On Angel's Wings (2014) TEASER

Subscribe today for access to our full catalog of bonus episodes, including 2+ new episodes every month! $5 pledge gets you bonus episodes and $20 enters you in our monthly handmade DVD mailing program "Bootleg Bible Study"!   http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Angelslop is not just a 1990s phenomenon! The genre (that we named) lives on in this Tubi-core family film directed by Aaron L. Williams and starring some real-life celebrities. ON ANGEL'S WINGS was found by Ash and some friends watching a compilation video called "Best Tubi Movie Moments." A particularly captivating shot of a homeless man sprouting wings and levitating a boy out of the way of a moving car caught our attention. Looking it up, we noticed it starred Reginald VelJohnson, most famously Carl Winslow on Family Matters, but also known (to us) for making a cameo in a Christian film we reviewed called THE PRAYER BOX. ON ANGEL'S WINGS also co-stars Robin Givens, an 80s tabloid fixation with a multi-decade acting career including appearances in Riverdale. One more celebrity guest is Sweet Brown, an early YouTube sensation known for her catchphrase "ain't nobody got time for that," which she was forced to say several times in ON ANGEL'S WINGS, and did so with a smile. The film's simple, easy-to-watch plot centers around siblings McKenzie and Josh, both of whom try to improve their lives by praying for a miracle. McKenzie would like to become better at soccer so she won't be bullied at school; Josh would like to learn how to read better (turns out he actually just needs glasses). Two guardian angels show up to meet their needs; Josh's angel is a kindly homeless man, and McKenzie's angel is a little white boy who lives in her closet for some reason. With angelic power behind them, anything is possible. But will the kids pray for lasting peace and contentment, or worldly treasures that quickly lose their luster? ON ANGEL'S WINGS feels more like a Christian genie movie than a true 2010s angelslop revival. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

Christian documentarian Darren Wilson could be described as the Christian Nathan Fielder, because Wilson's films also stretch our idea of "the truth." It's for this reason that we at Boys' Bible Study have praised his films FURIOUS LOVE, HOLY GHOST, and FINGER OF GOD as "mondo" or "docsploitation" films, evoking the Italian "mondo" documentary genre where real-seeming lurid events were in fact staged and distorted for the camera. With this in mind, watch carefully as Wilson and cohorts travel to exotic lands to find new cultures to exploit -- I mean, heal. Wilson loves claiming that he is in mortal danger of persecution wherever he goes, but he may be completely exploiting his role as documentary narrator to convince us of that. FURIOUS LOVE is conceptually about how the source of God's magickal power is His love, so love is the force to tap into when trying to do miracles on the street. Unfortunately, this completely doesn't work on the ground in Salem, Massachusetts, during a witchcraft festival, where even the confident Wilson admits that they weren't able to produce a miracle. Does God have no power in Salem? Don't worry, because elsewhere He fares much better. In Tanzania, Wilson encounters demons possessing Christians in "demon tents." In Thailand, Wilson and friends minister to sex workers. In Indonesia, God overpowers witch doctors and even Tibetan Buddhist monks. It seems that the monks' insane visualization exercises, where they imagine their skulls ripped off and used as bowls to feed demons, actually put them in contact with real evil entities. And here I thought those guys were just chilling! Darren Wilson's documentaries prove that the truth only goes so far when telling a story of God's love; sometimes a good story is the most powerful force of them all. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

What if someone was really bad at faith healing? In all our years of watching Christian media, we've never once seen media explore this scenario, until we watched a certain episode of THE X-FILES called "Miracle Man." THE X-FILES is considered one of the most beloved classic shows of the y2k era. Its quirky and sometimes disturbing sci-fi and horror plots have cemented it as nostalgic to millennials and fascinating even to younger generations streaming today. The friendly tension between FBI special agents Mulder (David Duchovny), highly open to the supernatural and conspiracy, and Scully (Gillian Anderson), a more rational "left-brained" investigator who looks for scientific explanations, provides unending narrative variations, mimicking the two sides of our own minds when we approach information alien to us (no pun intended). Their opposing yet complementary tactics are put to the test in "Miracle Man" when the pair investigate Rev. Calvin Hartley, an evangelical revivalist preacher whose young son Samuel is accused of using the power of God to kill members of his congregation. The agents confirm with their own eyes Samuel's miraculous ability to heal the sick and raise the dead, but after two congregation members died tragically, his confidence has been tested. He's become a disillusioned young man developing alcoholism, concerned that God is punishing him. But is God to blame, or could it be one weird man with pure white rubbery skin who always wears a trench coat and sunglasses? Is the weirdest-looking freak of them all sabotaging the healings behind the scenes? We gotta admit, the ending was pretty predictable for an X-FILES twist, but it was still compelling to see Mulder and Scully investigate Christian miracles. The episode raises compelling discussion points about what faith healing actually does — is it channeling God's power, or does it use the power of suggestion to cause a suffering person's mind to will positive effects onto the body? The mind is the most powerful thing we have, although God is more powerful still — as long as a pale, rubbery freakazoid doesn't get in the way of His plans. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

