Ep 1176 | ‘The King of Kings': The Biblical & the Questionable

Summary

Podcast Summary: Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey – Episode 1176 | ‘The King of Kings': The Biblical & the Questionable

Release Date: April 22, 2025

Hosts: Allie Beth Stuckey and Bri
Network: Blaze Podcast Network

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Introduction

In Episode 1176 of "Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey," hosts Allie Beth Stuckey and Bri engage in a comprehensive discussion about the newly released animated film "King of Kings," which depicts the life of Jesus Christ. The episode delves into the movie's theological accuracy, its suitability for family viewing, and its artistic merits and shortcomings from a Christian conservative viewpoint.

Overview of "King of Kings"

"King of Kings" is an animated retelling of Jesus’s life, spanning from the nativity to the resurrection. The film uniquely frames the narrative through Charles Dickens narrating the Christmas story to his son, Walter. However, this choice raises questions given Dickens's Unitarian Universalist beliefs, which traditionally do not align with orthodox Christian doctrines about Jesus.

Notable Quote:

• [00:01] Allie Beth Stuckey: "King of Kings, the new animated movie about the life of Jesus. Should you see it? Should you allow your kids to see it?"

Theological Analysis

Allie approaches the film with a critical eye, assessing its alignment with biblical teachings. Bri shares a nuanced view, initially skeptical but growing more appreciative after watching. They explore how the movie handles essential theological concepts such as the Trinity, atonement, and original sin. While acknowledging some creative liberties, both hosts commend the film for its overall faithful representation of Jesus's life and sacrifice.

Notable Quote:

• [05:50] Allie Beth Stuckey: "Overall, I felt like it was a really good representation of Jesus and his sacrifice and the gospel."

Artistic and Creative Critique

The hosts praise the film's animation quality and the emotional impact of pivotal scenes like the crucifixion and Peter walking on water. However, they express confusion and disappointment over the inclusion of Charles Dickens as a central character, feeling it detracts from the core gospel narrative. The interactions between Walter, the child, and the mischievous cat are also critiqued for potentially muddling the film's message.

Notable Quote:

• [36:29] Bri: "I completely agree. That's one of my biggest issues is that it's confusing because I don't know why it's Charles Dickens."

Comparison to Other Christian Media

Allie and Bri compare "King of Kings" to other Christian-themed media, highlighting "Veggie Tales" and the "God's Not Dead" series. Bri criticizes these for not meeting high standards, particularly pointing out "God's Not Dead" for its offensive portrayal of atheists and theological inaccuracies.

Notable Quote:

• [14:21] Bri: "I think that the God's Not Dead movies are really terrible."

Addressing Theological Concerns

Specific theological discrepancies in "King of Kings" are discussed, such as the modernization of Jesus’s dialogue and the omission of concepts like hell and final judgment. The hosts ponder the implications of these deviations on the film's ability to convey the true gospel message effectively.

Notable Quotes:

• [17:56] Bri: "Some movies would not even talk about Satan at all."
• [19:45] Allie Beth Stuckey: "They could have chosen a different entry point or a different way to get into the life of Jesus."

American Idol's Easter Celebration

Shifting focus, Allie and Bri highlight American Idol’s Easter special, which featured performances by Christian artists like Carrie Underwood and CeCe Winans. They appreciate the platform's role in promoting the gospel through mainstream media and commend the artists for their faith-inspired performances.

Notable Quotes:

• [43:54] Allie Beth Stuckey: "American Idol celebrated Easter, and they had several celebrity artists singing Christian songs."
• [51:03] Carrie Underwood: "Savior God to how great Thou art."

Conclusion

Allie and Bri conclude by emphasizing the importance of accurate and meaningful Christian media. They recommend "King of Kings" for its strengths in portraying Jesus's life while advising parents to watch the film first and engage in conversations with their children about its content. The hosts express gratitude for positive representations of Christianity in media, such as the American Idol Easter special, and encourage listeners to support media that faithfully conveys the gospel.

Overall Ratings:

• Allie Beth Stuckey:
  • Theological Accuracy: A−
  • Movie Quality: B+
• Bri:
  • Theological Accuracy: B+
  • Movie Quality: B−

Final Thoughts: Allie emphasizes the role of Christians in promoting media that upholds biblical truths and encourages listeners to critically engage with the content they consume.

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Note: Advertisements, sponsor messages, and non-content segments from the transcript have been excluded to focus solely on the episode's substantive discussions as per the provided instructions.

Transcript

[Ali Stuckey]

King of Kings, the new animated movie about the life of Jesus. Should you see it? Should you allow your kids to see it? Bri and I have a full analysis, theological, creative analysis about that movie today. Also, American Idol honored Jesus over the weekend and we will play you some highlights from that. It was so special. All of this and more on today's episode of Relatable Foreign. Hey guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. We are getting into the King of Kings today. We were going to discuss it last week in case you and your family were going to see it over Easter weekend. You were trying to decide what to do, but I just wasn't ready yet. Now we are ready. So Bri and I have slightly different takes and interpretations about this. And so you'll get to hear what we think as well as what some other critics and viewers out there think. But Bri, since I didn't get to talk to you yesterday on the show, I just wanna hear how your Easter weekend was. Was it good?

[Bri]

Yeah, it was. I. I was pretty low key. Went to church, had Easter lunch. I made lemon bars.

[Ali Stuckey]

Ooh.

[Bri]

I made.

[Ali Stuckey]

Is there cream cheese in these lemon bars?

[Bri]

No. Is there supposed to be?

[Ali Stuckey]

No, not necessarily. But I have had cream cheese bars or maybe lemon bars with cream cheese and it's just a great combination.

[Bri]

That sounds amazing. No, mine were just kind of classic ones and I made sourdough pretzel rolls. So I was baking a lot.

[Ali Stuckey]

Wow. And you went to your parents house?

