now doubly accountable. You need courage."

They all hang resolution plaques on their walls. A parenting montage with music ensues as we see the men living out their resolution.

The film concludes with a church service. Pastor Rogers tells the congregation he has been preaching for the previous six weeks on being a father. This bothered me a bit. Did women and sterile men feel left out the previous month and a half? Anyway, he turns the pulpit over to Officer Adam Mitchell.

Adam has fathers stand to show their commitment to the proclamation of Joshua 24:15, "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Stirring music rises.

If Pastor Rogers had been a little less lackadaisical about caring for a family that lost a child, I might have given the church in the film better than 2 STEEPLES.