Indoctrination

Documentary

102 minutes; 2011
Rating 8/10

Two interviews with public school teacher Sarah Laverdiere serve as stunning book ends for Colin Gunn's remarkable investigation into the anti-Christian roots of public education.

LaVerdiere is a Christian who has a hard time reconciling her job with her faith - she doesn't know if she should be making parents feel good about sending their children to a public school. At about the 26 minute mark LaVerdiere is asked, "How long would your career last, if were to start teaching Scripture from the front of the classroom?" Laughing, she answers, "I'd probably be out of here that day!

Those were prophetic words.

An hour further into Indoctrination we meet her again. Since her first interview LaVerdiere had decided the she could not remain silent about God in the classroom, so she had offered her resignation. She was initially supposed to teach another two weeks, but after she wrote a letter, at her principal's request, explaining her decision, she was asked to resign immediately. What was in her letter? LaVerdiere noted that she could not continue to teach where Christianity was not welcome, and where homosexuals, radical environmentalists and atheists were encouraged to pervert the minds of the students. Though she was initially supposed to teach another two weeks, when the principal saw her letter LaVerdiere was asked to resign that day. And she was escorted out of the school like a criminal:

"I did return to the elementary school that day. And the principal supervised me as I cleaned out my classroom. They has the students go on a back playground and they had me go around a different way than I normally do so that the students could not see me while they were on the playground... when all I had done was tell my students I was leaving because I was a Christian."



That, in a nutshell, summarizes the state of public education in America: it is at war with Christianity.

There is much more in this documentary. The narrative for the film is the Gunn family's trip, in a big yellow school bus, across America. They travel from place to place visiting educational experts, and Reformed theologians and uncover the radically anti-Christian roots of public education. It is no accident that God is now unwelcome in the classroom. As Gunn shows, for many of the most pivotal figures in educational history, that was the plan from the beginning.

In addition to the specifically Reformed influence in this film, another attractive feature is the filmmaker and narrator, Colin Gunn. Scottish-born, his accent is charming and, if a grown man can say this about another grown man, adorable. I can't imagine a more pleasant voice to listen to as the dire and dour state of public education is explained. Clever animated illustrations and engaging interviewees make this a highly enjoyable as well as highly educational experience.

Though this is about the US public system, it is highly relevant to Canadians as well, as this is primarily an exploration of public education philosophy, and this same philosophy pervades our schools north of the border too.

A great production... and an important one! To buy a copy at Amazon.com click here.

Waiting for Superman

Documentary
111 minutes; 2010
Rating: 8/10

“One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me ‘Superman’ did not exist. Cause even in the depths of the ghetto you just thought he was coming… She thought I was crying because it’s like Santa Claus is not real. I was crying because no one was coming with enough power to save us.” 

- educational reformer Geoffrey Canada

The public school system in the US is so bad mere mortals don’t seem capable of fixing it. And sadly Superman isn’t available. So how can it be fixed? And more importantly, why should the primarily Canadian, private-school-supporting readership of this magazine care to find out?

Let’s start with this last question first. There are two reasons our community should watch Waiting for Superman. The first: to better appreciate the blessing that our schools are. The second: to ensure our schools never make the mistakes that have destroyed the US public schools.



Doing the opposite

There is, of course, Someone powerful enough to fix all that’s wrong in these schools, but He isn’t welcome there. In fact, watching Superman is like being given a close-up look at a system based on the very opposite of what God instructs us concerning the education of our children.

• God says education is a parental (Prov. 4) responsibility? Not so in the public system; there the parents have little to no say. 
• God warns that teachers will “be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1)? The teachers’ unions won’t stand for that. They’ve negotiated contracts based on the idea that “we shouldn’t make any distinctions among teachers. A teacher is a teacher is a teacher.” In some districts unions have managed to make it next to impossible to fire teachers (disciplinary hearing can last as long as three years!) no matter how bad they might be.

So what happens when you do the opposite? Very bad things. The American system has thousands of schools so pathetic they’ve been labelled “failure factories.” If your child is unfortunate enough to have to attend one of these schools, it may not matter how gifted or determined they are - their educational future could be determined by the teachers they are saddled with.

Everyone seems ready to admit the system is broken, but the opposing sides have very different ideas of what and who is to blame. The teachers’ unions put the blame on class size, and a lack of funding. But director Davis Guggenheim argues money can’t be the pivotal factor:

Free online film: Inherently Windy

A Hollywood History of the Scopes Trial
Lecture
74 minutes / 2004
RATING: 7/10

In 1925 teacher John Scopes was found guilty, and fined $100, for violating a law which prohibited the teaching “that man descended from a lower order of animals.” But while the court found him guilty, the US media championed him in their papers, and fed the public a distorted account of events that made the anti-evolutionist prosecuting attorney, William Jennings Bryan, look like a fool.

