for ashley & christina
This review is dedicated to all the "holy rollers" out there in the evangelical churches, Christian high schools, colleges, Bible Clubs, and on the Internet.
You know who you are.
You’ve dismissed Hollywood Jesus as being a liberal website. I know who you are too. We’ve argued together in the forums for The Passion Of The Christ. You’ve declared that Hollywood is a place full of sin and decadence and that the film industry is under Satanic control. You may have spent endless hours praying that the Lord would open the eyes of the Hollywood Jesus reviewers so that we would not be allured by the sin presented in worldly movies. And, in your latest attempt to reclaim our backslidden souls back to Christ, you’ve declared Saved! a blasphemous film that is a complete and total mockery of Christianity in America.
I have to warn you: I understand you now... thanks to this movie. You really believe that you’re doing the right thing. You sincerely believe that you are following the Word of God to the letter. You cross every “t” and dot every “i” and have made it your life’s mission to be an example to those in the world that they may know that Jesus Christ is real. When it comes to prayer, you’re on the case! When it comes to reading your Bibles, you can quote them from cover to cover. Interceding for others in need? Check! Praying for the homeless? Double-check! Finding sin in the lives of others? Ready to correct them with a swift and timely quote from Ephesians, 1 or 2 Corinthians, or James? Gold star for you!
You really, truly believe that as long as you’re doing the right stuff, God is pleased with you. Right?
Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) believed that. She did all the right stuff. She reached out to a person who was lost, constantly interceded for those who needed the love of Christ, and was quick to convict (or is that "judge"?) -- and even perform spiritual warfare on behalf of -- a friend who was being ensnared by sin.
But watching her express her desire to please the Lord, a certain Scripture came to mind:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”
--Matthew 7: 21-23
Wait a minute! Isn’t it the will of the Father that we pray, study our Bibles and be ready with a swift Scripture quote to confront those in the world (and especially our fellow Christians) with their sin? Aren’t we supposed to intercede for the lost? Aren’t we supposed to perform spiritual warfare on behalf of our friends who are ensnared in sin?
Of course we are... as long as we do so from a heart of love and compassion, not just out of duty, obligation, and Holy Ghost BROWN-NOSING!
Mary (Jena Malone) starts off this film serving God out of duty and obligation. She does all the right stuff and is found to be among the exemplary Christian young ladies in her Christian high school. Then, her whole world turns upside down. Her boyfriend confesses that he may be gay. Because her reaction to that news occurs in a swimming pool, it leads to her seeing a manifestation of Jesus telling her to “help him.”
How does she decide to “help him”? By going on a personal crusade to “straighten him out” which ultimately leads to the #1 ULTIMATE-MEGA-SUPER-ULTRA-UNFORGIVABLE SIN, at least according to most evangelical churches: she has sex with him and ends up getting pregnant.
Then, when she discovers her pregnancy, she commits the #2 ULTIMATE-MEGA-SUPER... (you get my drift) sin: she curses at God... F-bombs included. (Uh-oh! Somewhere in South Carolina, a church mother just fainted!)
While Mary desperately tries to hide her inner turmoil from her mom (Mary-Louise Parker) and friends, Hilary Faye is both suffering persecution from, and herself persecuting in turn, the lone Jewish girl at their high school: a hellcat named Cassandra (Eva Amurri). The two young ladies engage each other in nonstop verbal catfights, with Cassandra giving Hilary the bird and Hilary using her prayers as a weapon to inflict insults, punishment and guilt upon Cassandra.
But, as fate (or maybe the will of God) would have it, Cassandra ends up falling in love with Hilary’s wheelchair-confined brother Roland (Macaulay Culkin), whom Hilary treats with the dignity and respect of a stray dog with rabies.
[SPOILER ALERT]: Roland and Cassandra are the first to find out about Mary’s pregnancy and, instead of turning her over to the spiritual authorities, they offer solace, friendship, and even grace after she’s rejected by Hilary Faye.
Stirring up the pot even further is Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan -- who must have watched a lot of those Acquire the Fire youth ministry TV shows on TBN to prepare for this role), the principal of their high school. While Pastor Skip is encouraging his students to be down with G-O-D -- and meanwhile hiding his romantic feelings for Mary’s mom -- Skip’s son Patrick (Patrick Fugit), wants to be down with Mary.
