Dr. Forbush Thinks

Weekend Reflections

I had two interesting experiences over the weekend that seem to be related.

First, I finally saw the movie “Saved!” This is a wonderful movie that every teen should see. The movie hits on most of the issues that are foremost in the minds of teens today. The movie is set in a “the best” Christian High School in town. Some of the students begin to discover the hypocrisy of this Christian School and a few others have already come to terms with the hypocrisy. But, the movie also deals with the classic high school click phenomena as well as teen pregnancy and homosexuality. It is quite amazing how all of these topics can be dealt with in 90 minutes.

There are several “great” lines or scenes in the movie that get one to think about the world we live in. At the beginning of the movie a “good” Christian girl Mary is at the top of the High School food chain. She is a member of the “in” senior click who have called themselves, “The Christian Jewels.” She has a boyfriend who secretly reveals to her that he thinks he may be gay. Mary conks her head and believes she sees a vision of Christ telling her to save her friend. In the convoluted way that teens sometimes think she comes to the conclusion that she needs to convince her gay boyfriend that girls are better by having sex with him. Obviously this does not change her boyfriend, and now Mary finds herself pregnant. I love this whole convoluted way of thinking this through. Even though it is a totally ridiculous idea, in the context of Christian thinking and lack of sex education classes it is a totally plausible conclusion based on the information available. It also serves as a good vehicle for discussion with your teen who will unsuspectingly watch the movie with you thinking that it’s really funny, but most likely ask some questions either during the movie or at the end.

Of course, the best line in the whole movie is: “There is only one reason a Christian girl goes to the Planned Parenthood Center.” “To drop off a pipe bomb?” “Well, maybe there are two reasons.”

Second, I heard an interesting interview with an author of a new book titled, “Freakonomics.” This book explores some of the reasons that things happen without the political bias. An example of something that happened is the drop in the crime rate in the 1990s. Politicians claim that they were responsible for the drop in crime, but none of their explanations seem to hold water. Republicans claim that they got tough on crime, but the statistics don’t bare that out. Democrats held the presidency and the Attorney general, but no new policies can be correlated to the drop in crime. The authors of this book put forward a theory that the increase in abortion rates in the 1970s lead to the fall in crime rates in the 1990s. Because women weren’t forced to take care of unwanted children the number of unwanted children went down. Unwanted children are more likely to act out and eventually find their way into crime because they are seeking someone to want them. The authors argue that this hypothesis doesn’t support the pro-life or pro-choice sides of the abortion debate. Anti-abortion groups can still claim that the death of 800,000 fetuses does not justify the saving of 1,000 lives by murder prevention. I would argue that it shows that we should work together to find ways to make sure that every child is wanted. If a mother finds herself pregnant and she knows that she can not take care of the child every effort must be made to find a caring home for that child so the child feels wanted. This analysis shows us a key issue that seems to be missed in the discussion – Children need to be wanted.