The eyes of the robot are upon you. In this extremely prescient episode of America's greatest television show WALKER, TEXAS RANGER, a supercomputer named Art keeps a watchful eye on his boy master, a brainchild named Chad who has powerful psychokinetic abilities. Portrayed by 7TH HEAVEN's David Gallagher, Chad is being held captive by the evil science lab Futures R&D, who force him to do grueling psychokinesis displays until his nose starts bleeding. To rescue Chad from his STEM career are our heroes, Walker (Chuck Norris) and his faithful sidekick Trivette (Clarence Gilyard). Walker and Trivette chat with the boy on an online chess website, eventually triangulating his location to Futures, and in the process locate Chad's genius mother, who built Art to protect the child she was told was dead. The amazing thing to know about the comedy of WALKER, TEXAS RANGER is that Walker and Trivette do not bat an eye whatsoever about this young boy using telekinesis to steal bacon from the breakfast table. The style guide of the show seems to state that Walker and Trivette should never once seem to be losing in combat, nor should they ever be intimidated by paranormal forces. These silly creative rules lead a lot of people to believe that WALKER is a substanceless show. While it was definitely slop in its day, revisiting episodes in big 2026 is a revelatory experience, because every episode is packed with interesting sets and a fully bespoke soundtrack. The care and love that went into chud chungus TV in the 90s puts even our prestige efforts of today to shame. BRAINCHILD is one of the best episodes of a genius television show, predicting the rise of AI agents and wowing us with paranormal plots while throwing in some good old fashioned Christian prayer. WALKER, TEXAS RANGER does an amazing job of keeping us surprised, even though its titular character doesn't even know what the word surprise means. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

The capstone of our 7TH HEAVEN September series shows the Camdens, in a bizarre later-series arrangement, taking on powerful social issues. This is "Got MLK?" the irreverently named racial reckoning episode in season ten, where Martin (an "accessory Camden" who used to live with the pastor's family) becomes the victim of a hate crime despite being a white man. The crime? A slur painted on his car, probably by his baseball team cohort Brad, but we don't know for sure. It all starts in class with a report on Martin Luther King. Alex (a black student) wants to do one, but his teacher Mrs. Porter rudely asks him to wait for the next MLK Day. She relents when Martin makes a comment that baseball is more important than MLK, proving the importance of additional focus on black history. Unfortunately, students have to redo their reports, causing resentment that may have led to the "racial remarks" painted on Martin's car. What follows is an insane dialogue tree of arguments and consequences, where no character handles the potential helter-skelter situation gracefully. In typical 7TH HEAVEN fashion, the writers seem to be asking -- how does this impact white people? But this is a special episode for us -- we get an inside scoop into the filming of "Got MLK?" via our friend Jarred Endres, who "starred" in it as "Student #8." Jarred, of popular re-edit Instagram account and YouTube channel Grimy Ghost, was a teen actor at the time and nailed his audition to read a report on Thurgood Marshall to end the episode. Finally, with the inside scoop on the Camden hijinks once and for all, we can rest on our laurels and take the lessons we learned from the Camdens (mainly Protestant guilt and anxiety) into our next life -- as soon as we can escape samsara. Grimy Ghost! on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegrimyghost/ Grimy Ghost! on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFhsSc8ZYXfFkj5URtG-WaQ View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