A play about events, called Inherit the Wind, often produced by high schools and colleges, spread the distorted account to subsequent generations, and a 1960 film of the same title (starring Spencer Tracy) took the distortion to a whole new audience. There was no attempt at fairness - in one bombastic scene the town’s fundamentalist Christians are portrayed as an angry mob, marching on the jail to lynch the evolution-teaching teacher!

This, then, is another caricature of creationists, but bigger than most in that it’s portrayal of creationists as violent, dim-witted and bigoted has impacted public perception for generations.

One of the best responses to the film is a lecture done by Dr. David Menton. In his presentation Inherently Wind: A Hollywood History of the Scopes Trial he deconstructs one outrageous lie after another by showing a scene from the film, and then explaining the actual facts of the matter. Even if you’ve never seen or heard of Inherit the Wind before, it’s still worth watching this lecture just to learn about the contempt and hatred Hollywood has historically had for Bible-believing Christians. And if you have seen the film Dr. Menton’s presentation will blow your mind. You may have realized the film was propaganda, but you never realized just how little regard the filmmakers had for truth, fairness and honesty.

This great presentation can be viewed free online here.

Merrill's Marauders

Drama / War
98 minutes; 1962
Rating: 6 / 10

Merrill's Marauders - the 5307th Composite Unit (provisional) - was a US combat unit that fought in South-East Asia during World War II.

In the course of five months in 1944 they trekked 750 miles through some of the worst jungle terrain in Burma, and fought in five major battle and countless other skirmishes. In addition to combat losses, their forces were diminished by typhus, malaria and dysentery, and further weakened by low supplies - the 2,800-calorie, daily ration packs they were provided would have been sufficient for most other forces, but not men asked to hike, climb and hack their way through the hot, humid, Burmese jungle.

The force, named after their commander, General Frank Merrill, made their name by taking on larger, more heavily armed Japanese forces and beating them, again, and again. They continued on, without reinforcements or rest until, by the time of their last battle, at Myitkyina, only 200 of the original force of 2,750 were present. The Wikipedia entry notes that at the end of this final battle only two "had never been hospitalized with wounds or major illness."

Merrill's Marauders is a mostly accurate account of this fighting force, and how they were asked to battle on, beyond endurance. This is a good story and great film for anyone interested in World War II. The reason I gave it only a 6 out of 10 is because the many battle scenes in the film are, by today's standards, quite unrealistic: we see almost no gore, with enemy soldiers simply falling down when shot. So anyone who has seen Saving Private Ryan or some other modern, ultra-realistic war film, will find it hard to take these battles seriously. But this lack of gore is also a selling feature. It means this film is appropriate for a much younger audience - fathers could watch this with their sons, to show them a piece of history. That said, the battles do still involve explosions, lots of shooting, and of course, soldiers dying, so they will still be too intense for the very young.

One other caution - while the language in here is pretty clean - no one takes God's name in vain - there is one or two uses of "damn" and "hell."

unPLANNED

Documentary
62 minutes; 2011
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Abby Johnson was raised pro-life but became the head of one of the United States’ biggest Planned Parenthood abortion clinics. In 2009 she left her job and walked down the street into the offices of Coalition for Life, a pro-life group that regularly picketed outside her clinic. She wanted their help; she wanted out; she wanted forgiveness.

This is an eye-opening documentary in two entirely different ways.

First, unPLANNED shows us how a young woman can be pulled into the abortion movement. When Abby Johnson went off to college she got involved with a man several years older than her. When she became pregnant and didn’t know what to do, this boyfriend had a ready “solution.” Soon after, when she came across a Planned Parenthood display on campus, she still told them she was pro-life, but it didn’t take much for them to sway her. She wanted them to be right; she didn’t want to think of herself as a killer. Soon she was volunteering at the abortion clinic, along with many others sincerely thought they were helping women.

But outside the clinic fence there were pro-life Christians praying. They were praying for the unborn babies, praying for their mothers, and praying for Abby too.

The second eye-opening aspect of this documentary is the way it shows us how the pro-life movement, by God’s grace, won this woman over. Gracious volunteers who spoke the truth and were clearly motivated by love spent years talking with Abby, through the fence. One even brought her flowers! Then, in late 2009, she, for the first time, helped with an ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13-week-old unborn baby. Though she had been told that fetuses at this stage could not feel pain, she saw the fetus jerking and squirming to get away from the vacuum tube. Watching the child get ripped apart on the ultrasound screen brought her to a moment of horrifying clarity.

