American Gospel – Christ Alone: Challenging, Empowering, Overwhelming

This movie was selected by my patron supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard!

American Gospel: Christ Alone has been a word-of-mouth juggernaut in Christian circles both online and offline. I remember the impact it had on social media Reformed groups back in 2018, and I even remember when my pastor was recommending it at the pulpit during morning announcements. It was crazy. Now, in 2020, it’s landed on Netflix and you would think it was American Gospel: Christ Alone’s second coming, as groups online and offline have been praising its successes.

Through-out the episode we talk about balancing an appropriate appreciation of the documentary alongside healthy critique, how American Gospel: Christ Alone has both an excitement and frustration within its response to the prosperity gospel, and in our closing section, which runs quite long this time around, Daniel shares at length his first-hand experience with the prosperity gospel, and reveals how deep its damaging roots have entered the American culture.

Featuring talking heads with Matt Chandler, Paul Washer, and Benny Hinn’s nephew Costi Hinn, American Gospel: Christ Alone explores the core question of Christianity – “What is the Gospel?” – and juxtaposes the gospel proposed in Scripture against the gospel proposed by popular western televangelists. In doing so, it shines a light on real-life accounts from several prosperity gospel survivors and the dangers that lurk around every corner when misunderstanding and twisting the word of God for monetary gain.

American Gospel: Christ Alone is Rated TV-PG. IMDB doesn’t have a detailed certificate, so I’m going to run off what Netflix describes in their certificate: suicide, substances, and language. It features Costi Hinn, Paul Washer, Matt Chandler, Mark Dever, Justin Peters, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Bill Johnson, and Todd White. Directed by Brandon Kimber. American Gospel: Christ Alone is currently available on Netflix.

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Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

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Keeper – Is It Good? – Cinematic Doctrine

Send us a Question!MOVIE DISCUSSION: Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss Osgood Perkins' second movie of 2025, Keeper! Has Perkins created another commercially accessible psychological-horror success, or has he returned to his undeniably divisive slow-burn roots? And is Keeper another one of his female-led soft-feminist tales? Tune in and find out! Topics: Editor's Note: No Patreon Exclusive discussion! But, I do intend to trim this episode down from its original 1:44:01 length, so if you want to hear the UNCUT version, tune in on Patreon here!Because the trailers didn't seem representative of the final product, Melvin pitches the movie a little differently by explaining what the movie actually is.Kathryn and Melvin get the impression that Osgood Perkins isn't so much interested in characters as he is the film as a whole, and thus his work is often vibes-heavy.Osgood Perkins, from Melvin's perspective, creates dense films that often appear simple.Kathryn felt the overly-exposited third-act somewhat muddled the film.Talking about some recurrent visuals and motifs, like the water and the dream sequences.Specifically talking about what Melvin is calling the "Mini Minka" scene.Discussing the line, "We are your children and all the women that came before you."Recommendations: The Devil You Know with Sarah Marshall (Podcast)Occult (2009) (Movie)Support the showSupport on Patreon for Unique Perks! Early access to uncut episodes Vote on a movie/show we review One-time reward of two Cinematic Doctrine Stickers & Pins Social Links: Threads Website Instagram Facebook Group

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