Once upon a hoopty...

I realize that I must the last person who has wanted to see this movie to actually see it, so that commenting on it serves really no purpose for the rest of humanity, but this really is a journal, after all, and it's all about my writing what I need to get out and put voice to, so...um...nyah nyah. That having been said, may I also say that for anyone who has not seen this movie and would be mad about reading about the giving away of key plot points, don't read any further. If you haven't seen this movie because it's a slam on christianity, you're only partially right and you can read on, because you weren't planning on seeing it anyway. If I make you mad by what I say about this movie and christianity in general, you have that right, but please consider not reading my journal anymore.

"Saved!" was a double whammy in that it both poked gaping holes in the walls of purity that so many christians try to put up by declaring that it can't be as easy as that as well as only giving weak arguments in favor in its opposition. Let me start with the former. Mandy Moore's Hilary Fae (Fay?) and Chip the Christian School Director were the obvious antagonists in this film, with a hint at redemption but nothing clear. In Hilary Fay we see the judgemental christian who more often than not uses christian language in order to promote her/his own agenda. In this case it's the typical gossiping popular girl who uses things like prayer requests in order to spread rumors, even true ones, about peers and to boost her esteem among her peers by making herself seem more perfect. This is an interesting situation where culture, specifically christian culture, has somehow taught young girls (and boys) that they must be perfect and that perfection is what we are striving for, where the Bible, which this culture considers its ultimate word does not teach. I could go off here on the difference between holy and perfect, but I've got so much to say, I think I'll save it for another time. Let's talk about Chip. I cringed the very first time his character was on the screen, mostly because I knew people like him and his art imitation of life was too close for comfort. We could see in him a striving to make christianity "cool" and to try to make Jesus out to be somebody who would be accepted by the modern culture. He uses vernacular phrases and changes words around to add "God" into them. At one point he says to someone: “You get their attention, and then you HIT them with the message and then BOOM, you save another soul!” AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

No kidding, a song we used to sing in youth group: I got friends in HOLY places (a la Garth Brooks), Peaceful, easy feeling (cause I'm already standing on SOLID ground) (a la Eagles), GRACE keeps me moving (moving, moving) into the future (also a la Eagles, and I actually heard that one at Church in the Now! outside Atlanta), ...that's all I got on the top of my head, but you can easily see where this is going. I am so sickened by this now. I felt so pressured all along to think it was cool and I think that is the biggest problem with youth groups in modern churches...they're all about making Jesus apply to culture instead of just declaring Jesus. What if instead of talking about how much we need to snatch out our friends from going to hell, we preached the sermon on the mount? I'm dearly afraid that the US is becoming so hotly divided between "liberal" and "conservative" that Jesus is getting lost in the mix unless someone can get him to support their cause.

One problem I had with the movie was a lack of redemption. They tried to pretend that Mary, the main character, had some kind of redemption in that her faith in a god was revived, but there was absolutely no redemption for anyone believing a biblical God. Hilary Fay more or less confessed that she wanted God to be her genie and bring her success and Chip was merely left in crisis, not knowing whether to follow his heart or his legalistic version of God. And it was actually a really cheap move to have the jewish girl call out to God to "help her find him (the boy, not God)." Could we not show God as some kind of real entity to her? Is this what the makers of this movie think God is? The big genie who helps us only when we've run out of other options to do it on our own? Please. Surely if one can grasp the concept of a one god, one would conceive of him with a little more self-dignity. We're never quite sure what the director's son believes (and please, the director of the christian school and his wife who lives overseas as a missionary? Big suspension of reality on that one). Unless we count Patrick, there are no christians in this film who aren't overwhelmingly ...horrid. It is completely a showcase of one side of the story showing no redeeming qualities in one who might follow a biblical Jesus. I understand they only had 2 hours and it did make some good points, but most of them were actually edited out (see in the DVD, the lunch discussion about jungle tribes who haven't heard about Jesus) and even then, the points are fairly trite, even if never mentioned in a movie before. It was groundbreaking in terms of hollywood, but completly slanted and sub-par given its subject. All the heroic characters were necessarily not christians/believers in God and in a way that was not justified by the character.

I have a friend who says this movie should be required viewing for all youth groups in churches around the US. Obviously that's a silly concept (and obviously he's too young to realize the kind of response outraged parents would have). There are some things in this movie that many young christians need to see, but I think it's a bit difficult for a lot of young people to get past the message in the movie "Christians are bad." I realize that may not be NECESSARILY what the filmmaker's are trying to get across, but if you break the theme down to its simplist (and some kids can only do that much), it can come across like that. There needs to be teaching of love and acceptance in church youth groups, but I definitely sure that not all kids from 7th grade up are ready to handle this -- even with a dialogue afterwards.

Christian kids need to hear the truth in a way that isn't quite so offensive in the same way that kids who aren't need to hear it. Yes, we need to stop bible beating, but let's not tolerant-beat either, eh? Can someone please show me a movie that considers both sides? Please?

I may not agree with all I said in the morning, but I'm not up for editing. I also may have forgotten something...i need to talk to someone. How come no one's on line?