It was a cheesy ad slogan sure to raise eyebrows during the summer battle for the teen-movie bucks \u2014 \u201cGot Passion? Get Saved!\u201d<\/p>\n\n
An acidic take on a Christian high school, \u201cSaved!\u201d was crafted to make evangelicals punch their boycott buttons. It featured clean queen Mandy Moore as a Bible-throwing harpy from Hades. Macaulay \u201cHome Alone\u201d Culkin played a hip cynic in a wheelchair who shared cigarettes and sex with the school\u2019s lone Jewess. Its all-tolerant God offered a flexible moral code.<\/p>\n\n
MGM promoted the film directly to believers who were sure to hate it.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt seemed like they did everything they could to get a boycott,\u201d said Walt Mueller, head of the Center for Parent\/Youth Understanding in Elizabethtown, Pa. \u201cThey wanted a boycott. They needed a boycott. I am sure they were stunned when they didn\u2019t get one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The film cost $5 million to produce and grossed only $8.8 million, after a quiet sojourn in selected theaters. The bottom line: \u201cSaved!\u201d was an intriguing test case for those pondering the impact of media boycotts. Looking ahead, will Southern Baptist executives balk at saying the words \u201cDisney,\u201d \u201cboycott\u201d and \u201cThe Chronicles of Narnia\u201d in the same sentence?<\/p>\n\n
The crucial word-of-mouth buzz never arrived for \u201cSaved!\u201d, perhaps because the conservatives the film set out to bash often turned the other cheek and declined to provide millions of dollars in free publicity.<\/p>\n\n
It helped that the film took so many pot shots that it even offended some secular scribes.<\/p>\n\n
Michael O\u2019Sullivan of the Washington Post said the best adjective for \u201cSaved!\u201d was \u201ccondescending\u201d and that it was as \u201cpreachy as its finger-wagging victims.\u201d Glenn Whipp of the Los Angles Daily News said the movie\u2019s creators wanted audiences to \u201cknow that it\u2019s important to practice tolerance of others \u2014 unless, of course, those others are Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Still, The Los Angeles Times did its part to help the studio by seeking condemnation from the usual snarky suspects \u2014 Catholic League President William Donahue, op-ed columnist Cal Thomas, Christian Film and Television Commission czar Ted Baehr and the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Apparently Pat Robertson was busy that day.<\/p>\n\n
But no one uttered the b-word \u2014 boycott. \u201cSaved!\u201d didn\u2019t even create a buzz at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI vaguely remember hearing of that movie, but that\u2019s about it,\u201d said Dwayne Hastings of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission media office. \u201cI didn\u2019t get a single call about it, or a single email. It simply did not make a blip on the Southern Baptist radar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This is interesting, since Hollywood remains a hot issue for Southern Baptists and other moral conservatives. Years after the national headlines, the 1997 Southern Baptist vote to boycott the Walt Disney Co. remains in effect. The convention cited a wave of \u201canti-Christian\u201d media products, Disney policies granting benefits to partners of gay employees and \u201cGay Day\u201d events at theme parks that angered many families and church groups.<\/p>\n\n
There is no sign that the Southern Baptist leadership is re-thinking this stance. This summer, the Rev. Wiley Drake of First Baptist in Buena Vista, Calif., a strong Disney critic, floated a convention resolution commending the studio for producing the patriotic movie \u201cAmerica\u2019s Heart and Soul.\u201d His motion was ruled out of order.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI want a specific action commending them for what they are doing,\u201d said Drake.<\/p>\n\n
Hastings said it\u2019s hard to image the convention retreating and ending the boycott. It\u2019s just as hard to imagine Disney apologizing to Southern Baptists. Nevertheless, an upcoming series of films based on the fantasy fiction of the best known Christian writer of the 20th Century would certainly raise questions. What if Mel Gibson provided the voice of Aslan, the Christ-figure lion?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s possible that there could be a resolution praising Disney for doing Narnia. Of course, this assumes that they offer some kind of accurate rendering of the Christian vision and beliefs of C.S. Lewis,\u201d said Hastings.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBut the whole point of the boycott is for people to stop and think about their choices. I\u2019m sure that millions of Baptists went to see \u2018Finding Nemo\u2019 and they watch ESPN like everybody else. But they are thinking twice about giving Disney their money and support. People are learning to be more selective.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was a cheesy ad slogan sure to raise eyebrows during the summer battle for the teen-movie bucks \u2014 \u201cGot Passion? Get Saved!\u201d An acidic take on a Christian high school, \u201cSaved!\u201d was crafted to make evangelicals punch their boycott buttons. It featured clean queen Mandy Moore as a Bible-throwing harpy from Hades. Macaulay \u201cHome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[139,431,1541,583,813],"class_list":["post-1294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-boycotts","tag-hollywood","tag-mass-media","tag-narnia","tag-southern-baptists"],"yoast_head":"\n