CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Movies for Bible Study?

I lead a Bible Study for Teenagers and am always looking for interesting stuff to discuss with my class. Lately we have been using Ephesians 6:10-18 to discuss spiritual war and we have been watching Star Wars Episode IV as an illustration. Before that we discussed all the religious symbols in Lord of the Rings and compared them to scriptures in the Bible. But now we are about to finish up our series on the Armor of God and I was wondering if any of you could think of any good Movies I could use for class discussion?

God Bless.

holysoldier5000

Driving Miss Daisy would be a good one for discussion of human relationships and treating one another in love. It's about a southern white jewish woman and her attitudes towards the African American man who is hired as her Chauffeur and the years they spend together and the friendship that develops. It's acutally a very moving movie. Also good in bringing in the subject of overcoming racial barriers in relationships.

What about A Walk to Remember? You could talk about their portrayal of Christians, Christian and non-Christian relationships (i.e. how to deal with your non-Christian friends, is it ok for a Christian and non-Christian to date, what are reasonable dating limits/how should a Christian date).

I know this one is kind of obvious, and some people probably wouldn't like it being suggested, but what about the Matrix series?

I think Contact is a good movie for discussions.

Armour of God (Jackie Chan movie)? Maybe not.

So far my bible study has watched:

The Passion
The Matrix
All Lord of the Rings movies
Remember the Titans
Signs

Also numerous Christian "eduational" movies to balance it out.

The Matrix and Signs were two movies I was already thinking of showing. I think my class would like them. But I do have to be careful with ratings. My class is mainly 14-15 year old girls, so I do need to make sure that what ever I show is appropriate. Although the first Matrix would probably be ok…I will have to run that trough my superiors.

Same thing goes with the Passion of the Christ. Just because of the graphic bloody scenes. But a great movie non the less! One that I think every one should see.

Contact and A Walk to Remember I have never seen. So am going to have to watch them.

As for Remember the Titans and Driving Miss Daisy, I have seen, I do agree that they are excellent suggestions. I had not thought of using them but I am thinking about doing so now. Could you think of any Biblical Text I could compare and contrast them to? I am thinking of Leviticus 19:18, and the many times Jesus said to love each other.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Anymore suggestions?

holysoldier5000 wrote:As for Remember the Titans and Driving Miss Daisy, I have seen, I do agree that they are excellent suggestions. I had not thought of using them but I am thinking about doing so now. Could you think of any Biblical Text I could compare and contrast them to? I am thinking of Leviticus 19:18, and the many times Jesus said to love each other.

Jame's epistle (James 2:1-12) speaks of showing favoritism in regard to one class of individuals in society over others particularly in how we feel towards them and interact with them. I would highly recommend including that in your study.

If I am not mistaken, Remember the Titans has a pretty good sprinkling of language in it. At least I remember my wife giving me the evil eye quite a bit while we were watching it.

Thanks Rev. Doc for the reference to James 2:1-12. That would be an excellent topic to study. I think it could be summed up in James 2:12: “…Mercy triumphs over judgment!â€

holysoldier5000 wrote:While racism, or prejudice, is not a problem in my church, it might make an interesting eye opener to my class, particularly if I was to reinforce the subject with true historical, and modern, racial, ethnic, and religious persecution. Whether dealing with the persecution of blacks during the time of segregation in America, or the persecution of the church right now in Pakistan…

While most of us don't wish to admit it, we all struggle with some underlying prejudice. It may not be racial, but it could be our views of the social standing of others. Imagine the reaction of many if a homeless person were to walk into your church on a given Sunday morning. Some would certainly welcome him or her, others would be very reserved about it. If not that most likely some other area that we must overcome in our relations with others.

One of the great messages of Driving Miss Daisy is the fact that most of us have something in our lives that others might be prejudiced against. While Miss Daisy looked down on Hoke because of skin color, she herself felt persecuted because of her spiritual beliefs (the bombing of her Synagogue in the movie). It really is a good movie with a message to overcome barriers and love your neighbor as yourself.

holysoldier5000 wrote:Just had an idea! The topic of persecution because of prejudice has brought to my mind James 1:2-12. Which deals with what the bible says about being persecuted as a Christian. Why I say! This Driving Miss Daisy could be a link to start a study of the whole book of James. What do you think? Theme could be: Practical Christian Living and why it is important to apply it to everyday life. Illustration would be persecution and prejudice vs. mercy and compassion. In other words: Living the way God wants instead of living the way the Devil wants.

What do you think?

Sounds like a great seed to plant for a super study. I know it is a message that we all need to hear in regard to today's world.

Ah, I'm glad I found this thread. I have some information (and a website) that may be of interest to you.

Near the college where I go to is a center for Christian intellectualism and studies known as the Chesterton House. They host several events and have about three or four Movie Nights in a semester. We watch a movie and then have some discussion afterwards in which we relate the film to spiritual truths. Click here for a list of movies that we've seen. The reviews will also give you an insight as to how we've used the films for discussion.

Fairly high on my list would be "The Mission" and "Jesus of Montreal" The Vatican also has a list of films that they consider to be especially significant from a cultural and artistic standpoint as well as religious.

significant.http://www.decentfilms.com/commentary/vaticanfilmlist.html

Thanks for all the help. It is really appreciated. Rev. Doc, you are right about “all struggle with some underlying prejudice.â€

I was just thinking of some movies and one that came to my mind is one that is overlooked a great deal, mostly because of length, entitled Gods and Generals. It runs well over 3 hours and is a prequel to Gettysburg. It came out a couple years ago. It is rated PG-13 because of the battle scenes. However, it is a facinating look at men of deep religious faith (Lee and Jackson) who must deal with the ethics of war and their spiritual struggles. Surprising is the fact that the executive producer is Ted Turner. Being somewhat of a history buff I really enjoyed this title because a lot of effort went into making it as authentic as possible and the relections on the men's relationship with the Lord were very moving.

Gods and Generals is an excellent movie! I am big into the Civil War, and particularly on the subject of the faith of the leaders. Particularly Lee’s struggle. He thought God was on his side, but his pride blinded him, and he had to deal with that for a long time. It was bust summed up when he said after the battle of Gettysburg: “It’s all my fault.â€

Wow! Its great to hear what God's doing through you holy soldier!
Live for Christ, Fly with Christ!

If anybody wants to look up another interesting thread…

Pop over to Forum: “Animeâ€

i don't remember "Remember the Titans" having much language in it, maybe one or two words. actually, i read an artical about the director specifically requesting that the liberal cursing in the original script be taken out. the thing that i found questionable was Sunshine, who other characters wondered if he was gay or not, and who kissed Gary while goofing around in the locker room...

another movie you might think about is "Radio" with Cuba Goodin Jr. it deals with accepting and dealing with mentally challenged people, and is imho, a great movie, and very touching. like "Titans," it too is based on a true story.

and if you want to go for historical, "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken" might be something to look into. it's about a girl in the Depression Era who dreams of escaping from her dreary life and controlling aunt and riding horses off the high dive tower in a Vaudeville type show. she runs away and becomes a groom for the horse diving show, and eventually begins riding them herself. the movie deals with achieving your dreams, overcoming huge obstacles, [spoiler]the main character becomes blind and must learn to ride the diving horses all over again, as well as deal with the doubt of most of the people close to her[/spoiler] romantic love, and father/son relationship problems. my family absolutely loves this movie, but to make sure it doesn't have any no-nos, or is what you could use for Bible study, you might want to watch it yourself, since i haven't seen it for a while.

oh ho ho we were watching Spaceballs once at bible study for fun after doing a aahuge segment. I think at one time they say the f word and the b word. So the leader goes to turn it way down and as soon he turns it up, he slipped and the volume went super wide and the guy said the word which echoed around the room. It's now joke material.

Yeah, from seeing that most of your students are 14-15 year old girls...those movies might not be appropriate...Not saying girls don't like kick butt people in leather and shades or a movie about guys playing football...but most in that age range would rather watch more girly movies...but im not saying they wouldn't want to.

Remember the Titans had some swearing in it...i can't remember what or how much but I do recall alot.

Hitokiri wrote:oh ho ho we were watching Spaceballs once at bible study for fun after doing a aahuge segment. I think at one time they say the f word and the b word. So the leader goes to turn it way down and as soon he turns it up, he slipped and the volume went super wide and the guy said the word which echoed around the room. It's now joke material.

Yeah, from seeing that most of your students are 14-15 year old girls...those movies might not be appropriate...Not saying girls don't like kick butt people in leather and shades or a movie about guys playing football...but most in that age range would rather watch more girly movies...but im not saying they wouldn't want to.

