Who's down with G-O-D?

I absolutely love the movie, Saved, which I’d already seen but bought the DVD over the weekend. It’s a satirical look at a Baptist high school where many of the students are overzealous in their commitment to Jesus. The two names you’d probably know right away are Macauley Culkin and Mandy Moore, though it also has a couple others that movie junkies like myself know (Patrick Fugit and Jena Malone), and Susan Sarandon’s daughter makes her movie debut – and looks EXACTLY like her, boobs and all.

One of the main characters finds out that her boyfriend thinks he’s gay, so she stupidly convinces herself that having sex with him is the Lord’s Work and will “de-gay-ify” him. Unfortunately, she gets pregnant and soon finds herself questioning some of their mandates and finding companionship with the two rebellious students, who are much more open-minded toward outsiders (go figure).

I can relate to this movie so much because I grew up fairly hardcore Catholic and knew other people heavily involved in their respective faiths. As I matured, I also began to question things like: how is it that an alcoholic guy who beats his kids gets to go to heaven, just because he goes to church each week? The hypocrisies didn’t stop there. The chaplain who cheated on his wife for years and eventually divorced her. The Catholic doctor who refused to treat a patient who was bleeding out from a botched abortion.

I’m pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-pre-marital sex, pro-birth control – I don’t fit in much with the teachings, and I have a hard time going to church and listening to lectures about why these things are bad, though I do believe in God, Heaven and Hell. It seems contradictory to exclude and judge others for violating these "rules" that were somehow established 2,000 years ago? Isn’t the purpose of religion to love and accept others? I seem to recall many stories when Jesus reached out to people who were outcasts of their time.

This post is really not about debating these ideas; I’m just explaining my current views on going to church and how they probably made me appreciate this movie even more. One of the best quotes in the movie that sums up my point is: why would God make us so different if He wanted us to be the same?

But, let’s leave on a humorous note:

1. Their pastor/principal is all-to-concerned with trying to sound hip, and says stuff like “Let’s get our Christ on” during their assembly.

2. Black sheep student, Cassandra (Sarandon’s daughter), jumps up and starts screaming some weird-sounding language, only to have Mandy Moore scream out in frustration that no one else gets it in that “she’s saying she has a ‘hot pussy’”.

3. Mandy Moore and Jena Malone are having an argument and Moore ironically throws The Bible at Malone’s back screaming, “I am FILLED with Christ’s love.”

4. Mandy Moore (at a shooting range): Us Christian girls have got to learn to protect ourselves. I mean, sure, Jesus could restore my mental and spiritual virginity, especially if I lost it to some (cocks gun) rapist, but who wants that? I'm saving myself for marriage, and I'll use force if necessary.

Now, I urge you all to go get Saved.