Evan Almighty Responses

I took the youth group to see the opening of Evan Almighty last night and laughed my little head off. It is a lovely film with simple truths about family, kindness, and God’s love for creation. Morgan Freeman made me cry happy tears at the very end, because he plays a really tender Daddy-God.

I think you should grab the kiddos in your neighborhood and go watch this movie when it comes to your town. It’s been a long time since I’ve sat in a cinema where the crowd has erupted in applause at the very end.

I had some weird conversations with random adults post-movie, though. One person was slightly offended that God was played by a black man. This response sort of infuriated me, but I held it together. I tried to calmly say that today, the majority of Christ-followers in our world reside in the Southern Hemisphere and are not so white-skinned. What would they think of our Morgan?

And then another person commented about the movie being “Pro-Earth” (said in a huffed-of-course-this-movie-must-be-a-liberal-plot sort of way.) I just raised my eyebrows and said, “Well, isn’t that nice, since the Scriptures seem to be so Pro-Earth!”

I’m really tired of political polarizing in the American Church on issues of caring for Creation. Over the last few years, simple acts of kindness towards the earth, like recycling, have become a part of my worship. Creation-care is an element of discipleship to me, not a political stance. Some folk in my church still see me as a hippie, but that’s alright with me. I think of that Derek Webb song, “My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man. My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood…it’s to a King and a Kingdom.”

I guess you should go see the movie and tell me if you think it’s politically charged. I found it to be just lovely. It is difficult to represent God’s character well in Hollywood, particularly in a comedy! But I, for one, found myself laughing and crying at the simple truths in this film. Nellers gives it two thumbs up.