Naked And Unafraid

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Discovery ChannelMy parents love this show called “Naked And Afraid.” Ever seen it?

On every episode 2 strangers meet, completely naked, on an abandoned island and try to survive with no supplies and no clothes for 21 days.

To me this show is the height of insanity. I spend the entire time petrified thinking about the extreme discomfort these contestants must be in. I certainly can’t imagine ever “competing” on the show.

Yet “Naked And Afraid” has been going on for 4 seasons. It’s even spawned an entire naked television genre, with “Dating Naked” and other bare-skinned shows populating the cable airwaves.

I used to think “Naked And Afraid” was the craziest show on tv. But I’m starting to wonder if maybe the contestants on this show are onto something.  Continue reading →

Why Sunburns Are Actually Pretty Cool

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IMG_5429With the July 4th weekend approaching the summer beach and pool season is in full swing. Which means for some of us the summer sunburn season is in full effect.

No matter how much I guard myself, no matter how high the SPF on my sunscreen is, no matter how many times I reapply, I can’t escape the summer without at least one nasty sunburn.

All you fair-skinned folks out there can relate. We don’t tan. We burn.

And any of us who’ve ever had to make an emergency run to the drug store to buy aloe can attest to how quickly a sunburn can ruin a summer trip.

But as this video explains, the cool thing about sunburns is that they allow you to see your immune system in action: Continue reading →

What Would Jesus Watch – 3: Christian Mingle – The Movie

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Welcome to “What Would Jesus Watch?”, our summer exploration into the overlooked and underexplored genre of Christian Cinema.

Have you wanted to watch a 90 minute infomercial for a Christian Dating website? Then have we got the movie for you!

On this week’s episode Alex and Kate break down “Christian Mingle – The Movie” and the “click, marry, die, done” dating culture it revolves around. We talk about the film’s bizarre view of Christianity, say a prayer for poor Lacey Chabert, discuss the movie’s hilarious prayer habits and dream about visiting the greatest fictional restaurant of all time.

Plus we share our theories about the purpose of the movie and if the leading man is actually an 8-year-old. And to truly understand the movie Kate goes undercover to create her own Christian Mingle account! All that and more on this episode of Christianity for Dummies…er we mean What Would Jesus Watch!

If you haven’t seen “Christian Mingle – The Movie” before you’ll definitely still be able to enjoy the podcast. But if you’d like to prepare before watching you can check out the trailer below and find the movie on iTunes:

Follow along on Twitter and on Facebook to see what movie we’ll be watching next

Search for What Would Jesus Watch on the iPhone Podcast app or in iTunes and Subscribe or listen on Stitcher

Share and leave a comment and let us know what you think. Tell us what movies you’d like to see us discuss on future episodes of What Would Jesus Watch!

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How To Conquer Indominus Rex

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jurassicworldThere’s a cliche out there where people call extremely intense movies “nail-biters”. Well when I watched “Jurassic World” for the first time it was no cliche – I found myself literally biting my nails in anticipation as the dinosaurs wreaked havoc.

Though I’ve written before about how disappointing sequels and remakes can be, “Jurassic World” exceeded my wildest expectations.

I rarely get scared during movies. I don’t even bother seeing a lot of horror movies; not because they’re too scary for me, but because they’re not scary enough.

But I was literally on the edge of my seat as Chris Pratt fought valiantly alongside a T-rex. My nails cut into my wife’s hand as I watched the raptors’ claws attack the guests at the park. “Jurassic World” was so well done that it actually gave me goosebumps and had me jumping around out of fear.

Now it’s obvious the Indominus Rex, the terrifying dinosaur which causes so much chaos in “Jurassic World”, isn’t really alive.

In fact it’s not even a real dinosaur. And of course the threat of a dinosaur attack probably isn’t coming around in this lifetime (fingers crossed).

So why did something fake give me such a fright? If I was being honest I’d tell you fake thing things scare me all the time. Continue reading →

The 3 Practices Pixar Can Teach The Church

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insideoutNo movie company has ever had a run of success like Pixar.

Starting with “Toy Story” in 1995 all the way up to their latest production “Inside Out” (which is on track to be possibly their biggest film ever), their success rate has been unprecedented. Even their worst movies (like oh, I don’t know, “Cars” maybe) are still pretty great.

As someone who’s been on the Pixar bandwagon since seeing “Toy Story” in theaters 20 years ago, I’ve seen 3 clear reasons why this movie company has been so incredibly successful connecting with kids from age 5 to 105.

I think if churches put these 3 Pixar practices into place we could be more successful in connecting with our audience as well: Continue reading →

What Would Jesus Watch – 2: Noah

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Ah, Noah. The classic Biblical tale of a man called by The Creator to rescue the animals of the Earth from a great flood on an ark he builds with giant rock monsters.

