The Unfundamentalist Christians team is an eclectic bunch. Though there’s plenty we don’t agree on (including some of our tenets!), each of us brings something unique to the table, so we thought it would be fun to share a few of our favorite things with you, our faithful readers. So without further ado, here, in no particular order, are some of our 2014 favorites:
My favorite movie of 2014 was God’s Not Dead. It perfectly captured the subtleties of thoughtful theological debate and rigorous scholarly inquiry. —D.B. [Don’s full review]
Malala Yousafzai winning the Nobel Peace Prize. —C.C.
Radio Free Albemuth, a long-in-production film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s semi-autobiographical novel, was finally released to video-on-demand and Netflix this year. An excellent film involving human contact and interaction with VALIS (Dick’s interpretation of God) and the efforts of a dictatorial American government to stop that contact because they think they’re terrorists. —B.D.
Favorite book I read this year: Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon. It led to a lot of conversations about neurodiversity. My favorite movie of the year was Guardians of the Galaxy. My family all loved it. Great music and I loved how it was worked into the story. I loved that Drax has some autistic characteristics (like not getting metaphors). And Groot. Just Groot. —L.C.
South Carolina conceding, albeit kicking and screaming, to marriage equality. —S.P.
Favorite new family-friendly fluff: The Carbonaro Effect on truTV. Hilarious hidden camera show with magician Michael Carbonaro. —A.W.
My favorite news story for the year: Model on ‘ex-gay’ billboard is a proud gay man, not a twin. —K.L.
On TV, the second seasons of The Americans on FX and Orphan Black on BBC America — you can’t go wrong with Communists and clones. The two best books I read this past year were the poetry collection Road to Emmaus by Spencer Reece (my review) and Louise Erdrich’s stark and beautiful novel The Round House. And I stand by my ranking of Streams Run Uphill: Conversations With Young Clergywomen of Color as the best Christian book of 2014. —D.W.
Our readers’ favorite 2014 posts on the Unfundamentalist Christians blog were:
- A queer feminist Muslim you should meet
- If you take Paul “literally” on homosexuality take Jesus literally on money
- The lies Christian fundamentalism taught me
- Top 7 claims for why homosexuality is “unnatural” refuted
- Baptist pastor on why the Bible supports LGBT equality
Finally, as we close out this year, I think it’s worthwhile to take a look back at how we started it: with a Prayer for the New Year.
What are some of your favorite books, movies, music, events or random things of this past year?
Dan Wilkinson
Dan is the Executive Editor of the Unfundamentalist blog. He is a writer, graphic designer and IT specialist. He lives in Montana, is married and lives with two cats.
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