Young Christians debate message in new film

[CShine]

Jessica Cothran sees how people could get the wrong idea from the movie Saved! She did. Almost. At least in the very beginning. But the 16-year-old caught on -- after all, she knew a thing or two about satire from studying Jonathan Swift. She hopes other Christians see the comedy, too.

"If they close their mind after the first half of the movie, they won't get the point of the movie and they will go away being offended," she said.

There may be plenty to offend. The film is set in a Christian high school, where some of the students seem like fires burning out of control for the Lord. The plot is set in motion by Mary who decides to save her gay boyfriend, Dean, by having sex with him. She winds up pregnant and as outcast as Dean, who is sent off to Mercy House, a rehab home for wayward teens. In the course of an hour and 30 minutes, characters lie, steal and smoke. They also throw Bibles, curse at God, attempt an exorcism, fake speaking in tongues and question their faith.

Ted Baehr, publisher of MovieGuide, a Christian film review service, considers the film a breeding ground for anti-Christian bigotry. The Christian characters are flat and stereotypical and mocked throughout the film, he said. "If the same bigotry were exercised against Jews or Muslims, there would be tremendous uproar," Baehr said.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2622884

[FleshCartoon]

1. Who is he kidding?

"If the same bigotry were exercised against Jews or Muslims, there would be tremendous uproar," Baehr said.

The only portrayal of Jews in movies or on television is typically of them being Holocaust victims and Muslims are portrayed as turban-wearing, taxi-driving idiots or turban-wearing terrorists. I hardly think that sort of one dimensional portrayal of those stereotypes is flattering to them, either.

[w13rd0]

2. The tagline they are using in marketing....

..."Got Passion? Get Saved!" Haha, sorry, but I'm not anticipating droves of "anti-Christians" will go see this movie, and thus glean these "stereotypical" models from which they can justify their "bigotry". In summation, who bloody well cares. Besides the high power, high gloss marketing effort on the part of some gilden cows, who really cares one way or another? Or is this just some bullsh*t effort to drum up a phony controversy to drive up revenue?

Oh my, aren't we cynical today...

[CO Liberal]

3. Oh, Boo-Frickin'-Hoo!!!

Some people in this world need to buy a clue and get a life.

[enki23]

4. here's the rule as i see it:

when your lunatic faction has at least plurality in control of the government under which these events happen, you don't get to cry "bigotry."

i feel no more sorry for the fundies here, and their imagined persecution, than i feel for the skinheads crying out for the "fair treatment" of the white male. doesn't fucking wash.

[jpgray]

5. Satirizing Christians is shooting fish in a barrel

I would find a movie that smartly satirized Muslims and Jews to be more interesting--at least there is some risk involved there of truly offending a great many people. :D

[Merlin]

6. Christianity is on the cultural ropes.

This movie is evidence that the gloves are now off. Christianity in America is about to be exposed over and over again as a hollow misinterpretation of the core beliefs that Jesus stood for. There are so many points of lunacy and hypocricy in modern Jesus worship that the targets are endless.

This is what happens when extremist Christians start dictating political outcomes. They expose themselves and make themselves legitimate targets. The cordial cultural pretenses of the past--that Christian beliefs should be smiled upon but not understood as rational--are coming undone.

Christianity has fallen into the model of paganistic worshipping of false gods--exactly what Commandment #1 prohibits. Jesus never claimed to be god. (It was an issue decided in 327 AD, in a close vote in Rome.) He called for humans to understand the rules of his "Father in Heaven". But Christians pay not attention to the Father in Heaven, The Creator. They focus everything on Jesus in an attempt to turn myth into reality. They distort Jesus message of social reform and care for the weak and poor into a message to "save your soul" at the expense of everything (and everybody) else.

[Bluebear]

7. I hope they debate the message in F9/11 too! nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. "fake speaking in tongues"?

How do you fake that? It is fake, that's the whole point of it.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

9. That Was a Funny Scene in the Movie

Let's just say that the speaker was just a little bit fake. :-)

DTH

[HereSince1628]

10. Just got back from seeing "Saved"...it was a long critique

of phoney evangelicalism and was rather predictable and obvious in its presentation.

I found it interesting that the theater, a large mall on the west side of Milwaukee, was filled with 12-14 year old girls who seemed to laugh at appropriate times (although they thought a boy making farting noises was deliciously, funny too), and afterwards thought that much of the predictability might stem from the requirements of reaching the target audience.

The religious right will probably find this film offensive.