Hi Joel,

A little news from the world of entertainment:

One of the main characters of the latest film in the God’s Not Dead franchise has Mennonite (and Kansas, outside of Dodge City, in fact!) roots. David A.R. White, who grew up in a super conservative family, has played the pastor in the first two of the films, and now his character takes center stage.

I’ve written about the anti-education themes of God’s Not Dead before as part of my research on the experiences of conservative Christian students in college. The first and third movies are set on college campuses, and the second is about a high school teacher. In this third installment, White’s character, Rev. Hall, pastors at a church adjacent to a college campus. The church is destroyed by arson, and the college (ALWAYS the bad guy!) tries to stop it from being rebuilt.  The film covers the same territory as its predecessors: the threat that the government will force you to stop preaching what you want, the threat that government will seize churches, young people’s questioning (but eventual affirmation) of whether Christianity is superior to other ideologies, the willingness of Christians to suffer persecution (American-style, that is) for their faith.

Above, the trailer for the film. 

Anyway, I imagine that some of our readers might even know David A.R. White or his family, so I wanted to be sure to share. And if anyone sees the film and has thoughts to how his Mennonite upbringing have shaped White’s work, I’d love to talk about it.

Rebecca

PS. Guess who shows up in this film in a minor role? Gun lover Dana Loesch! Also Jeanine Pirro. Yeah, it’s a good time.