[Bri]

Yes, and now I have a little. I'm like the youngest in my family and up until recently we haven't had a lot of babies. But we did have my cousin's baby there and so fun. Got bab time.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Bri]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yay. So fun. We had a pretty low key Easter too. We just went to church and then went over to my parents house and had some good lunch. We had some good ranchers, chicken and steak and lots of other good stuff. Some fruit pies. Wait, do I remember correctly that you don't like fruit pie? Did I just make that up?

[Bri]

You do not remember correctly.

[Ali Stuckey]

Oh, I don't know. I don't know where that came from.

[Bri]

I don't either.

[Ali Stuckey]

I don't know. We had blueberry pie and we had cherry pie.

[Bri]

Cherry pie's my favorite.

[Ali Stuckey]

Really good.

[Bri]

Love it.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yep. And that's about all we did. And then I finished watching King of Kings and so now we are going to talk about it. Okay. Before I give my impression and we give our takes on it. Let's just talk about what King of Kings is. Maybe you've heard it talked about. There's been some discussion, some disagreement about its theological soundness, whether you should allow your kids to see it. This is an animated movie of the life of Jesus. And I'll play you the trailer and you'll kind of get a sense for what it is. Set one. Our story begins 2,000 years ago, when baby Jesus came into the world. Wait, wait, stop. If it's not about a king, then I'm not interested. This story is about the King of Kings. If you're with me, then I know.

[Carrie Underwood]

How.

[Bri]

It has angels and witches, wicked kings and miracles.

[Ali Stuckey]

Okay, so that's part of the trailer you can see right there. Really sweet. And you're probably wondering, like, what is. Why is there, like, 1800s people also interacting with people during Jesus's time? So this is an animated film that looks at Jesus's life from the nativity to the resurrection. But it is through a narrative where the writer of the Christmas story, Char Dickens, is telling this story of Jesus to his son Walter, who imagines himself witnessing the events and kind of being a part of these events. And the film is loosely based on something that Charles Dickens actually wrote only for his children. It wasn't ever meant to be published, and it was called the Life of Our Lord, which was basically a simplified retelling of the Gospels for his children that emphasized Jesus's life and teachings. But I think this would be a good time to talk about the background brie of Charles Dickens just a little bit, because Charles Dickens was actually a Unitarian Universalist. And so he did not believe that Jesus was who he said he was. John 14:6. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, and that salvation is through him. He is God. We read that in John 1. And as a Unitarian Universalist, Charles Dickinson Dickens didn't actually believe that. Now, I didn't know that until I started digging into it. I actually thought that using Charles Dickens and using kind of like in the beginning, he's performing the play of the Christmas story, and then his son is disrupting, and it turns into this whole thing of his son not going to bed because he wants to hear his father tell another story of a real king, and that king is Jesus. And so I actually thought that was interesting. But I do kind of wonder why they chose Charles Dickens and what he wrote when Charles Dickens didn't actually believe a lot of what is in this movie that Jesus is the King of Kings, that he is Lord of Lords, and that he actually died on the cross for our sins. Charles Dickens just believed that he was a good moral teacher that I guess he just wanted his kids to know about. So there's some incongruency there, but you could just say maybe that's creative liberties. They thought that was an interesting way to get into the story.

[Bri]

Yeah. I don't know exactly what their thinking was of why they used this as source material, but, yeah, he had written something called the Life of Our Lord, which was just a document that explained Jesus's life and miracles to his kids. And it was never intended to be published or to be public. He made it explicitly clear it was only for his family until after they died, then people published it. But that's what this is based on and why, I guess, they chose him as the central character. But, yeah, like you said, he was nominally Anglican, but a Unitarian and didn't believe in atonement or the Trinity or original sin. He just thought Jesus was a good moral teacher and had good stories. So, yeah. Yeah. And all of those things are, as far as I know, absent from the life of our Lord, which is what they used to make this so loosely. Not absent from the film, but from what they used from it, which is.

[Ali Stuckey]

Okay. It's. You could ask, okay, why did they choose that? They could have chosen a different entry point or a different way to get into the life of Jesus, but obviously they, as many movies do, took creative liberties with the history and biography of Charles Dickens, and they just kind of use that as the starting point and so agree or disagree with that. There's not some, like, big theological or moral issue with that necessarily. It might just be why. A curious. A curious choice. Okay. There were some stars that played in this, which I also didn't realize. Uma Thurman as Katherine Dickens. Okay. Charles Dickens, his wife, Uma Thurman. Pierce Brosnan as Pontius Pilot. Mark Hamill as King Herod. Forest Whitaker as Peter. Interesting.

[Bri]

Oscar Isaac as Jesus.

[Ali Stuckey]

I'm sorry, I don't know who that is.

[Bri]

Oh, he was in Star wars movies. He's pretty big.

[Ali Stuckey]

