For Muslims, however, this is personalized (though some of the more philosophical might view this as largely rhetorical or symbolic) for the universe is governed by a personal deity, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-and of Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arabs; the God of Jesus but also of Muhammad. In this case, we have experience of a unique effect: the universe. Talking with guests on a show about the case, she suggests that the problem in America is that we don’t listen to one another. And nearly eight in 10 white evangelical Protestants believe that discrimination against Christians is as big a problem as discrimination against blacks and other minorities. Maybe – at least if you think the problem is more about how we talk to one another than what we do. But the series has almost entirely abandoned figures from the Christian world (the Newsboys make a very brief appearance in a Christian talk show) in favor of the Fox News set. Celebrities from both the Christian world (like apologist Lee Strobel and the rock band the Newsboys) and the Fox News world (like Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson and, believe it or not, Mike Huckabee) made appearances as themselves in the first two films, giving audiences not just a Ready Player One-style thrill of recognition but also the sense that this story was happening right here, right now.

Tens of thousands of miles of new road went down each year as roads first linked metropolitan areas, then started off for more distant points. This occurred in 622, the year of the hijra, or “emigration,” which marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar. This date marks the beginning of the Julian calendar. The first God’s Not Dead movie is based on what’s essentially an internet meme, with a deus ex machina tacked on at the end. That seems to be the lesson that Dave learns by the end of the film: He rescinds the lawsuit and says the church will move off campus. He even fights back through the media, going on TV to call for a grassroots campaign by people who support the right of the church to remain. But even setting that aside, it’s important to remember that when a movie explicitly serves up a message, you have to look at the plate it’s served on. Across China, Han religion has even adopted deities from Tibetan folk religion, especially wealth gods. This report explores cross-national perceptions of religion, including the connection between belief in God and morality, the role God and prayer play in people’s lives and the importance of religion.

But Pearce, exasperated with Dave’s insistence that St. James is being targeted for being Christian, tells Dave that “you guys love to play the victim card,” and that he’ll help him with his legal battles around eminent domain but won’t play into the “false narrative” that Dave believes. Couple that with Dana Loesch’s brief appearance as a voice of reason, and the series’ continuing fudging of the line between truth and fiction – starting with Pastor Dave’s imprisonment – is an indication of what’s really going on in the God’s Not Dead franchise. But the God’s Not Dead series has a history of name-dropping real legal battles and then grossly overblowing the details to make them more exciting. If your audience wants to believe in the truth of that statement, then vaguely waving your hands and mushing in the facts with the falsehoods isn’t a bad way to do that.

But to continue the series’ strategy of centering on tales of persecution, A Light in the Darkness had to also continue its predilection for stretching the truth. The reason these two faces are so jarring within the context of this film is that God’s Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness seems, several times, to have become self-aware about the exaggerated persecution fantasy it’s trading on. Many rituals are practiced before and during sunrise, honoring this moment of the day as it is believed to give energy and health to the body. And the two most recognizable are two of the most aggressive and combative voices imaginable: National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch and Fox News’s Judge Jeanine Pirro. The most clear tell is that Dave’s message of unity is actually an echo of something said earlier in the film by none other than Judge Jeanine Pirro. And the third is perfectly content to frame the trouble at St. James in the context of Dave’s arrest and release, which is mentioned at one point to bolster the argument that Dave, his church, and the Christians of America are under fire.