Facing the Giants

I saw "Facing the Giants" the other night and it was about what I expected. Unfortunately, the Christian ghetto has once again shown just how bad it is at making movies. Technically speaking, it was good for a low budget film with an almost all volunteer staff. At times it was pretty funny and other times inspiring. However, it was the underlying message that disturbed me. What I got from it, and what I believe most unbelievers will get out of it, is the supposedly temporal blessings of being a faithful Christian. Even more disheartening is the films inability to ask the right question -- i.e., how does sinful man stand in the presence of a holy God? "Sin," which I can't recall the word actually being used once in the entire film, seems to be defined as failure to meet one's personal goals. The film's answer is, if you do your part and believe really hard, God might give you a winning football team, a new F-150 pick-up truck, and you get to go to heaven too! I have heard it said that Francis Schaeffer told his students, regarding evangelism, please first present Christianity as true rather than that it is helpful. In this regard, Facing the Giants misses the mark terribly.