Is God dead? Friedrich Nietzsche seemed to think so, as well as many others in and out of the philosophical sciences. One can believe what he or she wants, but in many university classrooms and halls here in the United States, not believing in God is a virtue if not actual prerequisite. This is the issue addressed in the movie God Is Not Dead.
I do not want to review the movie, as I am not a movie reviewer, but I do want to say this is an important movie here for the United States and other parts of the world. As you know, Canção Nova is a Brazilian based community and there, as of now, a crucifix can be found in every classroom in the country, although there is a move to change this. Speaking freely of religion is not an issue in Brazil the last I heard. The same cannot be said for the United States. In fact, the concept of requiring students to proclaim that God is dead has actually happened in one form or another in some US University classrooms.
This is a great movie and if it is released in Brazil, I will certainly encourage the Revolução Jesus team to check it out and, obviously, present it for their weekly movie review segment. However, it is here in the US and I cannot emphasize enough how well done this movie is for presenting the issue.
Director Harold Cronk so perfectly 
demonstrated a Christianity that he clearly opens the door for the viewer to see his or her form of the faith without any form of alienation at all. It was masterfully done. (Ok that was a bit of a review, but that part had to be explained.)
For those in the Catholic faith concerned it is not a Catholic movie, may I remind you of the words of Blessed Fulton Sheen who recommended the Barclay Commentary Series even though Barclay is not Catholic and angrily scolded his priest audience to not be those who would not read the series for that reason.
This movie truly portrays the challenges of the Christian life from the inside and I, as a Catholic priest, can tell you first hand of encountering almost every issue that appears in the movie. (I never did have a philosophy professor who insisted that saying God is dead is a pre-requisite, but I did have one at the University of Massachusetts in Boston who clearly was an atheist and who stated that mystic saints–such as for example St. Teresa of Avila–were psychotics. This was in the mid 1980’s A friend had an English teacher in high school who labeled him a crazy Catholic.)
There is the semi-discouraged preacher (David A.R. White) dealing with “Front Lines” missionary (Benjamin Onyando) on vacation. Shane Harper is the young freshman with his Christian girlfriend, she sees their future in a way that involves, at best, a nod to faith, but not an embrace of it when it gets tough. Kevin Sorbo is the hard as rock atheist who hates God since his mother died. (Yes, I encountered one of them in my ministry too, in this case he was a producer and his grandmother died. The reasoning of his being an atheist was the same.) Trisha LaFache is the ambushing reporter looking for a story and finally Dean Cain is the heartless successful stockbroker.
The Newsboys do a great job of portraying their Christian message on stage, and Christian ministry off stage. Working for a community that has its own record label, I am familiar with that scenario as well.
Clearly, this movie was written by someone intensely familiar with the ins and outs of Christian ministry.
It is too late to bring a Confirmation class to movie, but I hope to show it to my class next semester. (producers please make sure getting a license is an easy process.)
So, God Is not dead and the movie illustrates this reality extremely well, while challenging the viewer how far he or she will go to live that message. It could cost you everything, but God will be with you to make up for what you lose in full measure running over.
Fr. Robert J Carr
below is a link to the actual cases (US) that inspired the movie, all 16 pages of them; they are also in the credits: