Setting The Stage To Review 'God's Not Dead' Part I Poem by Bill Grace

I have not seen the movie “God’s Not Dead” but I have seen the four trailers for it provided by RottenTomatoes.com. Those of us close to the academic community have experienced the hubris depicted by the professor and from what I can tell, with only trailer contact, he will provide the film with an adequate bad guy. As an individual who has devoted most of my life to this area – I was ordained at the First Unitarian Church of Ithaca, New York thirty four years ago – a few additional thoughts.

God, and I find this word disquieting, does not need our defense outside the realms of process theology where the power of God is defined as the power that the worship of the divine inspires. Rev. Jeremy Taylor at a Pendle Hill dream seminar recently shared a definition of God from the Hindu tradition as that which has been unstained by words. The picture of earth taken from Mars as discovered on Yahoo has reinforced the beauty of what Taylor shared with us. This is also not too far from the thought of rabbi Abraham Heschel who finds “awe” the appropriate place from which to start on a quest for The Ultimate. As Jake Emperor, S.J. has stated: “humanism without God is poor humanism.” God does not need me but I need God. I declare this with great respect even with an Aunt Eleanor who found religion a sham but was too gracious in her life to ever use that word. She died peacefully at an advanced age and had no use for religion. I declare my faith to a world that has found my life a laugh so why should I be surprised that it finds a deep reverence for the totally other also a laugh? For me God is real but not a reality to compete with the powers of science. A first rate treatment of this is presented by Huston Smith’s 'The Way Things Are' published by U.C. Berkeley Press.

I am going to see this film and continue my attempt to review it here but trust me the divine is not dead.