If you don’t believe in God, but want to, where do you begin? Simon Cole sets out across America in search of a connection with God that has perplexed and eluded him throughout his life in the new documentary film So Help Me God.

In Religulous, Bill Maher embarked on a satirical quest to find God while mocking the beliefs of the religious. In So Help Me God, Simon Cole chronicles his odyssey across the nation asking Christians, Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Amish, Jews, Sikhs, Mormons, Buddhists and fellow free thinkers quite simply, “Who is God?” Cole’s sincerity instantly puts his subjects at ease as they share cherished stories and beliefs from virtually every religious tradition in the country. A humble supplicant in search of God, or at least insights about Him, Cole visits communities from the Pentecostal deep south to the Hasidic enclaves of Brooklyn to the gay Catholic congregations of the West Coast. This powerful documentary is more than one man’s quest to connect with God, it is a collage of the contemporary American religious experience that concludes with a personal revelation.
 

 

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So Help Me God Product Information
 
Grade Level: Grades 10-12, College and University
Subjects: Culture and Society, Science and Religion
Copyright: © 2008 Three Brothers Productions INC. All rights reserved.
Set: DVD Only
Total Running Time: 52 minutes
UPC Number: 0-9824268-0-1
Catalog Number: ALV-DV-39
Educational Prices:

 
Educational with Public Performance Rights: $249.00
 
 

Educational without Public Performance Rights: $129.00
 
 

Note: Please contact info@alivemindeducation.com or call us at 800-562-3330 if you need further assistance.

 

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Video Librarian Review
January/February 2010
In Religulous, comedian Bill Maher traveled around America to draw believers into conversations that would reveal the foolishness of much, if not all, organized religion. So Help Me God covers a similar journey, but filmmaker Simon Cole is a successful businessman and a nonbeliever who genuinely seeks spiritual fulfillment, looking for God while talking to members of different religious groups. Cole begins his quest with a gag that might put people off (the one about asking a telephone operator for the deity’s phone number), but once on the road, his attitude becomes more serious as he engages with Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Amish, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Sikhs—as well as self-professed “free thinkers.” The range of opinion is naturally wide, with some interviewees rigidly doctrinaire and others extraordinarily broad-minded; and since most are ordinary folk rather than religious scholars, their words don’t necessarily carry denominational authority. But whatever camp they fall into, Cole treats them with respect, and they respond to his gentle probing with observations that are revealing and often gently humorous as well. The result is a film that, while focusing on Cole’s spiritual search, ably portrays the diversity of religious experience in the U.S. Recommended. 3 Stars.
 

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