Still More to Say: Book & Film Reviews

Pop singer Archuleta’s memoir details struggle with parental abuse and religious rejection

G.F. Erichsen — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:11:07 GMT

David Archulate at the 2024 GLAAD Media Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. Photo by Stay Tuned, distributed via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 license.

Life is difficult growing up gay when your family is steeped in a religion that condemns homosexuality as sinful.

And it may be even more difficult growing up as a adolescent music star with an abusive parent w…

As American religious life trends rightward, author perceives loss of a stabilizing force

G.F. Erichsen — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:38:13 GMT

From the cover of “The Vanishing Church” by Ryan P. Burge.

Not all that many years ago, to be an evangelical was to have certain theological beliefs, such as basing personal salvation on accepting Jesus Christ as savior and seeing the Christian Bible as an infallible source of eternal truth.

But the evangelicalism of, say, the 1970s and the 1980s is no m…

Children’s Bible storybook breaks the mold by suggesting Bible doesn’t provide final answers

G.F. Erichsen — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:28:25 GMT

From the cover of the new book published by The Bible for Normal People.

God’s Stories as Told by God’s Children is a children’s Bible storybook like no other.

It may not have even really been written for children, who may find much of it beyond their reading level and miss many of the points the writers are trying to make in the same way that children of…

For those alarmed by today’s rhetoric, film about anti-Nazi resister is a cautionary tale

G.F. Erichsen — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:25:24 GMT

British actor Ewan Horrocks plays Nazi resister Helmuth Hübener in “Truth & Treason.” The film was shot on location in Lithuania. Angel Studios photo.

Set in the early days of World War II in Nazi Germany, the new Angel Studios film Truth & Treason has its share of shocking, brutal scenes1. But one of its most shocking scenes, which takes place near the b…

Turned off by how churches use Bible to hurt people, pastor offers a different way

G.F. Erichsen — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 16:38:49 GMT

Zach Lambert and his book. Image adapted from one provided by Baker Book House.

A new type of American Protestantism could be emerging — and a book by the pastor of one its churches shows both its promises and a potential weakness.

The movement has no name yet, although it might be called something like exvangelical Christianity, for it is made up largely…

40-year-old book remarkably insightful about state of culture and religion today

G.F. Erichsen — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:26:04 GMT

From the cover of the 2005 edition of the book by Neil Postman, published by Penguin Books.

Few writers have more accurately explained the current state of American religion, at least its most visible aspects, than has university professor Neil Postman.

What passes for American Christianity on television, he wrote, “is not anything like the Sermon on the…

New Joseph Smith bio presents him as something other than fraud or saint

G.F. Erichsen — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 18:45:32 GMT

From the cover of John J. Turner’s new book about Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism and the victim of assassination in 1844, is one of the most polarizing figures of 19th-century American history. For some, he was little more than a con man, while for others he was a literal prophet of God.

Smith is portrayed as something of the former i…

Despite earnest goals, this attempt at apologetics unlikely to persuade skeptics

G.F. Erichsen — Wed, 07 May 2025 20:52:24 GMT

From the cover of Ross Douthat's new book.

The big problem with much of Christian apologetics is that while it can reinforce belief among those who are already committed to the faith, it is seldom convincing to the skeptic. Often that is because apologists tend to come from the fundamentalist, or at least very conservative, wing of the faith who tend to …

Netflix’s family-unfriendly ‘Mary’ fails to inspire in a pointless Biblical epic

G.F. Erichsen — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 22:21:23 GMT

Joseph (Ido Tako) and Mary (Noa Cohen) with the baby Jesus cross the desert in a scene from the 2024 Netflix epic “Mary.”

The better Biblical epic films and TV shows frequently take one of two approaches to flesh out a story that may be derived from only a chapter or two of scriptural text. One is to serve as something like a Bible commentary, offering i…

Hegseth’s anti-Islam rhetoric raises questions about fitness for military post

G.F. Erichsen — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 14:21:50 GMT

Pete Hegseth in an image from the cover of his book “American Crusade” published by Hachette Book Group

If Pete Hegseth’s nomination as President Trump’s secretary of Defense falters, it most likely will be because of concerns over his alcohol use and/or findings related to a 2017 rape allegation. But Hegseth’s socio-religious views, which might best des…

New Hugh Grant horror film raises questions about nature of religious belief

G.F. Erichsen — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 19:43:22 GMT

“The Heretic” stars, from left, Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed, Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes and Chloe East as Sister Paxton. Scene from trailer by A24 Films LLC.

