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HBO: Friends of God
Disclaimer: I'm not trying to degrade, defame, attack, or ridicule anyone's beliefs.
Anyone catch the new documentary about evangelicals in the US on HBO? It wasn't too sympathetic, but I gotta admit I thought it was a little biased, which is fine by me because it was almost as if I was I was there witnessing things through my "virgin eyes". The questions they asked.. the topics they probed.. were all things I was curious about. They were all over the country covering everything from Joel Osteen to home-schooled families. The rejection of evolution was an interesting topic, but they only covered creationism, not intelligent design. Pastor Ted Haggard is on the documentary as well. You might remember him from the sex/drugs scandal last year before the elections. I couldn't take him seriously because I actually recognized his unique smile from all the news coverage last year when he admitted to lying about hiring a male prostitute and doing drugs. The filmmaker was pretty broad including conversations about everything from entertainment, politics, comedy, family values, education, sex, etc.. They went to a Christian Wrestling Federation match, spoke to an evangelical comedian, covered a Christian-based car show, and much more. Some of the conversations were really eye-opening. I can honestly say I learned a great deal. But then there were some scenes that were just unbelievable or even laughable. Especially the focus on children and younger adults and how they responded to questions about their beliefs. The theme of the film seemed to weigh heavily on the strength of the Church, but it was contrasted by how the people in the film so readily identified with being in the minority and being opressed by liberal media bias, activist judges, hollywood, etc... The film portrayed the reach of the church throughout the community, but some of the blame being thrown around took away from the greater message imo. The film reminded me a lot of a few interesting/frightening experiences I've had with born again Christians. But I'm very open minded and I'm not gonna take the documentary at its face value. It's defin got some bias. All in all it was a very interesting film, and I hope to catch it again in its entirety next time.
cliffs: I'm gonna stay away from the red states for the time being..
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Ross U. '10
Rutgers U. '05
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