That's why. Got it. And maybe these other people are also people I should know. The film grossed $19.05 million during its opening weekend, setting a record for the largest debut of an animated biblical film, surpassing. Surpassing, the Prince of Egypt. Wow. And the Prince of Egypt is truly a masterpiece of work of art. It was made by South Korean production house mofac. Animation was directed also By South Korean Seong Hojing with Jamie Thomason. I don't know who that is. Serving as the co director and. Okay, I guess I'll just say my overall take and then we can kind of get into a back and forth. Bri. My overall take, just watching as I was trying to actually be more of a critical viewer because I wanted to point out potential pitfalls. I wanted to look at the theological vulnerabilities before I could recommend it to you or tell you that you need to see it. But honestly, overall, I felt like it was a really good representation of Jesus and his sacrifice and the gospel. There were few creative liberties taken, but honestly, not that many. I thought that it captured the spirit of Jesus's life and purpose and represented his probable temperament really well. I. I thought there were some really beautiful moments where I was brought to tears. I thought the crucifixion was done really well. I thought it was interesting. A lot of the symbolism that was used. Jesus's baptism is meant to look a lot like when he rose from the dead. Also, when we see Peter, he's walking on water, he looks at the waves, turns away from Jesus, he doubts, he falls into the water. These aren't spoilers. If you know the Gospels, you know that these things really happened. And we also see Jesus kind of. Or Peter in that similar position of kind of like being baptized and being raised up by Jesus. Another symbolism. I thought that it was really sweet when the little son, Walter, he finishes hearing the stories, he runs to his siblings and he says, wake up, wake up. He wants to tell them the story. Well, that's what we're doing when we're sharing the gospel with people. We're saying, wake up, wake up, like you're sleeping. And I have to wake you up with the best news ever. And you are asleep, dead in your sin. And Christ wants to make you alive by grace, through faith. And yes, I'm kind of like adding to the movie there, but I thought that that's what they were trying to represent and the message they were trying to convey. I thought they did a really good job, especially in that scene with Peter doubting and falling through the water of showing you can do nothing to save yourself. That when you doubt and when you need salvation, it is Jesus that has to reach down and help you. You can't work your way to him. You can't make yourself good enough for him. You can't clean yourself up off. He is going to have to reach down and help you. I thought that it was really really good. And the tension between the Pharisees and Sadducees and Jesus, the Roman Empire in Jesus, all of that was good without being too scary. So that's my overall take. I. I don't know if I can necessarily recommend it to you. Obviously there are some serious thematic elements. You could say that it's scary, it's intense. The story of Jesus is scary and intense in some way. So it depends upon the maturity of your child, the conversations that you've already had with them. But overall, I don't have a lot of big, glaring theological problems with this story. I can tell you it was probably more theologically accurate and compelling than Veggie Tales. Okay. And maybe you could say Veggie Tales is the reason that millennials have the problems they do. But I thought that this is. This one did a better job. Um, okay, I'll get into it with Bri and Brie will give her thoughts in just a second. But let me pause, Let me tell you about Share the Arrows before we get into the rest of this. If you have not signed up for Share the Arrows yet, this is our Christian women's conference, y'all. It is going to be amazing. Just this morning I was listening to some of the songs that I'm hoping Francesca Battistelli will be singing at the conference. The worship was one of the most powerful parts. Last year, if you have never heard 4,000 women singing this Is My Father's World acapella in unison like that was just a foretaste of heaven. It was so powerful and I cannot wait for that moment again. It is going to be, by the grace of God, a beautiful event where you are coming together with thousands of like minded women. You can come by yourself. I promise you it won't be weird or awkward. You will make friends. You will have people to sit with. You will have people to pray with and worship with and go to lunch with. And you will be able to hear from incredible teachers like Elisa Childers, like Katie Foust. Um, I almost announced the person that I'm not. I can't announce yet, but I will be announcing soon. We've got Taylor Dukes, we've got Shauna Holman. We'll be having a new health panel within this year. We've got Ginger Duggar Volo. She'll be there giving us encouragement. I will also be speaking. And then we've got two women who will be on a motherhood parenting panel. It's just going to be amazing, y'all. I promise you, you don't want FOMO? You don't want FOMO after this event. Okay? So don't wait until 2026. Now is the year. Go to share the arrows.com get your tickets while they're available. Bring all of your friends. Bring your small group. It's only for women. Can't bring your husband. Can't bring the related bros. But bring all the women in your life. Go to share the arrows.com okay, Bri, tell me your thoughts on this for. We'll get into the artistic stuff because we have some artistic questions just about the content of it, but what was your thought overall about this?

[Bri]

So I'll preface this by saying I know people have been protective of this movie, so I don't want to make anyone upset.

[Ali Stuckey]

Oh, I haven't seen that. Like, people are defensive about it.

[Bri]

Yeah, they're really defensive about it. I will just say I'm a particularly harsh critic of Christian media because I believe that Christian should have high standards and should have a standard of excellence when it comes to media. And I just haven't seen us do that very well. And so when I watch an example.

[Ali Stuckey]

That you can think of of, like, not good Christian media.

[Bri]

Oh, I'm gonna make people mad if I say it. But I think the God's Not Dead movies are really terrible.

[Ali Stuckey]

Cheesy.

[Bri]

It's not just cheesy. I think that they're. I think some of the messaging in them is. Is a little bit dangerous to people who are not Christians.

[Ali Stuckey]

Gosh, I don't remember, actually.

[Bri]

Yeah, they're often. Their depiction of, like, atheists is pretty, like, offensive to atheists to the point where I don't know that it would really encourage them to think well of Christianity at all. And so there's lots I could say about God's Not Dead, but, yes, that's an example of something that I don't think is done super well. And I just think our media could be a lot more compelling. So I went into this, like, wanting to be a critic of it like you did, wanting to find the parts that could have been improved. And I will say I've softened a lot to it over the past, like, week since I've seen it. Most of my issues are artistic with it. And, like, the story I thought could have been better. Not the story of Jesus, but how they told the story. But I thought so many parts of it were really beautiful. I thought some of the animation was. Was, like, beautiful. The lighting in the animation. There's this part where there's, like, a visual representation of like substitutionary atonement. And I thought that was beautiful when he's, like, sinking into the water and then Jesus takes his hand and switched places with him, and then Jesus is sinking down and he's floating up. I just thought that was, like, such a good visual representation for kids, especially of what was happening. So there were some moments like that that I were like, oh, that was like, oh, this isn't really a thing in other kids media. And so I appreciated that a lot. Yeah. And I appreciated they. They at least tried to get the full gospel in there. I don't know that. I think some parts of it were more confusing than they needed to be.

[Ali Stuckey]

Like, which parts?

[Bri]

Like when they tried to explain original sin, he, like, pulls out a book and explains Adam and Eve. And I just thought that could have been a little bit more clear. I don't remember the exact wording, but things like that. I'm like, I mean, you would have tweaked, but.

