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Boys' Bible Study

Boys' Bible Study

Ash, Scott, and Julian are innocent angel babies incapable of doing wrong. They invite guests from Hell to watch and critique the best contemporary Christian movies. God wants you to listen to this podcast!

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  • 23 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 50 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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  • April 5 · 1 hr 40 min

    Old Rugged Cross (2016)

    ANNOUNCEMENT: a new perk is available on our $20 patreon tier! BOOTLEG BIBLE STUDY is a monthly physical media series where we send you handmade and custom-edited DVDs of faith-based films curated and assembled by BBS cohost Scott. Sign up by EOD Sunday April 5 to receive the first DVD "MURDER BIBLE"! Any signups after that date will be automatically enrolled for the May 2026 drop and beyond. Thank you for your generous support! https://www.patreon.com/c/boysbiblestudy Happy Easter! Three days before the resurrection miracle that defined Christianity, Jesus died on an Old Rugged Cross for the sins of podcasters everywhere. Therefore, it felt right to review OLD RUGGED CROSS, a drama about two pastors fighting for hearts and minds in a small town, by beloved auteur Donald James Parker. Parker, a frequently reviewed filmmaker on this podcast, had an insanely productive streak from 2014–2016, during which he wrote ten feature films, sometimes directing and starring in them. These include his famous GRAMPS series as well as the legendary THE UNEXPECTED BAR MITZVAH, some of our favorite movies we have ever watched in the faith-based genre. OLD RUGGED CROSS is a reskin of some of Donald's favorite topics, and although it lacks some of the explosive novelty of THE UNEXPECTED BAR MITZVAH (a film that prominently featured an Orthodox Jewish family arguing about Tim Tebow), OLD RUGGED CROSS keeps the viewer engaged with an entertaining story and dialogue so unmistakably Donald it boggles the mind. For example, OLD RUGGED CROSS's three main characters are groan-inducingly on-the-nose: Parker himself plays the pure-hearted Pastor "Evan Shepherd," his evil rival is the scheming Pastor Luke "Wolf," and his love interest torn between the two holy men is "Anita Rock." Seriously. Some other tropes from Parker's work are presented well here: Pastor Shepherd observes a Saturday Sabbath, as Jewish people do, because this is more biblically accurate. Also, Shepherd is portrayed as being so devout a Christian as to alienate his wife and daughters, a biographical aspect of nearly all of Parker's self-cast characters. Why this very specific creative choice? Parker's expressive performance as Shepherd and the jaw-dropping dialogue of his script combine in a pleasing way that makes OLD RUGGED CROSS one of the most solid and entertaining entries in Parker's filmography, a real compliment considering his catalog contains some of the most legendary contemporary Christian films of all time. If your name happens to be Anita Christianfilm, look no further. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on X: https://x.com/boysbiblestudy

  • March 29 · 3 min

    Not a Fan. (2011) TEASER

    Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! www.patreon.com/boysbiblestudy This millennial-coded 2011 DVD Bible study series uses Facebook lingo, which was very en vogue at the time, to encourage people to upgrade their relationship with Jesus from casual to committed. NOT A FAN, the brainchild of minister Kyle Idleman, uses a clickbait-style title to grab your attention: what do you mean you're "NOT A FAN" of Jesus? What Idleman means is that on Facebook at the time, you could click a thumbs up to "become a fan" of something you liked, a shallow and performative gesture that serves as a metaphor for going through the motions of Christianity without participating with your full heart. Going to church every Sunday is meaningless without loving the process. To illustrate this, Idleman released a serial drama of 6 DVD study episodes about fictitious Eric Nelson, a cutthroat executive and "pleasure seeking rebel" who commits his life to Christ after a stress-induced heart attack. These episodes were condensed to a feature film, which we watched this week, with interstitial sermons narrated by Idleman himself. Nelson's family, shocked at his sudden transformation, does their best to keep up with his newfound enthusiasm but doesn't exactly love the life changes. The Nelsons go from a McMansion in the suburbs to a humble farmhouse, and Eric goes from the boardroom to the soup kitchen. They stay devoted to their patriarch and go along with what he says, but don't really "feel" the love and resent the new Christian austerity. A not-so-shocking tragic ending gives the Nelsons new perspective, and the entire family learns to be Followers of Jesus, not just Fans: people whose devotion to Christ has caused them to take on great sacrifice and inconvenience. Idleman basically says that if you're not feeling the burn of Christianity in your life, you're probably not going hard enough. NOT A FAN is delightful for its now-extremely-dated branding and vocabulary, but is overall a total slog, with constant scenes of death and suffering that don't do a good job of "selling" the Christian lifestyle to casuals. But then again, this DVD is for the Followers, NOT the Fans. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: http://twitch.tv/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

  • March 22 · 1 hr 23 min

    It Ain't Worth It: Athletes for Abstinence (VHS, 1986)

    A team of the world's top athletes has weighed the pros and cons and concluded: sex really ain't worth it. On IT AIN'T WORTH IT: ATHLETES FOR ABSTINENCE, a whimsical 80s VHS tape with obligatory hip hop aesthetic influence meant to appeal to the youth, former pro basketball player AC Green tells teens that sex is an unnecessary temptation best handled by just saying no. Green's career spanned 16 years in the NBA, during which he set the record for perfect attendance with 1,192 consecutive games played. This earned him the nickname Iron Man, which fans mockingly shifted to Iron Virgin in response to Green's proud claims that he remained a virgin bachelor throughout his entire NBA career as a devout Christian waiting for marriage. Green was surely aware of jokes at his expense, but he held firm to his convictions and spent his career running youth ministries, using his celebrity to connect with Christian teens. While that is a nice sentiment, materials like his tape IT AIN'T WORTH IT provide glaringly inaccurate statistics about sexual health topics like contraceptives and also refuse to acknowledge the real reason teens have sex: because they are horny. Green's thesis seems to be that teen sex culture is purely a result of media influence and social pressure, ignoring that biological processes begin in adolescence that make people actively want sex. There are good reasons for teens to manage these impulses until they are more mature, but the clumsy testimonies of Green and his teen cohorts instead rely on fallacies such as claiming everyone who has sex will get AIDS and that condoms fail 50 percent of the time. Unfortunately for Christians, the message remains laughable and feels as if they themselves are asexual (as opposed to abstinent.) If Christians can't relate to sexual desire, they will never reach teens on an authentic level with an abstinence message. Also, although an original rap song seemed to be a requirement for youth media in the late 80s and early 90s, here it does little to help the abstinence cause. It simply ain't worth it. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Subscribe to our Twitch for livestreams: http://twitch.tv/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

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