Update: Andrew is Moving to Secular Cinephile
Exciting news! As of May 1st, Secular Cinephile, my new blog, is up and running on the Atheist Channel at Patheos.
To coopt a phrase from my kind host and friend Ken Morefield, I hope Secular Cinephile will be conspicuously – but not obnoxiously – humanist and atheist. As a member of a growing but still minority group, I feel it’s important to be clear in expressing my worldview. Nonetheless, as I write about films, I aim to stay open to hearing and seeing what is present in each work of art, without violently wrenching it to conform to my perspective.
When Ken welcomed me here in December, he voiced his aspiration that a Christian and an atheist sharing space on his blog could be an instance of civility and respectful coexistence in a world where that’s sometimes hard to come by (Bill Maher or Fox News, anyone?). I’d like to think that we’ve succeeded.
For my part, Christian film critics like Ken, Evan, and Jeremy are fresh breezes and rainfall on a parched landscape. When I read or hear commentary by Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, and their ilk, I’m tempted to despair over the intellectual shallows of mainstream Christianity. Ken and company offer hope in the depth of their analysis, not to mention their integrity, even though we’ve reached different conclusions about religion.
So, many thanks to Ken, and many thanks to you the reader. No matter your point of view, I hope you’ll visit my new blog and/or follow me on Facebook.
Thank you for your kind words, Andrew. I wish you success at the Secular Cinephile blog.
I am pleased that we were able, perhaps, to elevate the cordiality level for exchanges of views. I recognize, though, that this is inherently easier when the person you might disagree with is a “guest” in your space. I am glad that you felt comfortable enough to walk with me for a season, and I get the desire to have your own space.
I do think that just being aware of divergent worldviews in the audience, even if that’s just one other person, can have an effect on the tone of one’s discourse. It’s so much easier to generalize and characterize Atheists (or Christians) when one is talking about the group as a whole rather than any individual person.
It probably goes without saying that my deepest prayer for you is that your intellectual and spiritual journey eventually leads you to a God who is as real and satisfying to you as the one whom you can no longer believe in is not. I don’t presume to assume that I can/should have any part of that. To the extent I am familiar with parts of your journey, I grieve that those who share some of my beliefs have not always acted the part of salt and light in your life. I (think I) know that that can sound patronizing–as though your a/theistic beliefs are somehow dependent upon something outside of your own honest investigations and conclusions. I don’t mean it as such.
“Basically—and perhaps most significantly—every time I have
acquired a belief, in any domain, the first thing I have done is to conduct a
criticism of that belief.”
Jacques Ellul, In Season and Out of Season
“The upper hand of influence I had over him, I attribute to the greater freedom of my training, and the enlarged ideas which had led my uncle to avoid enthralling me to his notions. He believed the truth could afford to wait until I was capable of seeing it for myself; and that the best embodiments of truth are but bonds and fetters to him who cannot accept them as such.”
–George MacDonald, Wilfrid Cumbermede.
“If then we go wrong, it will be in the direction of the right, and with such aberration as will be easier to correct then what must come of refusing to imagine, and leaving the dullest traditional prepossessions to rule our hearts and minds, with no claim but the poverty of their expectation from the paternal riches.”
–George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel