From “Saved” comes something good: “I’d tell you if I were pregnant”

So I debated long and hard before letting my girls watch Saved, a movie that many would deem inappropriate for 9 and 10 year-old girls.  But not this secular parent.  The movie offers a realistic view of the consequences and intentions of those who subscribe to the tenets of the Christian faith–and ONLY the Christian faith.

Saved tells the story of a group high schoolers at a Christian School.  One of them becomes pregnant in an attempt to “de-gayify” her boyfriend, who tells her one day that he thinks he’s gay.

The school and the kids are “Jesus-centered”, and EVERYTHING has a spiritual answer.  While positing itself as a comedy, the story carries the message that no one knows what Jesus would do or say in the end, and (of course) there has to be “something” that created all this wonderful beauty around us.  Here’s a clip (it’s a bit long):

I had the girls watch the movie as a side: I wanted to watch it, and they kind of hung around in the same room, peeping.  Of course they had questions: there was a sex scene (nothing on camera), was Jesus really white?, what was “de-gayification?”, and why was there a school ONLY for Christian kids?

I love when my children are confused–its a genuine opportunity for learning.  But what I didn’t expect is what my oldest daughter said to me at the end of the movie.

I’d tell you if I were pregnant

One of the major themes that come from the movie is who do you turn to when you need help?

In the movie, the pregnant girl was surrounded by people who were there to judge her, ready to send her away if they found out her desire to “help” ended in pregnancy.

There was no adult in her life that she could trust to love and care for her–instead, she only knew adults who would judge her, deem her bad for breaking God’s law.  And even though she seemed to have a perfect relationship with her mom, in reality she considered her mother to be in a fantasy world, unable to deal with the reality of a pregnant, unwed child.

That’s when my daughter said it: “I’d tell you if I were pregnant mom.”

I had to hold back a knee jerk reaction.  So much was imbedded in her statement.  First, it showed that she had at least one adult she could trust to love her no matter how bad of a choice she’d made.  Also, it showed that–possibly by watching the trials of this character–that a pregnancy isn’t something you can handle alone.

“That’s good,” I told her.  ”A person who’s pregnant needs a lot of help, and it’s sad that the girl in the movie felt all alone and confused, even though she had lots of grownups around who could help her.”

We all hope that our kiddos make good choices in their teen years, after all, that’s when so many people (present company included) make life-altering mistakes.

What is more important however is how young people deal with those mistakes.  After watching the movie, we reaffirmed our family values regarding sex: waiting to have sex as long as possible is the best for your body, and your mind.  Having sex while you are a teenager makes life complicated, and can have mental and physical consequences that you may not want.

—–> Notice no where in our values is waiting until marriage.  That’s not to say we haven’t mentioned that as an option.  But a non-married 24 year old has the right to have sex in a safe and healthy manner, and sex before marriage is not the evil that Christianity has deemed it to be.

Not all Christian girls are as blindly ignorant as those in the film.  However, if evangelical Christians had their way, every child would be as absorbed in Christ.  Young people would receive no information on contraceptives, the true nature of sexual orientation, or the various modes of thought to consider when making life decisions.  The world isn’t so one-sided though, and our children shouldn’t be either.

Live like the Bible says or go to hell?  There are so many more choices.

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Tags: Saved, sex and teens, teenage pregnancy