Two items on the Fundamentalist Dark Age related to Christian Music and Christian schools. Both comment on the problems of exploitation and exclusion that are ingrained in fundamentalist endeavours.
Having worked in both areas (Christian music and Christian Schools) I can relate to the characters and their false piety. Kidnapped for excorcism, the bible used as a weapon, pinching secular tunes for God, $$$ money $$$$ for ministry (SIMONY), over emphasis on others' sexual sins to the exclusion of their own greed and hypocrisy, Jesus Jingles, God Ads, - it's all there!
The emblem in for the Saved movie's high school (American Eagle Christian High School) contains two faces on the wings of the eagle - "two faced". A nice logo that says a lot!
You gotta see both of these movies if you've ever known any fundamentalist!!!!
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"FAITH + 1" - South Park Episodefromhttp://www.southparkstudios.com/show/display_episode.php?season=7&id1=709&id2=108The boys have a band called "Moop," but decide that they need some inspiration and direction for their music. Cartman suggests that become a Christian Rock band. Kyle responds by throwing him out of the band. Cartman bets Kyle $10 that he will get a platinum album before he does. Cartman then sets out to put together a band; he gets Butters (on drums) and Token (on bass). Kyle asks his father for $300 so that he can buy CDs to help his band find their sound. When his dad refuses to give him the money it turns out it doesn't matter anyway, Kenny tells them they can download music for free. The boys start downloading music for free until the FBI swoops in and arrests them, meanwhile Cartman, Butters and Token work on their music. The FBI agent takes Kyle, Stan and Kenny and shows them what the impact of their downloading music for free has done. Recording artists are going to bedoomed to a life of semi-luxury. Cartman takes Token and Butters to a beach where he shoots the cover for the first album cover for FAITH + 1. The parents come to collect their children from the FBI. The boys decide that even if they got their band going again, everyone would begin to download their music for free; instead they decide to go on strike and refuse to play. Cartman stops by their protest to report that he has sold 13 copies and is well on his way to getting his platinum album. Kyle reminds him that he needs to 1,000,000 copies. Cartman plans on selling his album at "Christ-Fest". At the festival Cartman realizes that to boost his sales, he is going to have to get their band on stage. He tricks one of the performingbands and FAITH + 1 takes their place on stage and they play to a packed house. Back in South Park, Metallica and other artists join Moop in their strike against music downloading. A big record company agrees to promote and sell FAITH + 1's album. Still on strike, Moop receives word that Cartman has achieved his goal; he has sold 1,000,000 copies of his album and they are invited to the platinum album ceremony. Kyle realizes they were so wrapped up in trying to protect their music they forgot to just play. Real artists play for the love of music, not the money. Moop ends their strike; the other artists that joined them confess that they are only in it for the money. Cartman has spent all of FAITH + 1's money on the awards ceremony. Kyle tries to give Cartman his $10 bet, but Cartman gets the proceedings underway. The record company comes out and presents Cartman with FAITH + 1's first myrrh album. It seems Christian rock albums are awarded in gold, frankincense and myrrh. When Cartman realizes that he can never get a platinum album with a Christian rock band (and never win his bet with Kyle) he takes the Lord's name in vain and then some.
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QUOTES:
Butters: "We're not Christian we just pretend to be."Cartman: "Remind me to cut your balls off when we get back..."
Cartman: (Singing) Whenever I see Jesus up on that cross/I can't helpbut think that he looks kinda hot.
Cartman: "Believe me, I never did anything just for the money and if I lie the Lord shall strike me down right now."(Butters and Token slowly step away from Cartman.)
Cartman: Christians have a built in audience of over 180 million Americans, and if each one of them just buys one of our albums for 12 dllarsand 95 cents that would be...*Points to Butters*
Butters: 2 billion 331 million dollars Cartman: Still want to leave Token?
Stan: You don't even know anything about Christianity!
Cartman: I know enough to exploit it.
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Saved! an United Artists movie
The plot:
Mary, a senior at the American Eagle Christian High School somewhere in the U.S. has a boyfriend who suspects that he may be be gay. She survives a swimming accident and has a hallucination which she interprets as a vision of Jesus. She thinks that Jesus tells her "to do everything she can do to help him." Mary assumes that she should try to convert him to heterosexuality through sexual intercourse. She ends up pregnant and is ostracized by the social elite at the school. She begins to find friends among the other pariahs in the school: a parapalegic, the only Jew among the student body, and a student rebel.
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Comments by the producers and writers:
Producer Michael Stipe: "I thought it was one of the funnier and more absolutely audacious, subversive scripts I had seen in some time. I just fell in love with the characters and the story immediately."
Writer/director Brian Dannelly: "As a kid I went to Catholic elementary school, Christian high school, and a Jewish summer camp. The biggest lesson I learned from my experiences became a line in the script: 'They can't all be wrong and they can't all be right.' I wanted to write a movie based on that....In my high school, we weren't allowed to dance. Everybody had to be at least six inches away from the opposite sex at all times. We had record burnings, and the entertainment at my senior prom was a puppet show. It wasn't very exciting."
Co-writer Michael Urban: "I grew up in a traditional Baptist home in the South. Where I went to college in Tallahassee, Florida, I regularly saw people who lived in this metaphysical world with punishment and demons and things I had a hard time understanding. Sometimes things are twisted and exploited in the name of religion or God. I wanted to explore that."
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from http://www.religioustolerance.org/savmovie.htm
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