[Ali Stuckey]

But I appreciate. I always appreciate when in the question of sin, someone goes back to the beginning and someone goes back to Adam and Eve. I think that's really important and tells me, okay, even if we would have conveyed it differently, I. That indicates to me, I'm like, okay, you get it. You get where it comes from. That because of Adam, we have all died and Jesus is the second Adam. And I think just like with any art, they can't tell you everything. There's so much that we have to see and draw from it. And I kind of want to watch it again because I think there's probably a lot of things that I missed that I didn't really see before. And I. I really do commend them for that. Any criticism that says it wasn't the full gospel, I just. Not. You didn't say that. But anyone out there, like, I just don't know if I would agree with that. I think that they did the best they could to get the full gospel in there. But if anyone out there disagrees, I would love. There could be something I'm missing. I'm not thinking about. If any commenter is like, no, you know, they said this wrong or did this wrong. I'd be interested to hear that. But, yeah, I thought that they also. I know some people had issues with some creative liberties that Jesus said. Said. Oh, yeah, with what Jesus said. Right. Like, they added some things to his quotes or they changed words slightly.

[Bri]

Yeah, There's a couple examples. Like when Jesus is in the temple when he's younger, in Luke, he says, did you not know that I must be in my father's house. And movie Jesus says, I felt like I needed to be here. So it's like much more modernized language. There's another example.

[Ali Stuckey]

I do remember that. I remember kind of wincing a little bit at the. I felt.

[Bri]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

But then I. I second guessed my own thoughts and was like, well, is there really anything wrong with that? He did feel it.

[Bri]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

But I mean, his feelings are always truth, so maybe that's not bad. Yeah.

[Bri]

Yeah. And I think that's why some people had issues with it. When he is multiplying the loaves and fish, he says, the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That's what the Bible says. And then move movie Jesus says he came to give his life for the benefit of the multitudes. So plugged in notes in their review of it that removing the word ransom from that describe removes the. The true purpose of Jesus's death. So that's. Some people are having issues with that, with modernization of those phrases.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. I would be interested to know why they chose benefit if they just thought that that was a more modern way to say ransom. Because ransom has to be explained. But I. If we're gonna change it, I probably would have said salvation or I would have said. I would have said to save many, to save those who believe. I probably would have said something like that instead of benefit, because benefit is just as vague as ransom.

[Bri]

Also, the multitudes. I feel like if you're replacing. Replacing words, I don't know that I would have chosen that either.

[Ali Stuckey]

But, yeah, there were. There were a couple things like that. It's funny because we just Talked with Sean McDowell last week about John 9, and that was one of the scenes that was depicted when the disciples are looking at the blind man and they're like, who sinned? Did he sin? Or his parents sin? Sinned? And Jesus kind. They kind of changed what Jesus said about the power of God being displayed in him. But again, like, the spirit was there. The spirit was there. And they didn't show the whole scene of, like, the guy's parents and all of that. But I thought that that was. I thought that that was fine. Okay, here's one thing. I was looking away during this part, and I was watching a screener, so I couldn't rewind. When he raised Lazarus from the dead, did he weep beforehand? Do you remember?

[Bri]

I don't think he did.

[Ali Stuckey]

Because I remember. I don't think he did either. And I remember thinking, well, that's strange because that's such a, like a important verse. It seems like showing the humanity of Jesus is the shortest verse in the Bible. Most people who are Christians know that verse and know it's when he heard that Lazarus died. So I thought that that was an interesting choice too.

[Bri]

That's an interesting note.

[Ali Stuckey]

Forgetting.

[Bri]

No, I watched it in a theater. I feel like maybe I would have remembered. I don't think he did. I also remember this. Jesus in the movie is pretty stoic most of the time.

[Ali Stuckey]

He is. But that's how I read Jesus. That's how I read Jesus in the Gospels.

[Bri]

Yeah. And I think it's fair to interpret him character wise as that. I don't particularly think Oscar Isaac was that compelling as the character like the other actors were, but. But yeah, all that to say, I don't know that there were a lot of like, emotional moments from like Jesus's perspective. One thing that I did have an issue with actually was the resurrection, the depiction of the Resurrection. Because I legitimately thought that they cut a scene out of it. It like Jesus is, is dead and then it fades to black and then they're like, oh, but he also just rose from the dead. And the end, it was like so fast at the end.

[Ali Stuckey]

That's true.

[Bri]

There wasn't really an explanation of like, what that means now and why that's significant. And I don't expect them to do a sermon, but it did feel very jarring. I was like, well, this is like an important thing to explain. And it wasn't. And I think that was. That was a big issue for me as well.

[Ali Stuckey]

You know, they could have brought it full circle with the Christmas story. Because when you think about the Christmas story.

[Bri]

Christmas Carol.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yes. Did I. I think I must have said the Christmas Story earlier too. It's not the Christmas Story. The Christmas Carol. Okay. The Christmas Carol. They could have brought it full circle because when you think about the Christmas Carol, it's not a gospel movie or story. It is kind of a universalist, moralistic story if you just need to be a good person and you need to be generous. But if they were going to rewrite kind of the life of Charles Dickens, they could have rewritten the Christmas story as if he was the Christian they depicted him as and showed a new end of the Christmas Carol of Ebenezer Scrooge, like actually bowing down before the cross and like accepting Jesus and them showing like, no, that's really what the end of the Christmas Carol should be, is realizing that Christmas is about Christ. That could have brought it full circle. Yeah, but then they kind of left that off.

[Bri]

Yes. Yeah. No, I thought there were quite a few moments for emotional beats that had so much potential that they missed out on. One of those is actually when Peter has denied Jesus and he's kind of just sitting there on his own. That, for me, was one of the most emotional parts of the whole movie. But then. But then the little kid character comes over and kind of interrupts the scene. And I thought that that was, like, so jarring because I was like, I just want to watch what's happening with Peter now. Not this cat and this kid that's here. And then also the, like, interaction between the little kid character and what's happening in Jesus time. I see what they're going for. They were going for. Here is how a kid could make this personal. Here's how they could see themselves in Jesus's story. I think that's what they're going for. But I thought that at times it was really confusing. There are times when, like, Charles Dickens's character turns into Jesus.