(Note about possible spoilers: This review takes the form of reflections on the dialogue of a film; those planning to see the movie may want to consider reading this review after seeing the film. T…

Author warns evangelicals that liberals use empathy as tool of persuasion

G.F. Erichsen — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 18:17:32 GMT

Image by Mohamed_hassan; licensed by Pixabay.

Conservative influencer Allie Beth Stuckey isn’t wrong when she writes in the introduction to her new book that empathy alone is a terrible guide to political decision-making, partly because it is susceptible to manipulation. And as the title of the book, Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Comp…

Theologians argue that arc of Biblical message points to full LGBTQ inclusion

G.F. Erichsen — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 16:47:45 GMT

Adapted from image by Rod Long; licensed by Unsplash.

Richard B. Hays may not have written the book about the New Testament's perspective on homosexuality, but he did write the chapter.

The highly acclaimed theologian, former dean of the Duke Divinity School and a theologically conservative ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, wrote in his 1…

Biography offers complex portrayal of world-famous missionary and author

G.F. Erichsen — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 15:23:09 GMT

Book published by Crossway.

It has been about a year since I read Lucy S.R. Austin’s voluminous biography of Elisabeth Elliott, but of the dozens of books I’ve read in the past few years, it’s the one that most often causes me to ponder.

Strangely enough, of the biographies I’ve read, it’s the one I read starting out with the least knowledge of the subjec…

Sociologists see two different religions dominating white American Christianity

G.F. Erichsen — Tue, 28 May 2024 17:50:03 GMT

Illustration includes images from Mediamodifier and OpenClipart-Vectors; use of their works is licensed by Pixabay.

In their new book on the connections between American Christianity and racism, sociologists Michael Emerson and Glenn Bracey recall a private discussion they had at an academic conference with a white man in his 50s who was a relatively rec…

Tale of life affected by pastoral abuse offers dose of hope with political critique

G.F. Erichsen — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 18:41:46 GMT

Photo courtesy HarperCollins Christian Publishing.

I began reading Nancy French’s memoir, Ghosted: An American Story, knowing almost nothing about her life story. I knew mainly that she is the wife of David French, the prolific New York Times columnist known best as a conservative evangelical1 who was one of the earliest Republican critics of Donald Trump…

Journalist offers an intimate look at her departure from evangelical faith

G.F. Erichsen — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 17:33:56 GMT

From the book cover of “The Exvangelicals”; St. Martin’s Press.

At the age of 17 in 1998, Sarah McCammon was a page in the U.S. Senate. As she recalls attending classes on Capitol Hill, she remembers that it was the first time she had gone to a school where the day did not begin with prayer and a Bible reading. It was the first time she remembers a scien…

Bestselling author takes provocative approach to Christian involvement in government

G.F. Erichsen — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 16:09:29 GMT

Image adapted from cover of book published by David C. Cook

Ask a politically conservative Christian how she applies her faith to politics, and she may answer that she votes for Republicans because she is opposed to abortion and in favor of religious freedom.

Ask a politically liberal Christian how he applies his faith to politics, and he may answer that …

Is it possible to avoid complicity with and compartmentalization of evil?

G.F. Erichsen — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 17:56:21 GMT

Christian Friedel plays Rudolf Höss in “The Zone of Interest.” A24 Films.

It is hard to recommend Academy Award Best Picture nominee The Zone of Interest: It is as boring as watching flowers grow (and that actually is part of the film), there is almost no plot, and thanks in part to artsy cinematography, I still can’t tell you what even happened during o…

New book on Mormon history focuses on church’s continual changes

G.F. Erichsen — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 23:45:08 GMT

Historian Benjamin Park speaks at a bookstore and art gallery in Provo, Utah, recently. Photo by G.F. Erichsen.

A major rupture split American Protestantism during the 1920s and early ’30s in what has become known as fundamentalist-modernist controversy. The dispute pitted fundamentalists, those who stressed what they saw as fundamentals of the Christian…