I was just watching, in shock, and just horror, almost, because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing…. I couldn’t believe it. I could believe that - I couldn’t believe that I had believed a lie for that long. That I had lived a lie for that long. That I had spoken so many lies, to so many women, for so long.

She didn’t know quite what to do, but only a few days later she was at the doors of Coalition for Life asking for their help.

Her story hit the national airwaves when the Planned Parenthood clinic, in what seems an attempt at intimidating her, sued her. Their case was thrown out of court, but it helped publicize Abby’s departure, and the story of a former abortion clinic director becoming pro-life was too good for any news organization to ignore. We don’t always understand the means by which God further his plans, but in this instance what Planned Parenthood intended for evil, God very quickly and very clearly turned to good: the news coverage allowed Abby Johnson to speak up for the unborn to a national audience.

While I would recommend this film to anyone over 12, I do want to add a couple cautions.
First, this is a fantastic pro-life resource, but shouldn’t be used as a theological one – many of the interviewees talk about God from a distinctly Arminian perspective, which isn’t surprising since many are undoubtedly Catholic (including Abby Johnson).

Second, as my father-in-law noted about the book this film is based on, it lacks an appropriate sense of gravitas. Though she acknowledges she sinned horribly, the true horror of what Abby Johnson was involved in isn’t really conveyed in the film. The reaction of her pro-life family, and pro-life husband to her abortion clinic work contributes to this lack of gravitas – they make it clear they disapprove, but their daughter’s/wife’s ongoing involvement in the murder of countless children doesn’t prompt them to anything more than muted expressions of disapproval. It hardly seems like she could be doing anything too wrong if this all the reaction she gets from her friends and family.

I’ll conclude by noting I’m being a bit overly cautious with these cautions and I hope this doesn’t leave you wondering if the film is any good. It is wonderful! What a story – praise God for the wonders He can perform! It is also a great resource for anyone involved in the pro-life movement, and to those who are not, but are starting to recognize that they really should be! I highly recommend it (and have already seen it 5 times!).

The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry

Family / Drama

96 minutes; 2010
RATING: 5/10

In the summer of 1970 three boys develop a friendship with an elderly man, Jonathan Sperry, who teaches them about the necessity of living out, and spreading God’s Word.

The first time I watched The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry I stopped about ten minutes in – the three principal child actors weren’t very good. Not horrible, but awkward enough to get in the way of the story.

But when I shared my thoughts with a friend, he encouraged me to watch the whole thing, and instead of focusing on the acting, look at what else the film had to offer. And it does have a lot to offer - this is a “message film” that uses storytelling to teach Christian morals. The lessons the three boys learn from Mr. Sperry include how:

• important it is to share the Bible with everyone we know 
• we should look to older godly people to mentor us 
• we should respond to bullies by using Matt. 5:38-42: “If your enemy takes a piece of your pizza, offer him two.” 

In a particularly illuminating conversation, Mr. Sperry teaches the boys that God’s love is evidenced in the Bible’s laws and restrictions.

Mark: “The Lord is interested in the girls we like?
Mr. Sperry: “Absolutely The Lord is interested in everything in our lives!”
Albert: “Yeah, I know the Bible is always saying, don’t do this, don’t do that”
Mr. Sperry: “I never look at it that way. Now the bible says not to steal. Would you like anyone stealing from you Mark?
Mark: “No”
Mr. Sperry: “Well, I guess that’s a pretty good thing, isn’t it?”

There is a value to these sorts of "message" films, especially when we take them as such. This isn't a great film, acting-wise, but is pretty impressive as a means of teaching a moral lesson - a pleasant way of getting a conversation started with our kids about the importance of sharing God's Word. 

But let’s dwell on the acting for a moment. Christian films often have problems when it comes to “believability” – the storyline and acting often don’t ring true. But as Jonathan Sperry concluded I became quite a bit less critical, because the closing credits told us what happened to the boys after they grew up – one became a pastor, another a radio station owner and another a police officer. This must have been based on real events and I have a lot more leeway then. If a film story seems a bit too easy, or too good to be true – say, the baseball team that is made up of losers that wins it all – but I know it is based on a real story, then I just go with it, and turn off my inner critic. After all, it really happened! So sure, Mr. Sperry seems too nice to be authentic, and the bully in this story has a change of heart that happens a bit too quickly, but if this was based on real events, who am I to say this is unrealistic?

