[jesusian]

Hello fellow Progressive Christians,
I'm looking for a "religious" movie to rent to watch with my teenage kids this Easter weekend. When they were younger we watched all the old biblical epics ("The 10 Commandments", "Ben Hur", "Jesus of Nazareth") and I put my own personal spin on how to interpret them.

Now that my kids are teenagers I definitely don't want to watch anything that emphazes the fantastic elements of the old Bible stories (miracles, etc.), nor am I interested in anything that gets bogged down in pious preachy sentiment.

I like "Jesus Christ Superstar" because it tells a story that everyone should know (and in an entertaining fashion) without literalizing the miracles or the resurrection.

I'm familiar with "Godspell" but I'm sure the movie is so dated that I'll wait until it's being performed onstage at a local playhouse.

Any other ideas? I remember one of the Turner channels had a series of Biblical made-for-TV movies but I'm not sure how literal or preachy they were.

thanks!

[billmc]

jesusian, on Apr 6 2009, 11:08 AM, said:

Hello fellow Progressive Christians,
I'm looking for a "religious" movie to rent to watch with my teenage kids this Easter weekend. When they were younger we watched all the old biblical epics ("The 10 Commandments", "Ben Hur", "Jesus of Nazareth") and I put my own personal spin on how to interpret them.

Now that my kids are teenagers I definitely don't want to watch anything that emphazes the fantastic elements of the old Bible stories (miracles, etc.), nor am I interested in anything that gets bogged down in pious preachy sentiment.

I like "Jesus Christ Superstar" because it tells a story that everyone should know (and in an entertaining fashion) without literalizing the miracles or the resurrection.

I'm familiar with "Godspell" but I'm sure the movie is so dated that I'll wait until it's being performed onstage at a local playhouse.

Any other ideas? I remember one of the Turner channels had a series of Biblical made-for-TV movies but I'm not sure how literal or preachy they were.

thanks!

Welcome to the Forum, Jesusian! Cool handle!

Hmmm. Progressive movies about Jesus? I've not seen any, at least any that have done the life of Jesus WITHOUT making his death and resurrection the centerpoint of everything. Maybe some others here have some recommendations.

But, seeing as you are good at explaining things to your children, what I would recommend is two movies that, while not specifically about Jesus, are about the kinds of things that Jesus would or would not do:

The first one is called "Saved". It is the story of a young girl who gets pregnant and how the "Religious Right" kids at her school shame and disown her, while the "least of these", the misfits, take her in and show her compassion. There is an excellent scene in this movie that talks about how people use (or misuse) the Bible.

The second one is "Juno." It is, again, about a young girl who gets pregnant and struggles with what the right thing to do is. It's a quirky movie but, again, it portrays compassion coming from people who really care more about relationships than religious rules.

And, finally, if you want a REALLY progressive movie about the life of Christ, there is always, "The Life of Brian."

bill

[AllInTheNameOfProgress]

I'd recommend "Sister Act." It models how the church needs to adjust its ways to connect with real people. I guess it's not really a story from the Bible, though, but I believe it is progressive.

Another interesting movie is "Joshua", about a character like Jesus being in our world today. It has been a long time since I have watched it, so don't know if it would be too conservative. Sometimes kids (and others) can't understand why people wanted to crucify Jesus. I think it helps to put Jesus into our current times and see how we think leaders/church would react to him.

"Evan Almighty" is a recent religious flick I enjoyed. Even though the miracles of God are part of the humor, the part that is progressive is the idea that if someone asks for patience, God gives them opportunities to be patient, etc. I wouldn't say that comes from a progressive world view, though.

[grampawombat]

There was a movie on Archbishop Oscar Romero a few years back. It starred the late Raul Julia. There is also one on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but it was never in wide circulation. "Doubt" is worth seeing. Then there was one called something like "The Third Miracle" with Ed Harris. It was a little preachy, but the acting was good. These aren't exactly "biblical" but they all have religious themes that are generally worthwhile.

This post has been edited by grampawombat: 13 April 2009 - 02:20 PM