Wait, what?

On this week’s episode of “What Would Jesus Watch?”, Alex and Kate tackle to the 2014 epic “Noah” starring Russell Crowe and Emma Watson. It’s a Biblical movie that never mentions the word “God” and feels more like a Marvel movie than a faith-based one. But that might not be such a bad thing as our hosts discover. Find out how they felt about all the liberties the film takes with the classic story, the hidden agendas at play, the role of women in the film and why they’d pay to see a Methuselah spin-off. Plus hear why they think a movie like “Noah” can bring more people to the Bible than a typical traditional telling of the story. Continue reading →

What Would Jesus Watch – 1: The Encounter

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Christian cinema doesn’t have the greatest reputation.

Even though faith-based movies have exploded in popularity ever since the success of 2004’s “The Passion Of The Christ”, the genre has rarely received much critical acclaim.

Still there seems to be a booming marketplace for films which touch on faith-based issues. Many of them even attract A-list actors like Christian Bale, Sigourney Weaver, Russell Crowe, Emma Watson and Nicolas Cage.

All of this got us to thinking:

What Would Jesus Watch?

Are these movies any good? Are they just looked down upon because of a Hollywood bias against Christianity? Or are they worthy of the bashing most critics give them?

Join hosts Alex and Kate Doriot on this new podcast as they explore the high, the low and the “Huh?” of Christian cinema one movie at a time, giving a fair chance to faith-based films big and small.

Though Alex and Kate come to the podcast with a sense of humor, the goal of What Would Jesus Watch? is not to make fun of bad movies.

Instead, the purpose of the podcast is to encourage those willing incorporate faith-based themes into their art and inspire them to strive for excellency when doing so.

Each week we’ll celebrate what worked in bad movies, what didn’t work in good movies and explore the impact this rapidly growing genre of films can have on our faith. It all begins today with our debut episode!

Ever wonder what it would be like to hang out at a diner with Jesus? Pretty exhausting, apparently!

That’s the lesson learned in our premiere episode as we watch the 2010 film “The Encounter”.

It stars legendary wrestling superstar Sting and tells the story of 5 weary travelers convening at a mysterious diner run by Jesus himself. What will they discover about themselves over the course of dinner? Is Jesus a good burrito chef? How long will it take for Jesus to multiply a loaf of bread? And why isn’t Jesus more attractive? Find out all of this and more on What Would Jesus Watch! Continue reading →

Autocorrecting God

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

IMG_5330Ever notice something when you type out “god” on your iPhone? Go ahead and try typing it in a sentence if you haven’t recently.

While an iPhone will automatically capitalize most proper names and nouns, it won’t always autocorrect “god” to “God”.

Hey Apple – can we get a fix for this at the next WWDC?

Maybe your phone doesn’t do this. I’m sure some of you will tell me there’s something I can do in my settings so that I don’t have to go back and capitalize God every time I type it out (I may be under 30 but that doesn’t mean I know how to do 95% of the stuff on my phone).

Unfortunately just fixing my autocorrect settings won’t fix the real problem. The reality is that the failure of my phone to recognize God’s name is symbolic of a bigger issue in our culture.

As Christians we must stop assuming that the world sees God the same way that we do. Continue reading →

Does Love Have An Expiration Date?

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FullSizeRender(1)Kate and I have some new neighbors. They moved into the apartment next to us a few days ago.

We never really got to know the previous occupants. So Kate decided she would bake some cookies for these new folks across the hall.

I was lucky enough to get to try her prototypes. She went all out, using our new blender to make a special recipe from scratch. So so good.

For 3 days we knocked on their door. In the afternoon and in the evening. Multiple times.

The new neighbors never answered the door. Continue reading →

How the Bible Taught Me to Be More Creative

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(GUEST POST: Today I’m excited to share with you a guest post from Jackson Dame. Jackson is a young writer I’ve been following over the past few months who blogs at JacksonDame.com. He’s in the process of self-publishing his first book Ex Materia about the impact of faith on creativity. I jumped at the chance to have him write a guest post here on the blog so that you can learn more about him. Check it out and be sure to check out the Kickstarter page for Jackson’s new book to see how you can support this up-and-coming author.)

exmateriaA couple of years ago I couldn’t come up with a good idea to save my life.

I wanted to exercise my creativity, but it was almost as if I had none. Was I really cut out to be creative?

Fast forward to today, and I’ve never been more confident in my ability to generate ideas and execute them with excellence. What changed?

Well, a lot of things, but overall it was one crucial action. And it was an action that I discovered while I was reading my Bible of all things.

My faith actually taught me that I was skipping over the first and most important part of the creative process: consuming. Allow me to explain. Continue reading →