Reflections on Collision

I had a great time last night watching Collision with some others at Theology Pub. The blurb for the movie says:

Collision…pits leading atheist, political journalist and bestselling author Christopher Hitchens against fellow author, satirist and evangelical theologian Douglas Wilson, as they go on the road to exchange blows over the question: “Is Christianity Good for the World?”. The two contrarians laugh, confide and argue, in public and in private, as they journey through three cities.

I’d have to give mixed reviews to the film itself. Some tweets during the movie:

@kinnon Watching Collision with @dashhouse et al. Please filmmakers, tripods are not a bad thing. Really. They aren’t.

@kinnon Collision is actually painful to watch. Easier to listen to. I’m about to close my eyes. ShakyCam is not an artform, people.

@liamkinnon If they’d cut the dramatic music from “Collision” it could have had twenty more minutes of awesome discussion.

The film covers some familiar apologetic ground, and Wilson and Hitchens seem to enjoy each other, even if they do talk past each other sometimes.

The discussion afterwards was good, but left me feeling disoriented. Some key points:

• The apologetics questions aren’t the issue for most people today.
• People who live in a radically different way – Shane Claiborne’s name came up – are a more compelling evidence for Christianity than arguments.
• Churches transfer people and sometimes reach de-churched people, but we are not doing a good job of reaching completely unchurched people – except perhaps those who have immigrated to Canada.
• Toronto has unique challenges, some of which make it even more challenging than places we think are tough, like New York City.
• Many of the theological discussions and church strategies taking place today don’t even touch the real issues of the church in our context.
• There are very few models, corporately or individually, for how to live counter-culturally in a place like Toronto.
• We are disoriented, but shouldn’t lose hope. Read Acts. Have confidence in the Gospel. God isn’t worried.

Lots more good discussion. A challenging night. I’m really glad to learn from some very smart people who attended.