Christian Faith and Life
Prof. Ruger
22 April 2015
Bruce Almighty
To begin, I would like to mention some general thoughts I had when I first
watched this movie. Overall, it was a very well mad movie, featuring many laughs
and very good acting by Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, and the rest of the cast,
however, the movie made me feel very uncomfortable in a way. The idea of God
being able to just “hand-off” his powers to a human is very uncomforting and is
something that as a Christian, I do not like to think of. Furthermore, the idea that the
God that I pray to and look to for comfort could be just another imperfect human
being is even a more uncomfortable thought. Finally, when Morgan Freeman, aka
God, says, “even God needs a break,” I was even further uncomforted by that line. I
know that none of these thoughts are true in anyway of our God, but it was very
uncomfortable that some may see God in this light.
When deliberating on this movie and thinking of these general thoughts I
mentioned earlier, my mind seemed to lead to the topic of faith. I began to ask myself
questions such as, “How does this movie affect my faith?” as well as “How does this
movie affect other people’s faith?” To me, the concept of the movie did not affect my
faith in anyway, because I know that this is not who God is. I did began to wonder,
however, how it might affect the faith of those who have not heard of God before or
heard very little about Him. They may see Him as this being who is some sort of wish
granter, giving them everything they pray for. People may be drawn to God for this
Jacob Spady, In-Depth Paper 1
reason alone, which is not the right reason to be drawn to Him. Furthermore, people
may think that they themselves can become God, and control their lives as well as
many others.
Another topic that I related this movie to was sin. Throughout the movie, sin
is a very evident player. Jim Carrey’s character is constantly using the “powers” that
“God” gave him for personal pleasure. Such as the scene in the bedroom where he
uses his powers to pleasure his girlfriend, which leads to implied premarital sex. He
uses his powers to grant peoples wishes to win the lottery or other things that are
prayed for. Furthermore, he uses his powers to make the news anchorman mess up,
so that he may get the position. Despite this, I do like the fact that the movie shows
Jacob Spady, In-Depth Paper 2