God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust

Rated PG • Theaters

Over the course of seven books, Tom Clancy took Jack Ryan from being a lowly CIA analyst to inhabiting the Oval Office. Rev. Dave from the God’s Not Dead franchise looks to be on a similar trajectory. In God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust, we find the humble pastor with bedraggled hair running for Congress.

The drama begins when a conser­vative congressman dies just six weeks before Election Day, leaving his challenger Peter Kane (Ray Wise) running unopposed. If Kane wins the election, the balance of power in Congress will tip, sending the country irrevocably in a new direction. Kane opposes religion in the public sphere, saying the country should be guided by science and reason rather than superstition. His political opponents panic and start casting about for a fresh candidate to challenge him.

The person they alight on? David Hill (once again played by David A.R. White), the pastor of St. James Church with a knack for confronting atheists.

Dave is reluctant to jump into a congressional campaign, but his church’s women’s shelter recently lost its federal funding. He realizes that something needs to be done to protect Christians from governmental prejudice. But will he be able to mount a successful campaign, especially with his advisers imploring him to tone down the God talk?

This is the fifth installment in the God’s Not Dead franchise, and In God We Trust doesn’t deviate from the formula that’s worked in the past. As in other God’s Not Dead movies, this one preys on fears of Christian persecution. These films present the secular powers that be as out to get Christians, offering storylines that seem, at least on the face of things, plausible. The message: If believers stand up and push back against the darkness, God will be faithful to them.

God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust entertained me to some extent. The production values are on par with the average Hallmark Channel film, and the dialogue didn’t make me cringe. The premise is admittedly a little silly, but the movie possesses a certain self-awareness that keeps the mood from slipping too deeply into melodrama.

However, I found both the theological and political perspectives disappointing. Dave’s struggles hardly count as persecution when compared with the trials of Christians around the world, and the film muddles Christian priorities by claiming that if only America would turn back to God, then our country would be strong again—as if the gospel promised political success. Don’t the martyrs attest to God’s faithfulness, despite losing their lives? Not only does In God We Trust indulge in sub-Christian ideas, it does so in a way that’s often full of self-contradiction.

The film’s central conflict, in which an atheist politician belittles Christianity, will no doubt resonate with some viewers, but is it believable that a politician in Arkansas, where the story is set, would call Christianity a superstition during an election cycle? Moreover, one character supports Dave’s candidacy by noting that more ordained ministers currently serve in the U.S. Congress than any other time in history, but if that’s so, why does the film pretend we’re at an inflection point in which the government is about to purge Christianity from the public square? Also, it doesn’t make sense that Dave’s campaign manager would ask him to avoid talking about religion. Why would the party machine run a pastor known for making long speeches about God if they didn’t want him to make long speeches about God?

To make matters worse, Dave got into the race because his women’s shelter lost its federal funding, but then later in the movie he preaches about the need for limited government and less spending. It’s an unwitting commentary on current Republican policies that demand fiscal restraint, unless it’s for pet projects dear to the political right.

The explicit goal of this film is to get Christians to vote in November. We’re told that if believers cared enough to vote, then we could turn our country around. But this emphasis on exercising political power comes at the expense of spiritual power. In an early scene, a character tells Dave without a hint of irony, “There’s nothing you can do as a pastor that can’t be undone by a politician.” Dave concedes the point, missing the chance to distinguish temporal earthly power from the indomitable power of the gospel.