The Servant's Quarters

The Butlers had a full evening last night. Jammed packed with mostly fun stuff.

We started off with a new Bible study curriculum that I'm trying out with the kids. Twelve weeks of Biblical principles and values that they should apply to their lives. Last evening's principle was "Truthfulness." Pretty solid, right? Well, it went pretty well. The program is called, "Learning From Dad," and is available here. It's written by a gentleman named Mally, who's had some good outcomes raising his own children, as you can see if you go to the web site.

As I said, things went pretty well. The kids were pretty squirmy, maybe due to the time of day. (Around 6:00 PM and before supper.) But I got some good participation. The only thing that I found personally frustrating was some of the questions and distractions. The older kids seemed to want to pull the discussion off point several times. The feeling of not really knowing what I was doing and having to fight to keep things on target got me a little flustered at times.

After the study, we headed out to Living Word for our mid-week gathering around the church firepit. Good friends, hot dogs, pop, chips, and smores. A really fun time for everyone. I continue to be happily surprised and blessed by how wonderful this new church is.

We got home around 10:00 PM. The younger half of the family was immediately sent to bed, and the rest of us (Rita, Isaac, Olivia, and me) settled in to watch a movie that we had rented earlier in the week - Juno. We were a bit apprehensive with letting the kids in on this, but we had heard that the movie was good and, despite the mature subject matter, had some good values. Besides, Isaac really wanted to see it. So, we trusted that, with our TV Guardian filtering out the saltier language and our teens armed with the best sex education Rita and I could provide, we began this two hour journey into a tale of teen pregnancy.

Warning - Spoilers for the movie follow. If you haven't already seen Juno, you may want to close your browser now.

On the plus side, we all agreed that Juno was a well-acted movie with a witty script. Ellen Page, the young actress who played the title role of Juno, a teen girl who finds herself with child after an ill-conceived (no pun intended) sexual encounter with her best male friend, was outstanding in the role. Similarly, the rest of the cast was excellent in their performances. The people were essentially likeable, with the exception of Jason Bateman's character, a thirty something married man who decides that he wants to leave his wife and get an apartment "in the city" where he and Juno can have a romance. (Yes, that essentially makes him a pedophile.) After a brief consideration of abortion as a way to solve her dilemma, Juno opts to have her baby and give him up for adoption to a yuppie couple, played by the aforementioned Bateman and Jennifer Garner. (Hence, the film's good rep among conservatives for having a pro-life theme.) As I said, the script is very witty, with Juno and her Dad receiving the best of the excellent dialogue. Lines like, "Pregnancy makes me need to pee like Seabiscuit," (spoken by Juno to the refined, yuppie couple) had us laughing out loud. The tender subject of teen sex was treated appropriately, with the one encounter depicted in the movie (between Juno and her friend) being shown briefly, in fleeting images of implied nudity, and not glorified whatsoever. This was a refreshing change. In just about every other movie I've seen, the only sex that's not glorious is between married people.

On the negative side of the street, we were confused by the movie. What was the point? Juno has her baby and gives him up for adoption. The final scene shows her sitting in the front yard with her friend (now her boyfriend, as the two declared their love for each other during Juno's pregnancy). The two sing a song to each other and then share a passionate kiss. After we turned the movie off, I asked, "Are they still having sex?" Isaac shrugged and said, "I guess they are." "Then," I declared, "The characters have learned nothing from their experience." After enduring the pain of an unwanted teen pregnancy, Juno and her boyfriend are repeating the same mistakes that they just got done paying for. They did not grow at all during the film. Even more frustrating, their parents reveal themselves to be complete idiots, allowing their kids to fall into temptation all over again. Very disappointing. Also, Juno's decision to go forward with allowing Vanessa (Garner) to adopt her baby even after she separates from her husband gives the implied message that Dads aren't necessary. (Although, I do have to say that maybe it was for the best, considering what a creepy dude her husband turned out to be.) Lastly, despite my previous comments about the sensitive handling of the subject matter, some of the more sexually oriented dialogue had Rita and me squirming in our seats as we listened to it in the presence of our teens.

Overall, Juno was a decent slice of life movie that dealt with a tender theme in a thoughtful manner. For our teens, it modeled good relationships between parents and kids as Juno and her family went through her ordeal in a mostly healthy and supportive manner. However, the morally ambiguous nature of the movie and the lack of development of the characters left us cold.

Thumbs up if you like this kind of drama, but it definitely has its problems.

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