Unpop Culture

Over the past few weeks, Tim Keller has received pushback for making some controversial political statements. One particularly troubling example came from a Twitter thread , in which Keller said the following: Here are two Biblical MORAL norms: 1) It is a sin to worship idols or any God other than the true God & 2) do not murder. If you ask evangelicals if we should be forbidden by law to worship any other God than the God of the Bible—they’d say ‘no.’   We allow that terrible sin to be legal. But if you ask them if Americans should be forbidden by law to abort a baby, they'd say ‘yes.’ Now why make the first sin legal and NEVER talk about it and the second sin illegal and a main moral/political talking point? The most astute criticism I’ve seen of this false equivalence is an op-ed by Andrew T. Walker for WORLD Magazine . Walker rightly calls Keller out for failing to adequately distinguish between sins and crimes, thus confusing the Christian position on abortion. Wa...

The more things stay the same, the less they change—and that’s how I like it. Even so, and though I’ve fought the need for changing my writing modus operandi , the time has come for me to acknowledge the limitations of blogging . These days, more people are preferring to limit their online intake to social media and email subscriptions. Thus, in order to continue growing my audience, I have decided to make a change: I will be using Substack as my go-to home for new posts. This setup will allow you to more easily access my writing, as each new post will be delivered to you via email. In my very first blog post (published in January of 2006 ), I gave a few reasons for starting my own blog. With some tweaking and condensing, those reasons apply to my new venture into newsletter writing: 1) Everyone else is doing it 2) If I am to maintain my individuality, I must conform to the status quo 3) As a writer, I am motivated to hone my skills while utilizing strategic platforms 4) As an activist...

The trailers for Encanto never interested me. In fact, I busied myself with other matters when my family first watched the film. And when I did finally see it myself, I can’t say I particularly enjoyed it. I could appreciate its artistry, but I didn’t consider it something worth repeat viewing. The rest of my family, however, fell in the love with the story from the get-go, and with each successive watch, I have come to appreciate it more and more. Strangely enough, the more I have grown in my love for this movie, the more I’ve heard from my film critic friends (I am blessed to know a handful) whose responses to the film have ranged from indifference to forceful opposition. The more negative opinions I hear, the more motivated I’ve become to share why I think Encanto warrants more appreciation—especially from Christian audiences. Before we go any further, I need to make a couple clarifications. First, I am not the biggest fan of Disney as of late. Many of the conglomerate’s busin...

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that much of the pushback I received on my critique of the film Redeeming Love is based on statements I didn’t actually make and positions I don’t actually hold. As such, much of the disagreement publicly shared is unfounded. The bad news, of course, is that such a high level of reader misinterpretation happened in the first place. A lot of digital ink has been spilt arguing with rhetorical phantoms. While I am saddened that so many people walked away from my piece unnecessarily confused, I am also glad to clear the air and clarify my intentions. Toward that end, I wish to address several misconceptions. One key factor is the title of the article itself. In the beginning, my working title was Redeeming Love’s Unfortunate Exploitation . By using the word “unfortunate,” I hoped to communicate a sympathetic posture toward the film and its intentions. Of course, the final title is different from my initial suggestion: ‘Redeeming Love’...

If you haven’t watched any of the Pitch Meeting comedy videos by Ryan George , you’re missing out. In each video, George pokes fun at a given movie’s plot holes and logical inconsistencies, framed by an imaginary discussion between a film producer and a screenwriter. (He plays the parts of both individuals, cutting the footage together so that his characters are talking to each other.) The screenwriter pitches a story idea while the producer interjects with various questions and comments. The results are often hilarious. For a stellar example of this setup, you can watch the pitch meeting for Watchmen  in the embedded video at the end of this post. In the spirit of Ryan George’s videos, I have written a pitch meeting for the faith-based film Redeeming Love . As such, the discussion below is an imaginary conversation between a Hip and Edgy Christian Screenwriter (HECS) and a Priggish, Obtuse Producer Crazy about Oscars, Ratings, and Notoriety (POPCORN). Enjoy! ----------------...