The Camden family of 7TH HEAVEN are preoccupied with a lot of things. Their spiritual and social anxieties generate most of the show's drama, and the interesting ways they trigger each other in various combinations creates the intrigue that keeps us coming back week after week. SIN AND EXPIATION, a gripping two parter with character arcs for almost everyone in the family, is 7TH HEAVEN at its best: a pressure cooker of Protestant anxiety. Youngest son Simon begins the episodes completely in the dog house because he's caught extending the middle finger at school in an effort to be "one of the guys". His older brother Matt is feeling guilty about wanting to move out of the family home at age 18 despite that being the most normal feeling a legally adult teenager could ever feel. Lucy is the star of her high school's fascist Student Court. Ruthie is alienating everyone with her armpit farting (called "underarm honking" in this Christian household.) Mary (Jessica Biel) has it the worst -- after her basketball team is suspended for the season for bad grades, they vandalize the gym, causing Mary to be arrested and almost ruin her life forever (a story arc 7TH HEAVEN fans consider "the beginning of the end" for her character.) Lastly: patriarch Eric is recovering from a heart attack and matriarch Annie is just plain annoying and bipolar as usual. It's no wonder that the second part of this two episode storyline features Simon and Ruthie visiting various churches of all different major world religions trying to alleviate the guilt they feel inside. This family seriously needs a break from Protestantism. Camdens: have you ever heard about a silent Buddhist meditation retreat? It seems like you guys could really use the peace and quiet, and some space from each other. However, if they ever got that, 7TH HEAVEN would never be the same. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

The Y2K era was a golden age for Christian pop culture in the United States, especially on television. On our podcast, we've enjoyed the several weeks we get to review TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL episodes, a TV series so quietly bizarre that it basically invented its own spinoff of Christianity. But that wasn't the only long-running show exploring religious themes for mainstream, primetime audiences: enter 7TH HEAVEN, a show exploring the day-to-day drama of a Pastor's family. Airing weekly on The CW, eventually becoming one of the network's first majorly successful shows, the plot follows the Camden family -- Rev. Eric Camden, his wife Annie, and their five children; Matt, Mary (Jessica Biel), Lucy, Simon, and Ruthie. The family grows when twins Sam and David are born in season 3; in season 6, the family takes in Mary's ex-boyfriend Robbie as a kind of adoptive son. In s6e9 "Lost," Robbie becomes involved in solving a kidnapping plot by uncovering evidence of his girlfriend's brother's disappearance. Also, eldest daughters Mary and Lucy ask their parents to play matchmaker by setting them up with boyfriends. Jealous of this tactic, Matt and Simon also employ family-friendly tactics to get girlfriends. 7TH HEAVEN is fixated on relationships, and the Camden family is unusually open about the dating lives of their devoutly Christian, virginal teens. It's supposed to be a celebration of open, honest family communication, but the parents' encyclopedic knowledge of who all their kids have kissed feels more invasive than wholesome. It's also insane just how many partners the Camden kids have -- each Camden teen has intrigue with multiple potential or ex-partners in this one episode alone. Basically, the Camdens are the sluttiest virgins of all time, and the borderline incestuous dynamic of their sexual openness becomes a theme throughout the entire series. We plan to spend all of September with the Camdens, and we really hope some of their "game" rubs off on us. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

Ray Comfort is just like us! Why? Because he is also doomscrolling and completely at the mercy of his algorithm. You can tell what Comfort has been watching online because it becomes the inspiration for his daily sermons, posted on the Living Waters website and YouTube channel. Right now, Ray Comfort is clearly being haunted by none other than Rowan Atkinson and his extremely famous comedy alter ego, Mr. Bean. The first Comfort video we noticed about Mr. Bean, featuring the charming clickbait title "After Mr. Bean Horribly Mocks God, This Immediately Happened," takes aim at an Atkinson stand-up special in which he takes some frankly unoriginal potshots at Christianity in general. But it must have stirred something deep within Comfort, who only a few weeks later uploaded a new one called "Mr. Bean's AMAZING Skit on Hell. He Got so Much Right." This tactic of feigning support for an enemy's message is typical of Comfort's usual rhetoric; in this case, Comfort ironically praises Atkinson's accuracy in depicting the biblical portrayal of hell, feeling the facts are bleak enough that Christians can use Atkinson's skit as a warning. Comfort also criticizes comedians, asking why they mock Jesus yet stay silent on the Muslim prophet Mohammad. It's a bizarre callout: not only were several employees of French humor magazine Charlie Hebdo famously murdered for making inappropriate jokes about Islam, there are also several high-profile shows that have taken aim at Islam, such as South Park. Ray shows that his media awareness is laser focused on his own biases. But he's also focused on something else: in a stunning lore drop, Ray Comfort reveals that he is deeply fixated on the historical tragedy of the Titanic. In his words, there is an entire room in his "mind palace" devoted to the Titanic, the enormity of which "clouds even his sunny days." It says a lot that Comfort, who takes pains to remind us that hell will be "eternal conscious torment," is also fascinated by the doomed expedition of the Titanic. His fascination with Mr. Bean will surely die down soon, but for the Titanic, Ray Comfort's heart will go on. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

