Evan Almighty – a Few Observations

Kelly and I rented Evan Almighty through Netflix this week. After having heard so many different views on both sides of the fence, I figured I’d weigh in on the subject… ever so conveniently now that the hubbub has died down.

• God is portrayed very approachable, laughing, joking, telling stories. The viewer is also made aware that God really is omnipresent, and there is a side-comment about the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom.
• God is portrayed as being concerned with the environment and with humans both.
• God throws a cliche about changing the world around as wisdom, and it falls so far short. Not gospel wisdom at all.
• Acts of Random Kindness… good, but how can we go about practicing RANDOM acts of kindness, when by setting out to do so makes us INTENTIONAL about it? Nitpick, I know, but I have a hard time when people butcher the english language.
• No matter how far we have come when it comes to digital imagery, fake herds of animals can still be spotted from a mile away.
• Watch for the fun little in-jokes – such as Evan having 3 sons (not named Ham, Shem and Japeth, but 3 nonetheless), or God’s name tag as a waiter (Al Mighty. Incidentally, I love his comment when he leaves the table, remarking that there are a lot of people to serve…)
• The movie is a good story, and even answered my biggest question of “How is God going to flood the earth again, since He promised never to destroy the earth through flood again?” And the answer is satisfactory.
• God talks about answered prayers. Great thoughts. Does God give us patience when we ask for it? Or does He give us an opportunity to learn/model/display it? Is it too humanistic? Hmmm…. Makes you think…
• I really like that God essentially ruins Evan’s life. How true is that? Just by following God, Evan loses a lot. Amen.

So there you have it. Feel free to use it with your youth group, just remember to watch for a few Biblical weaknesses, and be ready to discuss the issues of following God and answered prayers.