History YMMV / GodsNotDead2

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** The film treats the teacher responding to her student's question and mentioning Jesus as if the school and government would be out for her blood. What she did was perfectly legal, even if at worst she came off a bit preachy with it, and upheld by the First Amendment. The law only prohibits public school teachers from trying to indoctrinate the students into a religion or leading them in prayer (during school hours, anyway), similar to what Radisson was trying to do in the first film.
** This film perpetuates the myth that kids are not allowed to pray in school. Kids '''are''' allowed to pray in school. It is illegal for a public school teacher to deny a student's religious rights in public school. What can't be done is a student demanding special treatment or interrupting the class for their beliefs, and a teacher cannot lead a prayer of any kind, or indoctrinate them.
** They also state that it is illegal in all schools to pray, when there are private schools students can attend based on one's belief system outside the government for this very purpose. It's also only illegal for public school teachers to lead prayer - students are free to pray as they wish, so long as it doesn't disrupt school activities.
** The people in the film treat the First Amendment as if it was specially tailored to Christians and Christians only, and also as if it gives them the right to push their beliefs in every corner of the country. What it actually does is make it so one cannot be arrested or prosecuted for believing in any religion one chooses to, and those rights '''''stop''''' when you try to make those into laws, harm others, and indoctrinate or lead them in prayers at public schools.
** Grace is given a public defender...for a ''civil'' law case.
** The trailer has the evil atheist prosecutor absolutely scoff at the idea of proving that Jesus Christ existed. Most people,[[note]]Approximately 92% in America.[[/note]] including atheists, believe that historically Jesus ''did'' exist. The point of contention is whether he was the Son of God, if any of the miracles he performed actually happened, or if he was another religious reformer among many.
** They also seem to believe that if Jesus does exist, it would mean everything he represented is 100% true, but that is hardly the only possibility. Others would include that not all of his words were recorded accurately, or that he really existed, but only as a normal man. Even those who believe Jesus never existed, or at least there's not enough evidence to show this, might still feel that some sayings attributed to him have merit as wisdom, but are simply not divine revelation.
** The ACLU is portrayed as a NebulousEvilOrganisation of atheists bent on destroying Christianity. The ACLU is an organization dedicated to protecting everyone's rights of free speech, press and assembly - they are only at odds with Christians because more often than not they are the ones trying to enforce their beliefs on others. In fact [[http://www.aclufightsforchristians.com the ACLU actually defends Christians frequently as well]]. In RealLife the ACLU would be defending Grace rather than how the film portrays them as out for her blood.
** During Lee Strobel's testimony, he claims that the way our calendar counts from the approximate birth time of Jesus as proof of his existence. However, [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2016/03/review-gods-not-dead-2-dir-harold-cronk-2016.html as a Patheos reviewer pointed out]], the ''anno domini'' (A.D.) way of counting years in the calendar wasn't invented until the 6th century by Dionysus Exiguus, a monk living in the Eastern Roman Empire, long after Christianity had been adopted as an official religion by the Roman and Byzantine empires. Historians believe Jesus was born between 4 BC (Herod's death) and 7 AD (Quirinius' census), based on the stories of his birth in the Gospels.[[note]]Strictly speaking the Gospels say it was during the latter and before the former, which raises obvious problems nailing a date down.[[/note]] This has been used as an argument against Jesus existing, since they can't agree on when he was born. Most historians do think he existed, but do not take any position about the divine nature Christians proclaim he had.
** This film seems to be dedicated to showing that in the world we live in the US government has complete control of what Christianity can and cannot do, showing them oppressed by arresting people for even speaking Jesus' name or arresting preachers for not complying with the government's demands of showing their sermons before each service.[[note]]Which in the US, government cannot do.[[/note]] What they don't seem to realize is that the separation of church and state is a two-way street - government stays out of religion and vice versa, and it makes it look like the United States is the exact same as some Middle Eastern government. In real life though many people have claimed that the opposite is happening, with Christianity trying to dictate what the government can and cannot do.