[Ali Stuckey]

That did confuse me. I thought that I saw it wrong.

[Bri]

No, he morphs into Jesus. Or maybe it's vice versa. Jesus morphs into him. I thought that was super confusing. Jesus has some interaction with the cat. I don't know if we explained that the little boy character has a pet cat.

[Ali Stuckey]

I must be emotional because I thought Jesus holding the cat was really sweet. Well, I did, too, and I almost cried.

[Bri]

But. But I thought that there was a lot of potential for, like. Because Jesus interacts with him and the little boy a couple times throughout. Yeah, it would be so much more impactful. I thought if there was one moment where this little boy is watching this all unfold and there' one moment maybe right before the cross or something, where Jesus makes eye contact with the little boy, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, this is personal. Like, he's connecting with me. That would have been sweet. Or if there was one moment where Jesus, you know, shows his love for little creatures and touches the cat somehow or whatever. But. But I don't think that that was really, like, emphasized very much. The kid was just kind of there and interacting in the scene sometimes, and I don't think it meant as much as it could have.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah, I have a thought on that. I have a thought on that. Let me. Let me do another ad and then I'll. I'll give my thought. Okay. Next ad is Freedom Project Academy. Freedom Project Academy is amazing. They are A fully accredited online school for children in kindergarten to high school. The curriculum centers around Christian values, follows the classical education model. Really important for kids to learn. Logic and argumentation, memorization, rhetoric. This is different than a college prep education which has its benefits. But classical is truly a holistic form of education that is really teaching your child how to think. And maybe you want to keep your child at home or maybe there's just not a good classical school in your area. Freedom of Project Academy could be perfect for you. It's perfected online learning. For 15 years, they have been offering live anytime and homeschool courses for students K through high school. It's built on Judeo Christian values. Freedom Project Academy is dedicated to mastery of subject matter where students read full books, write incursive, study the full scope of history, graduate with knowledge years above their public school peers. Go to freedom4school.com save 15 off all courses when you use code ALI15. That's ALI15 for 15 [e-mail] okay. About the child. I thought that the child's questions and interactions with the story were pretty accurate as a representation of how a child asks questions about Jesus and about the Bible. Like I saw a, a lot of what my children say and think and ask in that child, and I thought that that was really sweet. And I also thought that he was a representation of having faith like a child because he just understood so well. It's. It seemed like that it was sad that Jesus was dying, that it was wrong for the people to choose him to die over Barabbas. He didn't want Jesus to die. He saw how amazing and loving Jesus was. And I just, I see so much of what Jesus meant when he says you have to have faith like a child in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. One beautiful benefit of motherhood is that you relearn the Bible and the Gospel through your children and they just understand it so clearly. Like you understand sin. You understand that all this brokenness, the plagues, everything that happened over here happened because of the bite of the apple. And you just so desperately want to be saved from that. And you learn a lot. So I thought that that was a really sweet picture of what it meant to have faith like a child. Now what we never see is actually an understanding of the child's own sin. Now maybe you think, like, this is too intense, but you and I were talking before this that like, it starts with this child. Now, I don't know how old the child is. Maybe five, six. Yeah, but very much disobeying and disrespecting his parents. Not like accidentally being mischievous as like a normal rambunctious five year old. Some of that, but some of it was just like flagrant disobedience. When his dad is working on something really hard, trying to perform the Christmas carol in front of people and he doesn't get punished, he gets yelled at. And yelling is not disciplined. But his dad gets frustrated and is like, you know, you need to stop doing this. I'm gonna take the sword away or whatever.

[Bri]

His mom does not discipline him.

[Ali Stuckey]

No, the mom chides the dad for getting frustrated. So the dad is made weak right away. Then when the dad gets home from the play, the son Walter gets to stay up late while the other children who did obey get to have to go to bed. Okay. And so the child gets rewarded for this disobedience by getting to stay up. And the mom is basically like telling the dad, the mom's supposed to be sweet, but the mom is like, to make up for you getting frustrated with him, you have to tell him this story. Now obviously it is a great benefit for the dad to tell the story of the gospel and we want that. We should all be doing that for our kids. But again, I think another missed opportunity. Or maybe you think this was there was maybe the child seeing, oh, like in my own way, like, I contributed to Jesus's death on the cross. That is my sin. And like, he tells me to honor my father and mother and like, like, I also need salvation. I also need forgiveness. And there could have been some like, contriteness there to show. But that is one reason why I don't know that I would allow my kids to see it. Not because of the, necessarily the like other parts of it, the story of Jesus, but because you see bad, you see bad behavior, completely undisciplined by the parents and like very weak parents who don't take that behavior seriously at all.

[Bri]

Yeah, no, I totally agree. That's a great point. And this is a little bit less severe of a point. But something that also bothered me that you touched on is, is the mom character and how she's the one who was like motivating all of this. It's like Charles Dickens wrote this for his kids. So he obviously was already motivated to share this story with his kids. We're presuming, but in this story, it's like the mom is forcing him to do it. The mom, when is trying to explain Adam and Eve and original sin, he can't find the Bible or whatever that he needs to explain it, she has to find it for him. So I just thought that that was kind of silly, that like she was kind of the motivator for everything. Maybe they just narratively needed her to do something. But I thought it was kind of a trope that is in a lot.

[Ali Stuckey]

Of movies of like, oh yeah, the bumbling dad and the wise mom that has to come in and like bring order to the chaos. And maybe you could say, well, no, he's just an artist and he needed a more type a person to like keep him on track. But we were also talking about how it's strange that, okay, if Charles Dickens, the fictional Charles Dickens, really believed in the gospel and like cared about this so much that he had been writing this for his children. Well, as Walter the son is listening to it, he's never heard this stuff before. It's like he's never heard of Jesus and he has to go tell his siblings about Jesus. Why have they never heard of Jesus before?