[SPOILER WARNING]: An early review on another Christian film site reported Pastor Skip as having an affair with Mary’s mom. Just to keep things in perspective, what that review DIDN’T mention is: 1., This “affair” is in fact a tender kiss at a Valentine’s Day dinner; and that 2., Pastor Skip’s wife, described in the film as leaving him for the missionary field, actually desires to divorce him. Patrick reminds him of this fact. But, even though the look in his eyes reveals that he knows his marriage is dead, he won’t divorce her... because God hates divorce.]
Pastor Skip, in a great and vulnerable scene, confesses his feelings for Mary’s mom. But as the conflict in the story builds, he renounces his feelings by making the bold declaration “God is punishing us!”. Patrick makes his feelings evident for Mary as well. But, despite her thinly veiled and reciprocated feelings, she (obviously) has too much on her plate to make room for a boyfriend.
Halfway through the film, as Roland and Cassandra befriend and adopt Mary into their world and demonstrate God’s love and acceptance to her, I shook my head and said, “Darn... the ‘nonbelievers’ have more grace, class and respect than the Christians. Ain’t that just like life?” Sad, but true.
With this in mind, I need to point out the most glaring flaw in the film (other than its unrealistic, "they live happily ever after" ending). The film is missing a bridge. A connector between the "holy-rollers" and the outcasts. The filmmaker has spent so much time emphasizing the two extremes that, as a result, the film is not properly balanced. The closest we get to a bridge is Patrick's character, but he comes across more as a neutral character than a proper balance between the two extremes. Better writing would have put the very likable Pastor Skip as the connection between the two.
This omission adds reasonable evidence to the Fundamental Evangelical claim that the film is a mockery of Christianity. Yes, there are Hilary Fayes among us and there are also outcasts among us. But there are also Christians out there who know they're not of the world but are not ashamed to be in the world. These believers worship the Lord with passion and stand on the truth of His Word but yet aren't too high and mighty to befriend and minister to everyone -- saved or unsaved. Their lives are living answers to the big question "What Would Jesus Do?" It was not a good writing/filmmaking decision to leave this example out of the film.
Nevertheless, it’s amazing that God, before we’ve reached the halfway point of 2004, has allowed “The Passion” to hit screens to remind us of the message of Christ and then, just a few months later, has allowed Saved to hit screens to convict us. We’ve dropped the ball. We talk about grace, but we don’t show it to others. We brag about being “full of Christ’s love,” but either we alienate those who haven’t received His love, or worse: we build up false friendships with them to fulfill our witnessing quotas. John 13:35 says that the world will know that we are followers of Christ NOT by our praying, Bible-reading or because we have well-tuned sin radar screens, but by our love one for another.
There are people who have walked away from the Lord because of girls (and boys and even men and women) who behave like Hilary Faye. Only Jesus knows how many unwed pregnancies, drug and sexual addictions and suicides have come from rejections by people who behave like Hilary Faye. These people believe they’re doing the right thing by shouting from the rooftops “God made Adam and EVE... not Adam and STEVE!”. They believe they’re doing the right thing by standing on the corner in the middle of rush-hour traffic, holding pictures of aborted fetuses. They sincerely believe that the right thing after 9-11 was to declare that we must go into Afghanistan, bomb their country and convert them to Christianity.
They’ve also forgotten that while God does hate sin, He does NOT hate the people who are doing the sinning! They may say it, but they don't believe it. Yes! To everyone reading this review who has been told outright or has otherwise gotten the idea that God hates you because you’re gay, you're a drug addict, a sex addict, a teenage, unwed mother or whatever the case may be -- God does not hate you! He loves you... even in the midst of your situation (as Hilary Faye eventually finds out when the tables get turned). Jesus loves you guys... BELIEVE IT!
As for the "holy rollers," those holier-than-thou evangelicals, I suggest that you close your Bibles, get off your knees, and get out to the theatre. See this movie when it hits your town. When and if you feel ashamed and disgusted by the film, go to the nearest mirror and let that shame and disgust fall upon yourselves. May we repent as we drive home in our cars. Because of us (yep... you better believe I’m including myself), this film had to be made. As the tagline of this film says, “Heaven Help Us!”