This movie touches on all the predictable hot button issues for the North American evangelical church; homosexuality, teen sex, and divorce. We are used to being mocked for our views on these topics. What I find more disturbing, however, is how accurately the movie highlights the pride of its characters. This, of course, makes them easy targets for accusations of hypocrisy. If only we Christians could throw ourselves on God’s mercy, agreeing with him that we are inadequate and unworthy of his love, instead of judging others when they fall short. If only the church were a haven for sinners, the first place you go when you screw up, rather than the last.

In this movie, the adults are as confused as the kids. A married pastor whose wife has left him falls in love with the single mother of one of his students. He refuses to entertain the thought of divorce, and so instead has an affair with his friend. A Christian teenage girl whose boyfriend decides he is gay, feels God has called her to cure him by having sex with him, and ends up pregnant. A popular student leader, infuriated by the lack of punishment for the few profane, cigarette smoking rebels in the student body, frames them by spray-painting anti-Christian slogans all over the front of the school.

How should the body of Christ respond to these confused people? If we love them despite their sins, will it encourage others to make similar unwise decisions? Does ostracizing them help them to repent? I once knew of a church in my hometown that helped to start a ministry to unwed mothers. The only sticking point was when these new moms wanted to dedicate their babies in church. They were told that, unfortunately, that was not possible as it would imply that the church condoned premarital sex. We want to help you, but don’t pollute us!

Reviewers of Saved! outside the church treat this movie as a documentary, an accurate reflection of our subculture. How sad that we have so little evidence to the contrary. I do have one true story from the book Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller, that I would like to offer as an antidote to this view of Christianity. At a bacchanalian college festival, the few Christian students on this campus set up a booth for confessions. The curious students who stopped by were surprised to find that rather than being encouraged to offer confessions, they were asked to hear them. The Christians confessed the sins of the church to them, including historical sins such as support of slavery and failure to respond to the Holocaust. This unexpected humility touched hearts and opened conversations.