Did #BoycottExodusMovie work?
Even though Ridley Scott’s ‘Exodus’ won the box office crown this weekend, it only earned an estimated $24.5 million, performing lower than studio executives hoped. While it is difficult to determine...
View Article10 inaccuracies plaguing the ‘Exodus’ movie
Polls have shown that religious audiences care a lot about whether a Bible film is “biblically accurate.” This is a difficult phrase to use when one is talking about taking a story from one medium...
View ArticleWhy a Muslim actor plays Jesus in Bill O’Reilly’s TV special
“Bless you for playing Jesus, peace be upon him.” This was the reaction of Lebanese-born actor Haaz Sleiman’s mother upon learning that her son had been cast as Jesus in National Geographic Channel’s...
View ArticleThe gay celibate Catholic who’s shaking up sexuality debates
A few decades ago, there were basically two options for people who wanted to follow Jesus but were attracted to the same gender: They could either throw off religion and embrace their sexuality, or...
View ArticleJazz Hands for Jesus: Inside Broadway’s Religion Revival
Since 1921, The Nederlander Theater in New York City has housed many heralded Broadway productions — from Julius Caesar to King Lear to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf to Rent. But on June 25, when...
View ArticleWhy TV’s ‘Broadway Boyfriends’ will keep singing with Hillsong
The only thing worse than a false story is a partial one. That was the real lesson behind an article published on a conservative Christian website last week claiming that the Hillsong Church was...
View Article‘Courageous’ and ‘Fireproof’ filmmakers opt for black cast
A flood of faith films led many to dub 2014 “The Year of the Bible,” but it was also a year of the status quo in Hollywood. The movie industry has a long history of casting white actors to play African...
View ArticleA Hebrew word expressed through a Betty Boop animation technique
How does one make the invisible visible? This is the question Brooklyn-based filmmaker Sarah Martin wrestled with when she set out to make the “The First Day of the Week,” a one minute film exploring...
View ArticleAfter winning 5 Grammy Awards, Sandi Patty calls it quits
Grammy winning Gospel singer Sandi Patty is singing her swan song. On Monday, a group of about 20 publicists, media moguls, and celebrities gathered at Morrell Wine Bar in Rockefeller Center to hear...
View Article‘Spotlight’ film: Powerful lessons on the nature of truth-telling
For nearly two decades, CBS Evening News anchorman Walter Cronkite signed off his broadcasts with five simple words: “That’s the way it is.” The statement expressed what he believed should be...
View ArticleThe case for canonizing Mister Rogers as a saint
After Amy Melder became a Christian at the age of six, she set out to evangelize everyone she cared about. One of the names on the top of her list was a person whom she’d never actually met: Fred...
View ArticleHow Valentines’ king Nicholas Sparks fell in love with God
“The Choice” is the 11th feature film inspired by a Nicholas Sparks book, and those familiar with the previous ten may find its plot predictable. Set on the North Carolina coastline, the movie draws...
View ArticleThe Death of Moral Relativism
Four years before he was hoisted to Speaker of the House, a smooth-faced Representative Paul Ryan declared, “If you ask me what the biggest problem in America is, I’m not going to tell you debt,...
View ArticleThe Spirituality of Snoopy
Charles Schulz was widely applauded for a long list of achievements. The creator of the Peanuts comic strip was a Pulitzer Prize nominee, and his comics earned him an Emmy, Peabody, and Congressional...
View ArticleHow Amena Brown is Reimagining the Word “Art”
When Amena Brown decided to become a spoken word artist, many of her Christian friends assumed it was just a phase. At some point, she would grow up and become a preacher or Bible teacher. Amena...
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