[Bri]

My mom, I went to see it with my mom in theaters and she leaned over to me and was like, have they never been to church before? Yeah, like, why, why does he know none of this? So, yeah, that was kind of a weird choice in my, in my opinion.

[Ali Stuckey]

Now maybe you could say that this fictional Charles Dickens was becoming a Christian during this time, that it was new and he was writing all of this as he was learning it and believing it and he was presenting it for the first time.

[Bri]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

So you could say that. And like, from the completion of it, that's when he was like, okay, I understand this and I want to present it to my kids. I'm completely adding on to the movie and giving it a very charitable reading. But maybe someone could say, yeah, now, no, kid. By the way, if you're gonna allow your kids to watch that, which is totally up to you, and maybe you can have a conversation with them about the behavioral stuff in the beginning, but no kid is going to catch on to that. I don't think that they're gonna, like a five year old is going to have an issue with that. Okay, so there are some critics out there. Gabriel Hughes on ACTS said, he said, while the film does get some things right, there's a lot it doesn't. Jesus is often misquoted in subtle ways. He points out, we already talked about this. Luke 2:49. When Jesus says, did you not know I must be in my father's house movie? Jesus says, I felt like I needed to be here. Loaves and fish, that scene, the Bible says, Mark 10:45, the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many Movie Jesus says to give his life for the benefit of the multitudes. Gabriel also says that they make Jesus sound like a guy from HR rather than the King of Kings. I personally don't agree with that assessment. In general, the film tells us our sin makes God's sad, but there's no mention of hell, of the judgment of God, which Jesus talked about. Okay, that could be true. That could be true. What do you think about that? That they don't mention hell.

[Bri]

Yeah, yeah, I had that thought briefly. I also, though, was just kind of wondering how. I mean, I don't make children's media, but I do wonder, like, what the best way to communicate that to a child is. And I don't know, I would prefer that they didn't leave that out. But I also. I don't know, I guess I don't have suggestions for them as to how they would have presented that to a kid.

[Ali Stuckey]

That's tough.

[Bri]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. Maybe they're thinking, you know, that that's up to the parents. I don't know. Did veggie tails depict how.

[Bri]

I don't remember.

[Ali Stuckey]

I don't think so.

[Bri]

Probably not.

[Ali Stuckey]

That would have been, like, really scary.

[Bri]

Seeing Bob burn veggies and hell. I know.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. Charred tomato. So I don't know. Maybe it's just. You could argue that it's not. But they did talk about sin. They did talk about Satan.

[Bri]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

Some movies wouldn't even talk about Satan at all. But, yeah, you could argue that. They don't really say what Jesus is saving us from and what we deserve. But again, you do see some depictions of that Jesus taking our place, that we deserve to be on the cross.

[Bri]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

So, yeah, there's an argument to be made. There's one official reviewer from the outlet the Aisle Seat. They found that the Charles Dickens storyline washed out the biblical narrative. That's how they felt. He said, when you have the story of Jesus, which is literally the greatest story ever told, why do you need a precocious kid and a mischievous cat? They aren't interesting. Charles Dickens was an interesting man, but his career doesn't factor in. He's used as a framing device, so there's no insight into his works or creative process. That is true. And yet an excess amount of time is spent showing him bantering back and forth with his son, a subplot with zero dramatic tension or relevant to Christ's life, for that matter. I agree. The beginning bantering. So now we can get into our creative differences, which we've kind of already done.

[Bri]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

The beginning part, in addition to the just, like, the like, precocious kids and all that stuff, I just thought it was stressful and it went on too long.

[Bri]

Yes.

[Ali Stuckey]

And, yeah, it's true. There's really. That's not part of the plot. Especially if they never bring it back to the child seeking forgiveness and seeing his own sin. Like. Yeah, it's just stressful.

[Bri]

Yeah, it's stressful. I just think. I've already said this. I just think the involvement of specifically Charles Dickens is so random.

[Ali Stuckey]

It is.

[Bri]

And so if it was just some guy in the 1800s with a kid, I think it would make more sense. Because then you're just like, okay, it's a kid. It's a guy telling a story to his kid. This is like, there needs to be a reason for it to be Charles Dickens.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Bri]

And I don't think there was, other than he wrote this random document for his kids that people don't even know about. So it doesn't really, like, matter that much.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Bri]

So I completely agree. That's one of my biggest issues, is that it's confusing because I don't know why it's Charles Dickens. I don't know why he's there. I saw one reviewer, actually. The title of his review was Finally a Movie About Jesus that Cinders on Charles Dickens. I thought that was funny because that's how I felt, too. I was like, why? So I don't know.

[Ali Stuckey]

I don't. Yeah, I thought that it was going to be an interesting through line. And it wasn't.

[Bri]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

Because I like the Christmas Carol. And so I was like, they're gonna make this gospel. Yeah. And they didn't. So I don't know if it's a South Korea thing. I don't know.

[Bri]

I don't know.

[Ali Stuckey]

I don't know. Okay. So Angel Studios is run by, I think, Mormon creators, a Mormon family. And yet I would not say that this was Mormon theologically at all. I didn't see any LDS influence on it. And what I mean by that is that Mormon theology does not believe that Jesus is God. They believe that he is a son of God, that he was literally conceived between Mary and God, that Satan is a brother of Jesus. And we don't see anything like that here. And I do think that we see Jesus as God. I mean, we hear Jesus's words. Who do you say that? I Am to his disciples. And Peter, I believe, says, you are the Christ. And Jesus says, well said. You know, he said, the Son of man has been given the power to do these things. And so I do believe that we see Jesus as God, not just a son of God, as LDS theology teaches. And so if that's a concern that any Christian has out there, I didn't see anything like that in this. In this story.

[Bri]

To clarify.

[Ali Stuckey]

Go ahead.

