Yes, Even Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bears Can Speak to Grace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ted 2 pretty much bombed this weekend, and it deserved it. The original Ted was pretty much a one-joke movie, and the sequel added nary an extra chuckle.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yes, Even Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bears Can Speak to Grace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ted 2 pretty much bombed this weekend, and it deserved it. The original Ted was pretty much a one-joke movie, and the sequel added nary an extra chuckle.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Watching God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-29T21:59:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/469\/2015\/06\/ted-2-trailer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Asay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul Asay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/\",\"name\":\"Yes, Even Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bears Can Speak to Grace\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-29T21:59:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-29T21:59:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/b7d54df93630808a5dce9d242d5e0183\"},\"description\":\"Ted 2 pretty much bombed this weekend, and it deserved it. The original Ted was pretty much a one-joke movie, and the sequel added nary an extra chuckle.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Yes, Even Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bears Can Speak to Grace\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/\",\"name\":\"Watching God\",\"description\":\"Finding faith with a box of popcorn.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/b7d54df93630808a5dce9d242d5e0183\",\"name\":\"Paul Asay\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be136f94fadd74743ab6da681563930d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be136f94fadd74743ab6da681563930d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Paul Asay\"},\"description\":\"Paul Asay is an author, journalist and entertainment critic who now serves as a senior associate editor for the popular Christian entertainment review site Plugged In (pluggedin.com). He has been published in a variety of other secular and Christian publications, including The Washington Post, The Gazette in Colorado Springs, YouthWorker Journal and Beliefnet.com. He has a love of old movies, a disturbing affinity for bad ones and an appreciation for all things geek.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/author\/paulasay\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Yes, Even Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bears Can Speak to Grace","description":"Ted 2 pretty much bombed this weekend, and it deserved it. The original Ted was pretty much a one-joke movie, and the sequel added nary an extra chuckle.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Yes, Even Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bears Can Speak to Grace","og_description":"Ted 2 pretty much bombed this weekend, and it deserved it. The original Ted was pretty much a one-joke movie, and the sequel added nary an extra chuckle.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/","og_site_name":"Watching God","article_published_time":"2015-06-29T21:59:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":620,"height":320,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/469\/2015\/06\/ted-2-trailer.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Paul Asay","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Paul Asay","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/","name":"Yes, Even Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bears Can Speak to Grace","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-06-29T21:59:49+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-29T21:59:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/b7d54df93630808a5dce9d242d5e0183"},"description":"Ted 2 pretty much bombed this weekend, and it deserved it. The original Ted was pretty much a one-joke movie, and the sequel added nary an extra chuckle.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Yes, Even Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bears Can Speak to Grace"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/","name":"Watching God","description":"Finding faith with a box of popcorn.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/b7d54df93630808a5dce9d242d5e0183","name":"Paul Asay","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be136f94fadd74743ab6da681563930d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be136f94fadd74743ab6da681563930d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Paul Asay"},"description":"Paul Asay is an author, journalist and entertainment critic who now serves as a senior associate editor for the popular Christian entertainment review site Plugged In (pluggedin.com). He has been published in a variety of other secular and Christian publications, including The Washington Post, The Gazette in Colorado Springs, YouthWorker Journal and Beliefnet.com. He has a love of old movies, a disturbing affinity for bad ones and an appreciation for all things geek.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/author\/paulasay\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":592,"date":"2015-06-29T15:59:49","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T21:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?p=592"},"modified":"2015-06-29T15:59:49","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T21:59:49","slug":"yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2015\/06\/yes-even-foul-mouthed-teddy-bears-can-speak-to-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Even Foul-Mouthed Teddy Bears Can Speak to Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"ted2\"$ <\/a>Ted 2<\/em> pretty much bombed this weekend<\/a>, and it deserved it. The original Ted <\/em>was pretty much a one-joke movie, and the sequel added nary an extra chuckle. It was simply (ahem) stuffed with too much profanity and drug use and plain ol\u2019 ook for my taste.<\/p>\n