This movie about a famous, successful rapper who takes a career risk by giving his life to Christ feels like it was written by someone who has never listened to a rap song before. That writer is Jason Campbell, one of the most prolific auteurs currently active in the Christian movie scene. Campbell has produced 88 films since 2013, and per iMDB has 29 upcoming. When you make that many films, the adage "write what you know" can't apply anymore, because you have too many ideas and need to do something new. Maybe that's why Campbell decided to take on the world of hip-hop despite knowing little about it, even basic terms. In the first scene of DROP THE BEAT, rapper Ace Jay is in the studio laying down some conscious rap when his producer says "You need to hit the beat harder," and the rapper replies "What beat? I hit all of them!" This is not how any rapper has ever thought about music, and it's a fundamental misunderstanding of music itself. But Campbell persists, writing a script about Ace Jay's disillusionment with the industry that made him rich. Ace goes back to his roots, touring the performing arts school whose scholarship was his ticket out of "the hood" and into the big time. Meanwhile, his record label schemes against him, planting a rumor that his delayed album stems from drug trouble. The problem with DROP THE BEAT is there's no story or atmosphere in the script or design that supports the plot. We meet Ace Jay at the start of the film saying he's disillusioned, but why? We see nothing of his former life that gives motivation for a redemption arc. Also, Ace simply has no swag; he looks put together, but not like the most famous rapper in the world should look. Fortunately, frequent Campbell collaborator Dean Cain shows up to inject some life into the film, stealing the show for one scene. Per an unsourced iMDB trivia item, Cain was paid $15,000 for his tiny role. This begs the question: how much money is DROP THE BEAT actually making, and did it turn a profit? It's a mystery, but one thing is for sure: Jason Campbell is an absolute machine of Christian movie making, it's just too bad the films themselves feel cold and mechanical. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy

Gramps is finally clapping back at the haters and losers! Donald James Parker breaks the fourth wall in his newest feature BEAUTY AND THE ATHEIST. It's a shocking turn for a Christian film auteur, the first Christian film we've ever made fun of on our podcast, with a plot about a Christian film being made fun of on a podcast. Does your head hurt yet? It gets even more meta than that: BEAUTY AND THE ATHEIST is a film about a real event in Donald's life, when he felt (to use his words) an "inaudible message" that compelled him to reach out to atheist activist Forrest Valkai to debate him about the idea of evolution. Forrest accepted Donald's invite and hosted Donald on YouTube to the tune of 500k views. In Donald's own estimation, the debate didn't go very well for him, but it did yield creative inspiration. BEAUTY AND THE ATHEIST is the story of a Christian filmmaker (played by Donald himself) who debates an atheist podcaster, whose hatred of God is finally softened by the love of a Christian woman. Donald James Parker's character is called Douglas Connors, an obvious 1:1 fictional version of himself. In BEAUTY AND THE ATHEIST, the titular "beauty" is Douglas's own daughter Jeweli Connors (yes, spelled like that). She's a hardworking nurse and outspoken Christian who finds solace in a local coffee shop called Common Grounds. It is there she meets the atheist: podcaster Trey Crawford, who loves evolution so much he wears a Charles Darwin shirt every single day. The unlikely pair develop a verbal rapport that turns into weekly discussions about spirituality vs. secularism during workouts at the local gym. But their convivial relationship is turned upside down when Jeweli discovers Trey's podcast is one of the many "chuckleheads" who mock her own father's cinematic evangelism. Fortunately, God has a way, and the blossoming relationship in BEAUTY AND THE ATHEIST shows that love is possible on the battlefield. It's fascinating to see Donald James Parker make art in conversation with the ecosystem that gets likes and views at his expense; we're very curious to see where this conversational thread takes Mr. Parker in the near future. View our full episode list and subscribe to any of our public feeds: http://boysbiblestudy.com Unlock 2+ bonus episodes per month: http://patreon.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/boysbiblestudy Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/boysbiblestudy