There are many ways to spread your faith. Perhaps it’s in your actions, the way you treat people or perhaps even just a shirt you wear. Or, you make a terrible, racist, narrow minded movie that treats those who don’t agree with you like absolute crap. After all, treating others that don’t fit your views was what Jesus was all about, right? Look, I could care less about the supposedly “religious”  message any film conveys; even the most noble of ideas can become atrocious when presented in a manner that’s underwhelming. As a Christian man who goes to Church every Sunday, I believe this film’s agenda directly conflicts with many of the principles like forgiveness and not judging others that are repeated ad nauseum each week.

But this tale, which pits Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper) (also: is his name a dig at Avengers director and well known atheist Joss Whedon? God only knows…) against college Professor Radisson (Kevin Sorbo) who is forcing each of his students to write the words “God Is Dead”, just reeks of intolerance and cruelty. The narrow mindedness of the story is blatant just from that summary, and the rest of the film is even worse.

The filmmakers act like only atheists and anyone from any other religion can be bad people, as that seems to be the singular driving force for the movies numerous cartoonish antagonists. These poorly crafted folks are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the movies terribly written characters, who are all a hodgepodge of stereotypes that range from the middling to the offensive. The worst culprit of that is the professor’s only prominently featured African-American student going under the name (I’m not making this up) G-Dawg. Repeat that to yourself and ponder how in 2014 this is acceptable on any level.

None of these characters are likable. The situation they’re stuck in is idiotic and every other aspect of the movie, even sound mixing, feels like it was put together by a colorblind 7th grader who just discovered iMovie. But hey! At least the awesome Christian rock band Newsboys does great here. Their terrific music is given ample screen time and one of their members gets the film’s only humorous moment that was actually meant to be humorous. But aside from that, God’s Not Dead is just hateful cinema that feels like the greatest spoof movie never made. The message at one point might have been good, but it’s rained out in a sea of bigotry, melodrama and Kevin Sorbo antics.