Remember the Titans had some swearing in it...i can't remember what or how much but I do recall alot.

Interesting point Hitokiri…I don’t have any girly movies on my list of to-dos. But in that department I am pretty clueless. Now they did enjoy Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and How the Grinch stole Christmas (staring Jim Carrey,) which I have done in the class, as well as movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure, which I haven’t done in the class. But I am not sure how girly movies (or chick-flicks) would go over??? They probably would like them. But like I said I am pretty clueless in that department, so any suggestions for chick-flicks I could use for a bible study would be welcome.

And if one movie doesn’t work for one class, I do assistant teach a second class, a group of adults, age 19-30s, and I could more then likely use the movie there. I didn’t think about asking for movies for the older class, (I don't know why not?) but if the strategy works for the younger then why not the older! So we have just started implementing it. Right now we are watching, in the older class, Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie. So any suggestions for the older class would be welcome as well as suggestions for the younger.

I think you should use veggi tales, but you know that brother.

Rev. Doc wrote:Jame's epistle (James 2:1-12) speaks of showing favoritism in regard to one class of individuals in society over others particularly in how we feel towards them and interact with them. I would highly recommend including that in your study.

If I am not mistaken, Remember the Titans has a pretty good sprinkling of language in it. At least I remember my wife giving me the evil eye quite a bit while we were watching it.

yeah, a bit, but apparently (according to one of my BreakAway magazines (breakaway is a magazine from Focus on the Family for Christian teenage guys (girls have Brio)) their was going to be a HECK OF ALOT MORE language in it, but one of the guys from disney who was working on it read it and told them to clean it up. So thankfully it was reduced.)

well, i know you'll all think this is a stupid reccomendation, but what about the Spider-Man films (i found them very symbolic), or moreso the X-Men films (or at least X2). X2 has Nightcrawler, who is purely and undistortedly religious and VERY moving, and the X-Men films seem very symbolic to me, and teach the themes of how racism is wrong, and I sometimes think Christians and the X-Men's mutants are extremely alike, we are judged harshly, persecuted, misunderstood, hated, and fought against. just like the X-Men are, but, just like the X-Men, we are not evil, though the world hates us. I know I won't hear many "good point"s or "amen"s, but I still think it is a good idea to try these 4.

and you NEED to do Prince of Egypt and Joseph King of Dreams, especially Prince of Egypt, those were AWESOME movies, if you haven't done those yet, make sure you do then ASAP. Prince of Egypt deals with Moses and the Passover and all, and Joseph King of Dreams deals with Joseph (Genesis) of course.

Whilst I am not so sure how much theological content is in it, a great movie about a Christian hero is The Scarlet And The Black. It's the true story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a Vatican official who worked to save Allied POW's and downed pilots from the Nazis in WW2. Great movie. Gregory Peck delivers a great performance.

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate all the help.
We are just finishing up Joseph: King of Dreams. It has taken up 5 weeks, and we aren’t even done yet. But we are cross-referencing scripture with clips and it has made a wonderful illustration. There are a lot of good points in the story of Joseph on Providence, Obedience to God, and why you should always do the right think even when life’s not fair.

Another suggestion I have found that works well is Veggie Tales. It maybe a silly little CG cartoon but it has wonderful points.

Plus her is a weird one. We have even done a study using Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Don’t believe me? Well the subject was evangelism. Can these two things be put together? Any one who wants to know how I did it, just ask and I will post the lesson.

There should be a thread for posting Bible Lessons so teachers like me can share good ideas for students. Think I should start it?

i reccomend Hellboy, it has several symbolisms through-out the film, see the thread I made asking about it in this board section for more details, [SPOILER]a friend of mine also pointed out that near the end of the film when Hellboy is tempted by Rasputin, it is like in Scripture when Jesus is tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and rebukes him about three times and doesn't give in, through-out the movie Hellboy "rebukes" his devil-side, such as filing his horns, wearing a crucifix with him, then the end stuff, the only reason I find for him even being a part-devil hero is to symbolize the fight every christian has against the sin nature and temptation in us. be warned the bad guys have to some degree involvement with occult or demons or whatever, but only the bad guys do, the movie draws a clear line of good vs. evil, and that only reaffirms it.[/SPOILER]