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I’ve found that boys and girls have very different tastes, every orange wednesday this becomes clearer to me. It was my choice to watch Blades of Glory, it was Jenny’s to watch Freedom Writers. Next week, we’ll go and see the U2 film (that’s my choice), this week it was Jenny’s with Juno (and secretly, I was very pleased, because it would have been mine too).
It’s a film about a teenage pregnancy. Here’s the trailer.

As far as the film goes, you sort of see it coming. Girl gets pregnant / girl tells boy / girl (thankfully) bottles out of an abortion / girl decides to give the baby up / girl wrecks a marriage / girl has baby / girl gives away baby / girl sings a song with baby’s dad. And even though what I’ve just typed looks more like a particularly dark episode of Byker Grove, it is really funny. All of it. Her telling him having warmed him up by complimenting his mum’s detergent? Funny. Her telling her best friend that she’s ‘for shiz prego’? funny. Her parents admitting that they’d rather she be on hard drugs? (Dark, but) funny. It made me laugh. So as far as a comedy goes, it’s job well done Juno.

Go and see it. It’s funny. But, maybe there’s a lesson or two to learn from it. They could have disowned her, but Juno’s parents’ reaction to her being pregnant calms and they stand by her - that’s a lesson. And as the 9 months tick by, you see Juno becoming more and more leperised by her classmates, and the reaction of those that walk with her is inspiringly counter-cultural. As I watched it, I thought of how I might react if a sixteen year old I knew got ‘caught out’. Which one of her classmates would I be most like? “For shame Juno, how could you..?”

And the thing is, it would be so easy to now make this blog about guilt. ‘Teenage pregnancy happens in churches, so be more like Juno’s good friends, and less like the bullies that give her a hard time.’ And that would look like a good thing. Externally, that’d be the right thing to do. But internally, that’s another matter. It may look like the right thing to do, but it’s not the gospel. It’s just moralising.

It has got faults, of course it does. The biggest one being that it downplays the reality of the situation it describes. It glamorises a child having a child. And at the end of the film, I was left thinking ‘that was one hairy year in the life of Juno McGuff, thank goodness it’s all over now, and she can get back to playing the guitar with her boyfriend’; that’s not a good thing. But I stilll don’t think that that’s no reason to not go and see it. Don’t get all reformed and precious about making light of sin. Take your friends, and use it. This film will be seen by millions, lets make the most of it.

Since the arrival of Orange Wednesdays, I’ve been able to afford to not only go to the cinema, but occasionally even treat my girlfriend to a date (I know, I’m just all heart, right?). Over the last few dozen visits (which probably speaks volumes about how often the UGC change their trailers) I’ve noticed one advert in particular that exposes a subtle truth about our society, and is something that I as a Christian must be very aware of.

So for the sake of context*, here’s the aforementioned advertisement. Those of you that love a bit of irony will appreciate that it’s a copy of the film illegally filmed on a cameraphone (which I hasten to add, I did not make).

What is it? It’s the FederationAgainstCopyrightTheft’s attempt to dissuade you from walking into a screening of ‘[said film]‘ and whipping out the nokia, banging the video on a VCD and selling them down your local market for a fiver each. 

  
Now obviously, Jesus doesn’t like stealing, of any sort - other’s wives, belongings, cattle and sheep - it’s all wrong. As video piracy is just another form of stealing, I’m not to going to blog about how we should ’stick it to the man’ and watch what we like. It’s not even a matter for debate - video piracy is sin, be it from a market stall or tvlinks.   
 

What I am interested in though, is the particular way that the advert tries to dissuade you from doing so.  
  
“There’s nothing quite like the big screen experience of seeing (Apocalypto, Narnia, add your film here) at the cinema. Though Some people will choose to watch an illegal copy. They’ll lose the incredible picture, miss out on the spectacular sound, and have the dodgy camera views spoilt by the one person that really needed the loo…”   
 

It’s subtle, isn’t it? There’s a subtext;  
‘There are some in this world that would choose to sink to such levels… but you are different. You’re better than that.’  
‘You don’t want to be like those… Video pirates(!), do you?’  
 

What strikes me is the way the advertisers are appealing to my pride in order to prevent me from pirating films. In other words, in order for me to live righteously (i.e. - not steal films), the film makers are dangling the proverbial in front of my sin (pride).  
 

And it’s made me wonder if I do the same in my pursuit of holiness. For instance, in exactly the same way that the film makers are pressing my pride to stop me from doing a bad thing, do I not also depend on my pride for much of my daily battle with sin? Is my motivation to be more holy/loving/trusting/patient/kind/gentle/godly not just motivated by a desire to be seen as more holy/loving/trusting/patient/kind/gentle/godly?  
 

I reckon it is, you know. So often over the last few days I’ve realised that my main reason for not sinning, is simply to be seen as someone who doesn’t sin. And the outcome is that though I may be outwardly living a purer life, my heart remains unchallenged and unchanged. It is possible to live a godly life, in an ungodly way. Though the cinema advert hasn’t convicted me of stealing from the film makers, it has certainly convicted me that I steal his glory in my pursuit of holiness.  
 

Guys, join me in repentance if this touches a nerve. There is a motivation that is so much greater than my ego. Jesus is better. Let’s pray together that he’ll satisfy, and become our reason for holiness.  
 

*We here at prognosis love the context