However, the film's closing, by giving the impression that these were real people, is misleading. The opening of the film actually states that these are entirely fictional events. And as a fictional piece, my criticisms pop up again. Like the fictional baseball team of losers that just wins, wins and wins, the fictional wonderful Christian man that does everything right is more than a bit unrealistic. This is a flaw common to many Christian films – Christians who are too perfect. We make ourselves look too good, and we need to work on that.

So, a pleasant family film, though some of Mr. Sperry's lessons do have the strong Arminian overtones that parents should point out. I give it a 5 out of 10 for entertainment, noting that there are better "message" films out there, including one by this same director called Time Changer. But this will make for a nice evening with the kids.

Free online film: Programming of Life

Documentary
44 minutes, 2011?

This is a critique of the insufficiency of random chance as any sort of explanation for the complexity of life. This is basically an Intelligent Design presentation, so it argues against evolution, rather than arguing for creation. Still, it makes a pretty compelling case that information has to come from somewhere, and that we have a lot of information - our programming for life - packaged inside us. So where did it come from? This is clearly a presentation intended to be palatable in public schools, so they don't answer that question with the obvious answer - God - but this answer is inescapable nonetheless.

There is a lot to chew on here, so you may want to watch it a few times to properly digest it all. Fantastic computer animation aid in making this a painless educational journey. I would recommend Programming of Life to anyone interested in the origins debate, including those that are already quite familiar - even they will find something new and of interest here. You can find out more at their website, ProgrammingOfLife.com, including previewing the book the documentary is based on, and you can watch the complete film below.

To Save A Life

Drama

120 minutes; 2010
Rating: 8 / 10

To Save A Life is about teen suicide... and also premarital sex, abortion, underage drinking, cutting, bullying, divorce, divorce's impact on children, adultery, drug use, gossip, and Christian hypocrisy. It's a realistic look into the teen party culture, and consequently we see some students smoking pot, a couple about to engage in sex, lots of drinking, and a lot of immodest dress.

This description might make the film seem too much like today's typical teen fare - partying kids, and the fun they have. But there is a twist; To Save A Life is also about being willing to stick out instead of fit in, being willing to reach out, to walk our talk, to take responsibility for our sins, to be willing to forgive, and to take God and what He says in his Word seriously.

High school senior Jake Taylor is the star guard on the basketball team. He has what everyone wants: the looks, the friends, the prettiest girl in school. Roger Dawson is on the other end of the social spectrum. He wonders if anyone would even notice if he just disappeared. In despair he walks into school and pulls out a gun in a crowded hallway. As he swings the gun barrel towards his own head, only one student speaks up - Jake - but it's too late. Roger kills himself.
That's how the film begins, but what the film is about is how Jake reacts to Roger's suicide. It haunts him because the two of them used to be friends. But Jake ditched Roger soon after they both started high school, when Jake got in with the popular kids. Roger needed a friend. Jake was too busy pursuing the "high school dream" to care.

Guilt-ridden, Jake first turns to alcohol, and then to sex to try to forget. But those are only short-term diversions. Eventually he ends up in a nearby church, attending the youth service. But here, too, he isn't finding what he hoped - the group is full of youth who aren't walking their talk. He knows many of these same church kids are smoking pot during school, or are part of the same party scene he's running from. In disgust he shouts out a challenges to the group: "What is the use of all this if you aren't going to let it change you?"

Sure, some of the kids aren't genuine, but some are, and Jake's angry challenge stirs things up. They start meeting for lunch at school, and start reaching out to others on the outside to come join them. They befriend the friendless.

Cautions

When this was first released it was quite a controversial film in Christian circles. Not many Christian films earn a PG-13 rating. But while the film's realistic portrayal of teen depravity means this is not a film for children, this "grit" has been used with care. Restraint is evident.

Still, there are reasons parents might want to preview this film before watching with their teens. In addition to the intense topic matter, here are some more specific cautions to consider:

• Immodest dress. Some of the girls are wearing outfits that would look much nicer, and much warmer, with a coat on over top.
• One students says "dammit" and another says "hell" There may be another instance or two of such curse words, but no one takes God's name in vain.
• A couple, with the boy shirtless, are shown on a bed kissing, clearly about to have sex (which is not shown).
• One boy is shown cutting his arm (not much gore, but we do see a little blood).
• A boy kills himself by shooting himself in the head. We see no blood or gore, but it is an emotionally intense scene.

