Title: A Matter of Faith (2014; PG)
Director: Rich Christiano
Major Themes: Creation, Evolution, Science
Synopsis: After growing up in a Christian, Bible-believing family, when Rachel comes across evolution in university, she has to decide which she will believe as truth.
I have a habit of perusing friend’s shelves when we go visiting, and just recently, I spotted A Matter of Faith. It reminded me of God’s Not Dead, which I watched a few years ago, and decided it would be good to see this one as well. I’ve appreciated Christiano’s films before, and thought there was a good chance I’d enjoy this as well. It was different than some I’ve watched, but I did end up appreciating it—perhaps not as much as some movies I’ve seen by them, but it was still good.
Rachel Whitaker is ready to start her freshman year, and she’s excited about getting the chance to attend a university with a well-respected biology course. Everything is new—and her parents send her off with a prayer that everything will go well. Life goes along nicely for the first few weeks. She appreciates her professor’s teaching methods, and although at first some of the subjects make her uncomfortable, she soon starts to see the reasoning behind them. Several different students take an interest in her, and all is going well—until her father, Steven, finds out that instead of learning about Biblical creation, she’s being taught evolution in biology. He is very concerned for her spiritual state—not only does she not seem to be caring about the Lord and reading His Word like she did when she was younger, but he’s concerned that she will continue being drawn away if she isn’t grounded in what the Bible teaches. After a discussion with her professor, Steven ends up in a rather sticky situation—can Rachel forgive him for the choice he makes? Will she continue drifting away from the Lord, or will she realize where she is before it gets to be too late?
There’s much that could be said on the creation/evolution debate, and I feel like A Matter of Faith covers one little section of that. I appreciated some of the points brought up near the end of the movie, about how God is real and what He says is true. I was a bit disappointed that this movie didn’t seem to have a lot of storylines to go along with the main point of the creation/evolution debate; the main character went out several times with non-Christian guys, and her flatmate was more interested in partying than studying, but there wasn’t a lot else to keep the movie going. If you’re interested in a clean, Bible-based movie, this would be a good option; I didn’t feel like it would be interesting to most of our family, so only watched it myself. I think it could be helpful to those unsure of their position and needing clarity on what the Bible teaches, but we already consume a lot of similar content around our house.
WARNING: From 6:30 – 7:12 people are at a party with loud music playing. Throughout the movie, there’s some talk about dating, and a girl goes out with different guys a couple of times. At one point, a guy was going to set a girl up for something—apparently not good; it never specifies what he planned to do with her—but she was warned about it in time and didn’t go.
Appropriate ages:
Ages 8 – 12, 10 – 12, 12 – 15, 15 and Above, Adults, Family Friendly
Links to buy this movie:
Amazon: Prime Video | DVD
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