** Also, the fact that this film features Creator/RayWise playing an [[EvilIsHammy evil and hammy]] [[EvilLawyerJoke crooked lawyer stereotype]]. Especially if you are familiar with Wise's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-0FJqCdnZ8 performance]] as a [[LargeHam just-as-hammy]] (but heroic) U.S. president in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2''. If you've played that game first, it can be hard to take Wise's performance in this film seriously with ''that'' in the back of your mind.

** Also, the fact that Creator/RayWise is playing a [[EvilIsHammy evil and hammy]] [[EvilLawyerJoke crooked lawyer stereotype]]. Especially if you are familiar with Wise's performance as a [[LargeHam just-as-hammy]] (but heroic) U.S. president in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2''. If you've played that game first, it can be hard to take Wise's performance in this film seriously with that in the back of your mind.

* IdiotPlot: As pointed out ''all over'' this section, the film runs on this. This was probably the intent of the filmmakers to some extent, but for the wrong reasons than the finished product shows. They most likely wanted to portray the fact that the teacher went to court over referencing Jesus as a result of a kid's overacting to what she said as said idiot plot, but the ''actual'' idiot plot comes from ''how'' they set it up, as a teacher who referenced The Bible as she did, when answering a student's question and not preaching in any way, would never go to court like she is. She might be questioned on said words if a student really would've had a problem with what she said, but all she would've had to do is tell that person the context around the words and she'd be fine.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: The ACLU lawyer gets the parent of the child who asked the question to sign a paper with a blood red pen.

* SophomoreSlump: Among people who both like and dislike the series, this entry tends to be regarded as the worst one. Fans tend to consider it to be too much of a re-tread of the first film, while anti-fans feel it turns the faults of the first film UpToEleven; both camps also tend to regard it as being inferior to the third.

** The first movie has [[Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys the son of Zeus]] as an atheist, now this one has a [[Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch a witch]] who has experienced the Salem Witch Trials as a devout Christian[[note]]The actress, Melissa Joan Hart, really is one.[[/note]] once again in the middle of a WitchHunt. '''EVERY''' critic points out the irony in this.

* [[DesignatedHero Designated Heroine]]: While Grace's comment in class wasn't inappropriate, she was a teacher employed by a public, secular school who met with a student outside of class and preached a religion the student's parents didn't agree with to their presumably underage child. While this also isn't illegal, it is a much more gray area and can definitely be argued to be disrespectfully inappropriate. Even if the parents had shared her religion, they might have still objected to the unsupervised meeting out of school and/or a school employee preaching to their child, especially because Christians disagree on many issues-plus it could simply look suspicious.

* YouLookFamiliar: The kid who originally snitched on Grace at the beginning of the trailer is also one of the kids that is at her house later giving her support.

** In March 2021, notable atheist [=YouTuber=] Telltale released audio of his daughter's health teacher essentially doing the thing that Grace is falsely accused of in this film, proselytizing to her students. He and his daughter were subsequently subjected to backlash and bullying from the residents of the small West Virginia town they lived in, forcing them to accelerate their plans to move away.

* In March 2021, notable atheist [=YouTuber=] Telltale released audio of his daughter's health teacher essentially doing the thing that Grace is falsely accused of in this film, proselytizing to her students. He and his daughter were subsequently subjected to backlash and bullying from the residents of the small West Virginia town they lived in, forcing them to accelerate their plans to move away.

* PropagandaPiece: What, this movie? No, of course not. This film contains [[BlatantLies no political agenda whatsoever.]]

** The people in the film treat the First Amendment as if it was specially tailored to Christians and Christians only, and also as if it gives them the right to push their beliefs in every corner of the country. What it actually does is make it so one cannot be arrested or prosecuted for believing in any religion one chooses to, and those rights stop when you try to make those into laws, harm others, and indoctrinate or lead them in prayers at public schools.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: The teachers get the parent of the child who asked the question to sign a paper with a blood red pen.