[Bri]

To interrupt. Just to clarify, Angel Studios also only distributed this. They didn't contribute to actually the production of it. So I don't know if that's just additional context, I guess, but really they're just like, putting the movie out. They didn't make it.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. So overall, I think, I think it's good. Obviously, the. Our creative disagreements with it, that's like just our opinion. You may love all of that. You may see a lot of purpose in Charles Dickens's story and contribution to this. And I think, you know, that's totally fine. The more moral and theological stuff, you can decide how important that is. I think with anything that you are allowing your kids to watch, you should watch it first and you should think about it and if appropriate, you should have a conversation about it. But I. I wouldn't say is better than Prince of Egypt, though. Would you say it was better than Prince of Egypt? Did you like Prince of Egypt? Yeah.

[Bri]

Yeah. But it's hard to compare because that's like a classic in probably in both of our minds. But no, no, I wouldn't say it's better.

[Ali Stuckey]

Prince of Egypt is way scarier.

[Bri]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

Way scarier than this. Like, so if you haven't watched Prince of Egypt with your kids, I. I know from experience that 5 and 3 are too young. So I would wait. I would have waited a little bit. We did not finish Prince of Egypt because when they show the babies being thrown into the river and eaten by the alligators, I was like, okay, yeah, this is tough. It's tough. So important to talk about all of that stuff and for kids to understand and it could be different for your own children. But I think, think especially when something is making a theological case and depicting Jesus, we want to make sure it's as accurate as possible. I think that I would probably give King of Kings and theologically, I'd probably give it an A. A minus overall, as a movie, I'd probably give it a BB plus. What would you say, Bri?

[Bri]

I movie B minus. Theology, probably. B plus.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. I thought there were some really, really sweet moments. And overall, I think I think it's a net positive. I really do. I'm not a hater of this movie. I think if you choose to see it with your family, then you're probably going to be blessed by it. And I think I saw a video of someone posted of their kids in the theater watching the scene where Jesus was dying. They were like older kids, probably 8 and 10, and just their. The tears streaming down their faces. They saw Jesus being crucified and taking our place. So I think it could actually help your children see the truth of the crucifixion and the meaning behind it. All right, we've got some more to talk about. Maybe we'll just get right into American Idol. That could be fun. We could just end on a positive note. But I gotta pause and tell you about our next sponsor and that is Good Ranchers. So as I already said, this weekend CR grilled for our family and he grilled some chicken, some non pre marinated chicken breast on the grill. And then he also made some steaks. And it was so good. Everyone was a raving fan. Tasted amazing. I love having a freezer full of all American meat from Good Ranchers. We get a box of meat to our front door every month so we just never have to think about it. It comes on dry ice. I know it's from all American farms and ranches and it just makes my life a lot easier. I have my custom Ali Beth Stucky box at Good Ranchers, which is filled with all the stuff that we use the most. The ground beef, the better than organic chicken, the cuts of steak that we like, we love all of that. But if you're a seafood person, they've also got seafood. They've got seed oil free chicken nuggets. Seed oil free chicken nuggets. Impossible to find in the grocery store. Impossible. So you got to get it from Good Ranchers. If you use my code ALI, you get $40 off, which is really great. It's usually only 25. So go to goodranchers.com and use code ALI for that discount. That's good ranchers.com code ALI. Okay, I guess we have a little time and so we could play a few of the videos that we have. We could go through the Easter egg roll and the egg hunt that happened over the weekend with Trump. I played this on my Instagram, but I just thought it was really cute. Trump sitting at a table with a bunch of kids and he's just coloring with them and he says at one point I colored the duck blue because I've never seen a blue duck before. And that's just very Trump. Here's thought three. And then he also had an address which of course, was a bit contentious. Some people liked it, some people didn't like it. He emphasized honoring Jesus and, quote, bringing religion back to America. He also issued an executive order to lower flags half mass in order of Pope Francis. The Pope. He died yesterday. Yesterday morning. Here's sub four.

[Donald Trump]

Speaking of special. Easter is special, and it's one of our favorite days. It's one of our favorite periods of time. We're honoring Jesus Christ, and we're going to honor Jesus Christ very powerfully throughout our lives. All throughout our lives. Not just now. All throughout our lives. We're bringing religion back in America. We're bringing a lot of things back, but religion is coming back to America. That's why you see the kind of numbers that you see the spirit and the kind of numbers that you see.

[Ali Stuckey]