But even though Ted 2<\/em> didn\u2019t exactly have a heart of gold underneath its crass exterior\u2014or even one of polyresin fluff\u2014it did have an oddly redemptive twist. And believe it or not, it only gets there through its use of terrible content.<\/p>\n

Ted (created and voiced by Family Guy\u2019<\/em>s Seth McFarlane) is on a quest for civil rights. Sure, Hasbro created him originally as simply a child\u2019s plaything. But he clearly became much more than that (and also became, paradoxically, completely unsuitable for children).<\/p>\n

But despite his obvious self-awareness, Ted technically has no more legal rights than a LEGO set (less, if you consider the LEGO\u2019s inalienable right to cause excruciating pain to barefooted interlopers). Society begins snatching away Ted\u2019s personhood perks like so much lunch money: In less time than it would take you to say \u201cTeddy Ruxpin,\u201d Ted loses his job, his marriage and all of his customer rewards cards. And Ted, his best pal John (Mark Wahlberg) and their lawyer, Sam (Amanda Seyfried) decide to take on the system and make Ted legal.<\/p>\n

But making Ted into a civil rights champion is a little like casting Bernie Madoff as a spokesman for UNICEF. It just doesn\u2019t seem to fit.<\/p>\n

Ted et al eventually take their case to renowned civil rights attorney Patrick Meighan (played by Morgan Freeman, improbably enough), who tells him that he can\u2019t take the case: Ted is too big a jerk to be a person.<\/p>\n

$\"ted-2-trailer\"$ <\/a>Well, Meighan doesn\u2019t say it so bluntly, perhaps. But that\u2019s the message. The lawyer believes that, to enter into the human fraternity, Ted would need to bring something to the party besides a bale of weed and a potty mouth. He would need to prove himself worthy of personhood. Instead, Ted has frittered away his days and nights in a haze of marijuana and bad behavior. His only contribution to society, it would seem, is the longest rap sheet ever accumulated by a stuffed animal.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could\u2019ve been a leader, a role model,\u201d Meighan says. \u201cInstead, you\u2019re Justin Bieber.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a way, I wish the movie would\u2019ve ended right there. \u2018Bout time that foul teddy got a little comeuppance!<\/em> I might\u2019ve huffed. I\u2019ve always felt that life should be about more than taking up space\u2014more than living for your selfish self, as Ted is prone to do. If he\u2019s going to get a life, he should earn<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

But Ted doesn\u2019t, and so he and his pals slink out of the office. And after a bitter falling out with his only supporters, Ted slinks off to New York\u2019s Comic-Con. While there, Ted runs into an old enemy who nearly kills the bear. Only John\u2019s dogged pursuit of his ungrateful stuffed animal saves Ted from fluffy destruction. And in trying to rescue Ted, John nearly gets himself killed.<\/p>\n

And just like that, Ted 2 becomes, for a moment, a Biblical metaphor.<\/p>\n

I felt a little Pharisaical in that moment. Because, see, I think we\u2019re all a little like Ted. We\u2019re strange, weak, fallible creatures who, according to the Bible, don\u2019t really deserve all the blessings we\u2019ve been given. And in a lot of ways, we\u2019re not even alive\u2014not in the way God designed us to be. We don\u2019t have that spiritual life that Jesus promises. That eternal life. We don\u2019t deserve it and we\u2019re too flawed to earn it.<\/p>\n

And yet we\u2019re given it anyway, by virtue of a sacrifice we can never repay.<\/p>\n

When John lays down his life for Ted, most of the world sees it. And society, observing Ted\u2019s grief and love in that moment, believes that the stuffed bear might be a worthy person after all.<\/p>\n

Ted 2<\/em> doesn\u2019t conclude on that note of happy redemption, of course. Ted doesn\u2019t repent, really, or promise to be a better role model. He takes his gift of life and runs with it, just as sometimes we\u2019re prone to do. He squanders what he\u2019s been given, just like I sometimes do. I still <\/em>don\u2019t deserve the life I have.<\/p>\n

But I do realize sometimes what a wonderful gift it is\u2014and hopefully, to show my gratitude, I inch, little by little, closer to the guy God always wanted me to be.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"