** This film seems to believe that just because the laws prevent them from enforcing their beliefs by the government that they are being persecuted and this will one day lead to the government killing Christians, rather than the government just giving equal rights to all beliefs. However, they seem to completely ignore that Christians in the Middle East are being killed for their beliefs by a government essentially controlled by another religious belief. Even worse, the film seems to treat the former as if it was the latter.

** While cross-examining Brooke (the student who Grace comforted after her brother died), the “evil” ACLU lawyer points out that as a teacher, Grace was unqualified to give advice for Brooke’s personal problems and should have directed the latter to the school’s counselor.

** The lead "evil atheist" refers to Christianity as an oppressive belief, Christians really have persecuted certain groups historically so it makes sense for someone to hold this view.

** The lead "evil atheist" refers to Christianity as an oppressive belief, which many (but not all) of the non-Christian and historian viewers would agree with.

** While cross-examining Brooke (the student who Grace comforted after her brother died), the evil ACLU lawyer points out that as a teacher, Grace should have directed Brooke to the school’s counselor.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: The lead "evil atheist" refers to Christianity as an oppressive belief, which many (but not all) of the non-Christian and historian viewers would agree with.

** During Lee Strobel's testimony, he claims that the way our calendar counts from the approximate birth time of Jesus as proof of his existence. However, [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2016/03/review-gods-not-dead-2-dir-harold-cronk-2016.html as a Patheos reviewer pointed out]], the ''anno domini'' (A.D.) way of counting years in the calendar wasn't invented until the 6th century by Dionysus Exiguus, a monk living in the Eastern Roman Empire, long after Christianity had been adopted as an official religion by the Roman and Byzantine empires. Historians believe Jesus was born between 4 BC (Herod's death) and 7 AD (Quirinius' census), based on the stories of his birth in the Gospels [[note]]Strictly speaking the Gospels say it was during the latter and before the former, which raises obvious problems nailing a date down.[[/note]]. This has been used as an argument against Jesus existing, since they can't agree on when he was born. Most historians do think he existed, but do not take any position about the divine nature Christians proclaim he had.

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Some atheist viewers seem to like Ray Wise's portrayal of a [[SnidelyWhiplash cartoonishly evil]] atheist simply for putting effort into his performance and adding some [[HamAndCheese much-needed hammery]] to the movie.

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Some atheist viewers seem to like Ray Wise's portrayal of a cartoonishly evil atheist simply for putting effort into his performance and adding some [[HamAndCheese much-needed hammery]] to the movie.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Many have questioned why this film exists outside of making money off of the people the film panders to. Not to mention [[RecycledScript it is clearly the same film as the first one]] [[SequelEscalation just on a grander scale]].

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Many of the harshest critics will still describe this film as better than the first film, but mostly that is because of its more streamlined story and better lighting, which is due to its bigger budget.
-->"''[[http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/apr/01/gods-not-dead-2-review-pure-flix God’s Not Dead 2 is a much better movie than God’s Not Dead, but that’s a bit like saying a glass of milk left on the table hasn’t curdled and is merely sour".]]''

** During Lee Strobel's testimony, he claims that the way our calendar counts from the approximate birth time of Jesus as proof of his existence. However, [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2016/03/review-gods-not-dead-2-dir-harold-cronk-2016.html as a Patheos reviewer pointed out]], the ''anno domini'' (A.D.) way of counting years in the calendar wasn't invented until the 6th century by Dionysus Exiguus, a monk living in the Eastern Roman Empire, long after Christianity had been adopted as an official religion by the Roman and Byzantine empires. Historians believe Jesus was born between 4 BC (Herod's death) and 7 AD (Quirinius' census), based on the stories of his birth in the Gospels. This has been used as an argument against Jesus existing, since they can't agree on when he was born. Most historians do think he existed, but do not take any position about the divine nature Christians proclaim he had.