Okay, I would love for him to honor Jesus Christ throughout his life. I would love that for all of us. Absolutely. 100. We all need that being bringing religion back to America. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know exactly what that means. How his administration is bringing religion back to America. Religious liberty, yes, I would say that is within his purview. I don't just want religion, though. There's a lot of religions. Certainly Islam is multiplying. That's a religion. Buddhism is a religion. I don't want just any religion, and maybe Trump meant just Christianity. But I want the Gospel of Jesus Christ to do what only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can do, which is turn hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. And I want Christians to go out and make disciples of Christ specifically. That is the only religious awakening I want. And that's what I'm praying for. And no government can do that. Of course, policy matters. Politics matter, because policy matters, because people matter. Politics affects policy. Policy affects people. People matter. And it can affect, like I said, religious liberty and free speech and all of these things so, so important. But the government and the Constitution cannot enable nor hinder the gospel because the gospel has spread under all kinds of tyrants in all kinds of countries, in all kinds of periods of history. And the gates of hell will not prevail against God's church. And so I'm not really sure that Trump or any person has the power to bring that back. Now. Am I thankful for the spirit of what he's saying, that we have a president who will say those words that has put in Place a lot of Christians in positions of power who does believe in religious liberty. Yes, I'm very thankful for that. Trump also joked about the 2022 White House Easter Egg Roll, during which a person dressed in a bunny suit was seen approaching Biden as he spoke to members of the media about Afghanistan. This. I saw this the other day. It was really sad. And you can say, oh, this is mean to point this out. He shouldn't have pointed, okay, this was our president. This was our commander in chief. This was the leader of the free world that we were lied about to for years, told that he's totally competent, that he's totally fine, he's in charge of the nuclear codes, he knows what's going on. We entrusted him with the safety and security of our country, and yet this is who we were being led by. This is top five. I mean, that's just so sad. It was the middle of his presidency. That wasn't even towards the end, and that was like the height of the media telling us it was a right wing conspiracy theory that Biden had dementia or. Biden was confused at all. He is so confused he has to be pushed away by the Easter bunny, and he still doesn't know where to go. So Trump, even when I don't, you know, like, his choice of words, even if I don't agree with him in a lot of ways, you know, morally, theologically different policy issues like ivf, like, is he a huge step up from Joe Biden? Yes, I can acknowledge that, and I'm very thankful for that, that we have a president who I think is coherent and who is competent. And despite all the noise and the craziness that we're constantly seeing from the media about Hexath, about all these people, like, I think that the Trump admin is doing a good job and leading us in a good direction. Also over the weekend, American Idol celebrated Easter, and they had several celebrities artists singing Christian songs. And we're gonna play you a clip of Carrie Underwood singing How Great Thou Art in just a second. It's really beautiful. But let me tell you about our last sponsor for the day, and that is Patriot Mobile. Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. You need to hop on over to Patriot Mobile just to have another way to support the values that you believe in. A lot of these, you know, big name mobile carriers, they support the things that we hate, and they support the values that are in direct opposition to the principles that we hold dear. You don't have to worry about that with Patriot Mobile. They care and are supporting the sanctity of life. Our veterans, our first responders, our first and second amendment rights. Patriot Mobile is one of the few cell phone service providers that operates on all three major networks. So you can switch put your money where your values are without compromising on service. They have a 100 US based customer service team and they'll make switching really easy. Patriot Mobile's contract buyout program covered up to $500 per device. Keep your number, keep your phone if you want to and you'll save a lot of money. Go to patriotmobile.com Ali you'll get a free month of service. That's patriotmobile.com Ali code Ali. All right. So I thought it was really sweet that American Idol did a three hour special that were faith inspired. It was titled songs of faith, but they were specifically Christian. I guess it wasn't intended to be specifically Christian, but it pretty much was. Judges Lionel Richie, he. He performed Eternity. Luke Bryan performed Jesus Bout My Kids. What. What does it mean on it?

[Bri]

And the whole thing is I used to talk to my kids about Jesus. Now I talk to Jesus about my.

[Ali Stuckey]

Oh, they couldn't include the. Okay, if y'all didn't hear that because Stephanie is not in the. In the microphone. But it's talking to Jesus about my kids. I used to talk to my kids about Jesus. Now I talk to Jesus about my.

[Bri]

Kids about my kids.

[Ali Stuckey]

Which is sweet, but I just feel like the other words could have been added to that to make it more clear. But you know, I've had an issue with catfish dinner, that lyric for a very long time. Very long time. No hate to Luke Bryan. He seems like a nice, fun person. But then we got Carrie Underwood. She's performing How Great Thou Art. And if I. I've been listening to her hymn album for years. If you don't have her hymn album on Spotify, it is one of the best. She is so good. And this was really beautiful. Here's thought 7.

[Carrie Underwood]

Savior God to how great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my son Savior God to truth. How great that was. How.

[Ali Stuckey]

So good? So amazing. She sang at the inauguration. Remember that? Where she had to sing acapella. What did she sing? Do you remember America Great is thy faithfulness.

[Bri]

Oh, did she?

[Ali Stuckey]

No, wait, no, no, no, no, no. They played Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Maybe instrumentally. Was it America? Okay, Bree's gonna look it up. But that was also an amazing moment. The sun reports that while ABC and American Idol producers made the final call on Green Lighting the special. Carrie Underwood was a big advocate for the special. Good for her. Also, Cece Winans, she's saying, come, Jesus, come. She also sang the Goodness of God on an American Idol special not too long ago. That was amazing. I love CeCe Winans. She's so talented. Here is last night or a couple nights ago, their performance, her performance. Sad eight.

[Carrie Underwood]

One day he'll come? And we'll stand face to face? Come and lay it all down? Cause it might be today? The time is right now? There's no need to wait? Your past will be washed by rivers of grave?

[Ali Stuckey]

Oh, so good. I didn't want it to stop. I wanted it to keep going. I love her so much. She's so good. So good for American Idol. I love that. That was really beautiful. And God was honored. And the word of God will not return. Void. And so. So anything that was sung there that was direct from scripture, God can use that. He can use all of it. Like any conveying of biblical truths, like God can use all of that. And you just have no idea how many seeds have been planted. And that could just be a touch point in someone's testimony. And so I'm very grateful for that. And good for Carrie Underwood for using her influence to make sure the gospel is heard on a stage that reaches millions. And she sang. Which song was it?

[Bri]

America the Beautiful.

[Ali Stuckey]

America the Beautiful. That was so good. All right. I hope that was an encouraging episode for everyone. I was super encouraged by so much of what I heard over Easter weekend that many of your churches were overflowing. So many people heard the gospel for the first time. So many baptisms. Praise God. Let us continue to pray that the gospel go out, that he would use us, that he would use our boldness, our prayers, our courage for such a time as this. And we serve a really good sovereign God who is powerful and is going to protect his church and is going to seek and save the lost. And that's really, really good news. All right, before we get out of here, I just want to encourage you to subscribe [e-mail] J6 We've got an incredible in depth investigation that is only accessible to subscribers on BlazeTV.com it blows the narrative of what happened on January 6th wide open. It's got capital surveillance footage, conflicting timelines, serious questions about Officer Harry Dunn's story. It is streaming right now exclusively on Blaze tv. You are not going to find this kind of hard hitting original reporting anywhere else, so go ahead and subscribe. You'll get access to all Blaze TV [e-mail] J6 all right, that's all we've got time for today. We will be back here tomorrow. Well.