Review of Hellbound? by Director Kevin Miller

by Ben Howard

When I first heard about the movie Hellbound I was worried that it was going to be yet another conservative response to Rob Bell's book Love Wins. I mean if Christian culture is good at anything it's mobilizing all it's creative forces in the face of an “attack” against “traditional values.” For instance, the number of anti-Da Vinci Code books probably numbers a hundred or so.

However, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that Hellbound was actually titled Hellbound?. Never has a question mark carried such interpretive significance.

Last Wednesday, I was lucky enough to be able to attend the cinematic premiere of Kevin Miller's documentary Hellbound​?. In the film, Miller explores prevailing views of eternal damnation and the afterlife through a vast array of interviews from all across the theological spectrum. He delves into the beliefs of neo-Calvinism, explores Jesus cultural understanding of hell, wrestles with the theological issues of a God who may or may not damn people to eternal torment, and even lets members of the Westboro Baptist Church yell at him.

Over the first third of the movie, Miller lays out the classical position on hell beginning with the absurdist beliefs of the Westboro Baptist Church and slowly progressing into more mainline evangelical and Calvinist positions.

He then transitions into a deconstruction of this classical view. Miller and his interview subjects point out the historical background for a belief in hell and provide significant context to biblical references to Hell, especially Jesus' references to Gehenna. They also discuss the problem's inherent in referencing a

biblical idea of hell as the Bible makes references that point towards views favoring eternal torment, as well as annihilationism and universalism. To believe in one view is to deny or sublimate verses referring to other understandings of the afterlife.

The final third of the movie lays out a belief and an argument in favor of Christian Universalism including references to historical Christian figures, like Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, who held such a view.

It's important to note that from all appearances Miller began this project with an open mind; a mind with a list of questions and concerns, but far from convinced of one view or the other. However, it becomes clear over the course of the film that while Miller may not be entirely convinced of the fact of universalism, he is at least convinced by the function of this belief.

Though the interview subjects are treated with respect and dignity by Miller, many of their statements come across as at the least comical and occasionally terrifying. When Miller asks one of the Westboro Baptist protestors how many of his children he loves the man pauses and is unable to formulate an accurate response. Again, when Miller asks noted “evangelist” Ray Comfort how many people he has converted using his questionable techniques, Comfort is forced to awkwardly pause before saying that his accomplishments “will be in the Lambs Book of Life.”*

*For a fuller examination of Comfort's tactics, pick up Kevin Roose's book An Unlikely Disciple, which includes a chapter about a spring break trip with Liberty students to convert people using Comfort's methods.

The more painful moments of the film come predominantly from Miller's interviews with Mark Driscoll and Kevin DeYoung, both prominent neo-Calvinists from the mold of John Piper. Miller juxtaposes many of the statements concerning God's love made by scholars and writers in favor of universalism with angry, fire-breathing screeds from Driscoll. In the most painful scene of the movie, Miller asks Driscoll if all people are children of God, and Driscoll proclaims that they are not.

This is not a flawless film. The last third drags of the film drags in comparison to the first hour, also while there are mentions of annihilationism, it does not seem to be discussed by anyone interviewed in the film. Additionally, as one audience member pointed out in the Q&A after the premiere, the interview subjects were predominantly white males, Sharon Baker being a noted exception.

However, while it is not a flawless film, it is an important one. Though many may view this as propaganda in support of a universalist position, I don't believe that is the intent. Ultimately, this film is not concerned about where people go when they die, but how a belief in the afterlife affects how they deal with people today. The film's argument in favor of universalism is predicated on representing the beauty and love of God to a world in pain.

If anything, this film is intended to free people to think about what they believe, but especially to reflect on his there beliefs affect the way they deal with the world in the present. The problem is not with a belief in hell, the problem is a belief in hell that allows people to feel superior and rain down violence and damnation on those who they believe to be beneath them.

Maybe Sartre was right and maybe hell is other people. Dear God, save us from ourselves.

Peace,

Ben

To see where Hellbound? and Kevin Miller will be headed next visit their website or follow them on Twitter @HellboundMovie.

