Starsweeper,
You’re wrong to say that the review is glowing. It expresses serious reservations about the movie and it explicitly says that the Church does not condone homosexual behavior. And the review now does give the movie the rating “O.”
Buffalo,
I think your points are more valid and nuanced. I still think you’re a little hard on the review–it’s not the place of a review to rant. I haven’t seen the movie so I don’t feel entitled to an opinion on whether the review’s positive comments were justified. But I can say that you put an overly suspicious spin on some of the review’s statements. I don’t read the review as saying “this is basically a good movie” but rather “this is a morally troubling movie that vividly and sympathetically portrays the plight of real human beings engaged in sinful behavior.”
I do think the review uses a few cowardly euphemisms (such as “hot-button issue”), and your point about the contrast with the
Passion is well taken (although one could make a case that Christians should be more concerned about “our own camp” than about external threats). I’m not defending the review altogether.
I’d be interested to know what you think of
Christianity Today’s review. It also got a lot of hostile reactions, but I think it did a good job.
Edwin