A movie doesn’t have to be “Innocence of Muslims” – the film that roiled violence in the Middle East, ultimately blamed for 50 deaths – for it to be controversial.  Many movies with faith themes are steeped in controversy – from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, to the DaVinci Code, Passion of the Christ, and more recently Noah and Heaven is Real.

With the Oscars a little more than a week away – the God Squad will look at the way religion is treated by the motion picture industry (for both good and ill), wrestling with some of the unique challenges film-makers and artists face:  How should God be visually represented?  Can the Divine be visually depicted without violating prohibitions against “graven images”?  In making films about biblical stories, how faithful should one be to the original Script(ures)?