Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n
Pure Flix just finished production on God\u2019s Not Dead 2: He\u2019s Surely Alive<\/em>. <\/em><\/strong>This film is the follow-up to the immensely-successful God\u2019s Not Dead<\/em> which grossed over $60 million last year at the box office. The sequel\u00a0features a star-studded cast that includes Melissa Joan Hart (Melissa & Joey)<\/em>, Jesse Metcalfe (Dallas)<\/em>, Hayley Orrantia (The Goldbergs), <\/em>Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters)<\/em>, Sadie Robertson (Duck Dynasty), <\/em>Robin Givens (Head of The Class)<\/em>, Fred Thompson (Law & Order), Maria Canals-Barrera (Cristela), <\/em>Pat Boone and Ray Wise (Robocop). <\/em>Returning cast members include Pure Flix Founder producer\/actor David A.R. White (who played Rev. Dave in the original), Trisha LaFache (Amy Ryan), Benjamin Onyango (Reverend Jude), Paul Kwo (Martin Yip), and the Christian rock band Newsboys (Michael Tait, Duncan Phillips, Jeff Frankenstein, and Jody Davis).<\/p>\n The film is scheduled to arrive in theaters for Easter 2016. <\/strong>The plot takes audiences back to Hope Springs, Arkansas, the setting of the first film. This time its high school teacher Grace Wesley (Hart) who is forced to stand up for her faith. It happens when a student (Orrantia) asks Grace a question about Jesus during a lesson she’s teaching abut Reverend Martin Luther King and Gandhi. Before you can say “Separation of church and state,” she finds herself fighting in an employment with the school’s principal (Givens) who aligns herself with a zealous civil liberties group represented by a theophobic attorney.<\/p>\n I’m foreseeing stridency when a when a farcical tone targeting PC overreach might be more effective. We’ll see.<\/p>\n Timely.<\/strong> The issue of atheist aggression against religious expression in anything close to the public square is certainly ripped from the headlines. Just yesterday\u00a0 (7\/7), the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty<\/a> argued in defense \u201cBig Mountain Jesus,\u201d a World War II statue in Montana honoring\u00a0soldiers\u00a0who lost their lives fighting in\u00a0the Alps of Italy. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will determine whether\u00a0the popular memorial\u00a0can remain atop a Montana ski slope where it has stood\u00a0without controversy for\u00a0more than\u00a060 years.\u00a0The\u00a0monument\u00a0was\u00a0installed in 1954\u00a0by the Knights of Columbus who worked with veterans from the Army\u2019s Tenth Mountain Division\u00a0to commemorate\u00a0their fallen comrades.\u00a0\u00a0The statue\u2019s\u00a0fate is now in question after\u00a0an atheist group\u00a0from Wisconsin\u00a0sued\u00a0the government for its removal.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n