Kevin Smith was the creator of the 1999 cult film classic "Dogma." I’ll admit right up front that I have not seen it, nor will I as it has a lot of language and vulgarity that I don’t care to watch. I did watch the trailer and read a synopsis, though, which gave me a sense of it.
The movie is about two fallen angels who were ejected and banned from paradise who find themselves in Wisconsin. In assessing their situation, they find a loophole that will allow them to get them back into heaven, and travel to New Jersey to carry out their plan. The only catch is, doing it will destroy humanity. An opposition group then bands together to stop them.
When he wrote it, Smith was a Roman Catholic who, by his own testimony, “believed every word of it.” That is, he believed in God and angels and the possibility that the story line could be possible.
He now has plans for a sequel in 2028. But this movie will come from a very different place. Now he is a man who has left his religion behind. Here are some of his quotes about what has happened in his life.
"In doing a 'Dogma' sequel, I've encountered a wrinkle that didn't exist when I wrote and directed 'Dogma.'"
“The old man who's writing, directing the follow-up, he doesn't have that same faith anymore," "I don't carry that cross."
"I wish I could be one of those cats again. Life was so much easier when I had faith."
"I honestly feel like I probably wouldn't have wound up in an institution if I still had my faith ... you got no issues when you got faith, man. You will always be protected."
"Those of us that don't practice a faith, don't have a faith, feel like we are alone. And that's very easy to break when the weight of the world is on your shoulders."
When asked what changed between "Dogma" and its sequel, Smith said simply, "27 years and life." According to his own testimony, there was not a single moment when he “lost his faith,” but he does recall two moments that began to set off his doubts.
The first came during a podcast that he co-hosted with a fellow filmmaker, Scott Mosier. During one episode while discussing religion, Mosier, an atheist, challenged the idea of an afterlife. He compared human consciousness to data stored on a computer hard drive that had lots of data – which all just disappeared when it died.
The second realization came when he noticed a Buddhist wall hanging in his own home. It read, "May you realize your divinity in this lifetime." Smith interpreted that message as a call to individual responsibility rather than surrendering control to a higher power." At that point, he thought, "I felt like I was being irresponsible with my life. I was turning it all over to a ghost – a Holy Ghost, but a ghost nonetheless."
Over time, the atheistic beliefs associated with those two experiences caused him to have a shift in belief. It is that shift that will define his forthcoming sequel.
So the question emerges, why did he have that shift in the first place? I think I can identify three reasons.
- His faith was never personal. He knew the environment of his Roman Catholic faith from being raised in it, but he didn’t know the person the faith represented – Jesus Christ.
- He didn’t know the essential tenets of his own faith. What he said about believing every word of the first movie proved that.
- He didn’t know how to evaluate the truth of his own faith vs. the falsity of the Atheism he was confronted with.
And that brings us to the heart of the crisis that currently exists in the Christian church. While this particular example relates to Roman Catholicism, the problems identified above are equally problematic among evangelicals. When peoples’ faith is not personal to the point of actually knowing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, they don’t know the essential tenets of their faith, and they don’t know how to evaluate the truth of their Christian faith and the falsity of other faiths, a crisis of faith inevitably occurs.
The world we live in is not the same as it was even just a few years back. Religiously, America used to be pretty homogeneous, with Christian beliefs being dominant. That is just not the case anymore. America is extremely pluralistic religiously, with atheistic Naturalism now dominating virtually every institution of modern society. Most Christians simply don’t know how to effectively navigate that environment.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Our faith is personal, and when we genuinely know Jesus Christ we can stand strong. And when we solidly know our own faith and why it is true, we have everything we need to stand strong and effectively share Christ with a desperately lost world.
That is what MarketFaith Ministries is all about. Feel free to contact us and explore how we can share that kind of training with your church or Christian organization.
Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books entitled The Truth Mirage, Rules for Christians Radicals, Liberalism vs. Conservatism, and his latest book Shattering the Truth Mirage and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.
You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.
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