The image of God as both good and severe, a God that fit readily into our (Old Testament kind of) paradigm, was gradually replaced with that of a one-dimensional, only-good God, as if Love is the only dimension of who He is. There is nothing wrong with seeing God as good, as long as you realize that is not all He is. We have many sides to us, so we can only imagine how complex He is. We forget passages like "Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God" (Romans 11:22a, The Message version). But this is something to continue to wrestle with, though the short answer is "I don't know."

"God judges a man on two things: on his faith and on the content of his heart." --Pastor

With Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah, Joyful Noise has two generations of down to earth divas not allowed to truly cut loose and do their thing. It doesn't know how to give them stuff to do, so it keeps throwing storylines like hard dinner rolls hoping to nail its audience. Both have proven comedy chops but aren't given enough space to lift this mediocre mess. Even sleepwalking through this script, they still easily outshine the young leads on whom the film truly rests. Though predictable and earnest, it is buoyed by great music. However, even that's not enough to rescue a movie so unsure of itself and its laughs. As The Bad News Bears of the gospel music set (with Queen Latifah's rallying speech being a riotous highlight), Joyful Noise shows mere flashes of what it could have been

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