Saved!

This weekend the confirmation kids came over for a movie night.  We had dinner and watched the movie Saved! 

Saved! is one of my favorite movies for multiple reasons, let me count the ways:

1. It has a teenager get into trouble, and after a period of denial, she actually copes and handles the problem better than the adults.
2. It makes fun of the religious right
3. It shows people in a variety of paths in their faith journeys; the person who claims the strongest faith may not actually be the one with the strongest faith.
4. It allows there to be questions and doubts in faith
5. Any movie that Jerry Farewell condemns I have to watch!
6. It deals with many big issues (teen pregnancy, homosexuality, divorce, disabilities, religion, in & out groups, if all sins are sins, etc)  face by teenagers and adults but in realistic ways - not everything is solved and easily tiddied up by the end of the movie, like any episode of Full House.  
7. I love satire
8. Every time I watch it, I gain new insights into the movie and real life. 
9. And much, much more

This was the first time either of the confirmation students had seen the movie which always makes me worry if they will like it or not.  But they seemed to chuckle throughout various parts and looked like they were paying attention.  

Afterwards we had a discussion about the movie:  Who had the strongest faith?  How was each character's faith journey different?  What do you think the point of Hillary Faye's faithful actions were?  In the prom scene, did you agree with Pastor Skip or Mary more?  Was there any conversations about faith that you felt uncomfortable about?  

And it was amazing to hear their answers!  These high school students get that some people are "faithful" because it is popular or in order to gain power.  That the ones who were most visibly struggling with sin had the deepest faith.  That the people who are not Christian can be more loyal and caring than those who claim to be Christian.  That the bible is not black and white, there is a lot of grey, and we need to struggle with those grey areas because that is how our faith grows.  

I love Saved! and I love showing it to new audiences so they may learn new things about faith and our faith lives.  However I also dread the day when to show it to confirmation students will be the equivalent of currently dragging out the film projector, so Hollywood please continue to make movies like it so I never have to be the super uncool pastor dragging out a film that was made before the kids were born.