If you want to contact me, you can follow me on Twitter @BenHoward87 or email me at benjamin.howard [at] gmail.com. 

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Ctrl by Derek Webb

by Ben Howard

My first introduction to Derek Webb's music came during my sophomore year of college. I listened to the Mockingbird album probably a few hundred times that year, and maybe a few hundred more since then, in fact I'm listening to it while I write this sentence.

That album and Derek's other work both before and since served as my introduction to politically and religiously honest music. At a time in my life when I had a lot of questions and confusions regarding my faith and my beliefs, Derek's music has always challenged me while simultaneously making me feel like I'm not alone.

Last Tuesday, Derek Webb released his seventh studio album Ctrl and thankfully I was afforded a download so that I could give it a listen.

Ctrl is certainly an interesting and challenging album. Like much of Webb's work it is both intensely personal while at the same time being very political. As the name would suggest the album focuses on the concept of control, or, to be more specific, the illusion of control in modern life.

The album opens with the dissonant sounds of a choir singing Sacred Harp music (a turn of the century a capella musical style that must be heard to be understood) that immediately sets the listener on edge knowing that they are in for something different.

Following the Sacred Harp intro, we are led into the mellow controlled guitar chords of “And See The Flaming Skies,” which are occasionally backed again by the Sacred Harp music. The mixture of the two creates a beautiful, but tense auditory landscape.

This feeling of control-on-the-edge continues into the melancholy, “A City With No Name.” Webb acknowledges this illusory control singing, “you have less control of it, then it has of you.” This song is followed by rhythmic ticking clock/racing heartbeat of “Can't Sleep.” In fact, the first five songs on the album all share this tense control-on-the-edge-of-chaos atmosphere. Each song feels tempered, measured, purposeful, but with just a hint that everything could come tumbling down at any moment.

In the light of this measured, precise, yet teetering musical dynamic, “Attonitos Gloria” feels exactly like the religious experience its name evokes. Possibly the strangest song on the album, “Attonitos Gloria” feels like a compilation of Mannheim Steamroller and Muse, and while that may sound bizarre, I promise you that it is surreally beautiful.

In the wake of this glorious experience of God, Webb dips into the simplest and most hauntingly beautiful song on the album, “I Feel Everything.” The song begins with only a simple acoustic guitar and a stripped down vocal track. The lyrics include a lament of our current culture of consumption and the illusion of control. At one point Webb pointedly states that what he has discovered, “is not control/it is a promise meant to quell my every fear/yet leave me cursed.” The chorus of the song cries out, “I cannot hear because I hear everything/I cannot see because I see everything/I cannot feel because I feel everything.” The song ends with the beeping of a heart monitor that flatlines as the Sacred Harp music kicks back in with a funeral dirge. This life is dead.

“Reanimate” picks up with the beeping of a monitor coming back to life as a light acoustic guitar plays reassuringly warm chords. The album finishes with three songs exploring the rebirth experienced once the illusion of control is surrendered to God.

“A Real Ghost” embraces the surrealness of this rebirth with lines like, “full lungs/emotions/things I feel I've never felt before.” The final song, “Around Every Corner” is a driving pop song that reads as a redemptive creed, the promise of one freed from the burdens and confines of a life-lived-in-construct.

Ultimately, Ctrl is a beautiful work of art the conveys an incisive critique of technology, consumption and modern life as well as a mode and hope for redemption and recovery from the life in which we've enslaved ourselves.

However, let me warn you that Ctrl is a serious album. It's unlikely you'll put this on during a roadtrip or find yourself singing at the top of your lungs. It's the kind of album you ruminate over, the kind of songs where you sit alone in your room and stare at the lyrics while you listen.

You may very well enjoy this album, but that is not its first aim. It means to challenge you, and if you accept that challenge, it means to lead you somewhere beautiful, somewhere you've never been before.

Peace,

Ben

You can purchase Ctrl from derekwebb.com.

Special thanks to Derek and Brian at Media Collective for making this album available.

Follow Ben on Twitter @BenHoward87.