Donald Miller’s book, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
While the movie successfully explores themes of forgiveness, authenticity, and the question of God’s existence as it follows one man’s journey to find God, it struggles to offer a clear explanation of the gospel.
I’m sure Blue Like Jazz is funny, and it’s probably uncomfortable. Hopefully, it’s also rewarding. Here’s the trailer.
Donald Miller talks about the themes of the movie and the criticism he’ll probably get on his blog. He says, “I get it. Criticism is hard. And not only this, churches get criticized for stuff that happened hundreds of years ago. I’d venture to say most criticism is unfounded and ill-informed. It can also be spiteful and hateful. So, I don’t want to be lumped in with the haters.”
Thomas McKenzie does One Minutes Reviews (which usually aren’t one minute, but hey!) and he talks lightly about the movie. This puts a positive spin on it for me.
I hope folks go into this with great discernment and do their homework on what this is really about. Miller is popular among the Emergent church and, while some of his criticisms (stereotypes) of Republicans are legitimate, he’s connected to the pro-abortion, pro-homosexual “marriage” party. Here’s a couple of reviews. The first is about the book from a couple of years ago. The second is a look at the movie.
http://www.dennyburk.com/mark-coppenger-on-blue-like-jazz/
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/03/12/blue-like-jazz-the-movie/
Michael, are you calling Don a Democrat operative? Thanks for the two links, but your comment reads mostly like a guilt-by-association accusation. What are you saying this movie is really about?
Well, I would say that ANYONE supporting that party is guilty by association. Abortion is not really the gray area people make of it and that is an issue they stand for (conservatives are often criticized for making it an issue, but some of what I’m seeing in politics says otherwise).
Ultimately, I am just calling people to discernment.
Yes. I won’t treat abortion as morally neutral issue that people should think about. It’s vital, but that’s doesn’t make it the number one issue for everyone who speaks. Moreover, the fact a man is a Democrat or politically liberal doesn’t mean everything he does is subversive or focused on make more liberals.
“Miller shows a plausible way of trusting in Jesus in a post-Christian world. For people who are drawn to the gospel and repulsed by Republicanism, Miller shows another way.”
From the Gospel Coalition review. I can’t oppose this. Christianity should not be bound to Republican politics, even though I can’t see how any believer could support abortion advocates in any public office.
“Christianity should not be bound to Republican politics.”
I agree.