This is a complex movie because of the sheer number of issues it takes on and because it takes on so much, it does breeze over some issues, and deals with some others in an overly simplistic way. This includes God's gospel message. Viewers might leave with the impression that God's gospel message is meant as good news for this life - that if we follow what He says, things will start going better for us here and now. This is the "Gospel as a self-help guide" error common to many Christian films and novels. It isn't explicitly stated in To Save A Life so I don't want to dwell on it. The truth is, things do often start going better for us when we follow God's will. His law can act as a fence around us; when we stay within its bounds we are safe from many things that might otherwise harm us. At the same time, serving God can come at a cost - think of the many martyrs around the world. And in the high school setting, especially in a public school but even in Christian ones, serving God can cost you friends and popularity. That's a point that To Save A Life touches on, but also glosses over.

Conclusion

How do Christians do high school differently?  As To Save A Life shows, often times we don't do it differently at all - we're involved in the same drunkenness, the same rebellion, the same quest to fit in. Our peers matter to us more than our parents, and more than God.

But what if we lived as lights? What if God, and what He thought, mattered more to us than what our friends thought of us? What if we did unto others as we would like them to do unto us? Then we might do high school quite differently. To Save A Life explores what that difference might look like, and while the film is gritty at times, it is a great resource for parents and their teenage children. It is an enjoyable film, but more importantly a challenging one. Parents: use it to challenge your kids.

Freedom of What?cott

Documentary
67 minutes, 2011
Rating: 8 out of 10

Let’s start with the downright amazing.

Bill Whatcott once successfully led a gay pride parade in Regina while carrying a ten-foot tall sign that said, “Bare bottomed pitifuls are celebrating buggery in Regina! God help us!” To pull it off, he hid behind pillars that were alongside the parade route and jumped out in front while holding his sign high. Parade participants rushed towards him and tried to use their signs to cover up his but they couldn’t, because Whatcott’s massive sign towered above theirs. A homosexual on rollerblades tried to run over him but only managed a glancing blow, which sent the rollerblader, not Bill, tumbling. Police then intervened. They warned the crowd that attacks would not be tolerated, and then, inexplicably, allowed Bill to continue to lead the parade!

Now to the downright crazy. Bill once handed out a flyer that depicted a close-up picture of a man’s bare rear end that was riddled with anal warts. Mine was one of the thousands of Edmonton households to get this vulgar 1-page photocopy and I was grateful that, in our case at least, no children had been exposed to this. Bill was trying to educate Edmontonians to a common consequence of homosexual sex. Good info to pass on, but is this the only way it can be presented?

In the documentary Freedom of What?cott it becomes apparent that even Bill’s closest friends think he regularly steps over the line. But even many of his enemies think he should be free to do that.

This fantastic documentary will have you admiring the man’s courage, questioning his sanity, and praying for the preservation of his freedom of speech. Topic matter, and some brief troubling visuals, make this unsuitable for children, but the importance of this issue makes it a must-see for all other Canadians. Watch the trailer below.

The Reckoning: Remembering the Dutch Resistance

Documentary

96 min / 2006
Rating: 7 out of 10 (for those with a Dutch background)

My grandfather never talked about the war but I knew he had been involved in the Dutch Resistance. I was proud of him then, but I didn’t properly appreciate his courage. As a child I thought his involvement in the Resistance was a brave, but almost unremarkable thing. After all, most of my friends’ grandparents had also done their part. To me it seemed as if everyone back then had joined. I was sure that, had I been there, I would have joined as well.

But now I understand things better. Though many from our small Reformed community got involved, what they did was rare and exceptional. As the narrator of The Reckoning notes, “Hundreds acted. Millions did not.”

The Reckoning is a tribute to the courage of these special few, and delves deeply into the ordinary details around their courageous activities. Director John Evans uses a host of 1940s photography, interviews with surviving Resistance members and archival footage to bring viewers right into the dilemma these men and women faced. We should never make the mistake of thinking them fearless – one gentleman recounts how he had to change his shorts after one run-in with the Nazis. And yet deciding to act seemed a simple decision for many. God gave them an understanding of right and wrong, and the conviction to act on it. A principal figure in the film, John Muller, described how quickly and suddenly he got involved:

“My brother-in-law called me and said, ‘I want to talk to you… I decided you were material for the underground.’ I said ‘No!’ And then I thought it over and said, ‘Okay I will do it. I will do it. I will do something for my country.’ I said, ‘What do you want me to do?’”

It was a simple decision for him, but millions more declined. Viewers can’t help but wonder, “Would I have been among the few?”

I would highly recommend this film – this is a tribute to our grandparents, and we should know their story, so we can seek to be like them. They loved the Lord, and acted as He directed, even when they were left confused and wondering why God would allow such evil. Their faith was tested, but God kept them close.

While this is an important film that I hope many will see, it does contain some graphic war footage, and film of some of the concentration camps including footage of skeletal bodies piled one on another. So this is not appropriate for small children.

You can watch if for free below.