I went to the movies with my boyfriend recently. It was discount night at the Rave on Carpenter and my inner, comedic fan girl was itching to see Easy A, starring the lovely and talented Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes. The movie was great (I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t), but I noticed one thing in it that I think I’ve been seeing a lot of lately.

Bynes’ character (Marianne) was a hyper-Christian Jesus freak. She and her posse were judgmental, catty and demeaning to those who didn’t believe what they did. And this certainly isn’t the first time this is how a religion has been portrayed on the big screen. The movie Saved, (2004, and another movie I highly recommend) starring Mandy Moore and Jena Malone, based the entire film on the idea that Christians are cruel to those who break their rules.

I grew up in the Bible belt as a Catholic. This often meant classmates telling me I was going to hell because I drank wine in church and that I wasn’t really even a Christian at all. Now, I don’t really consider myself a religious person at all. No religion seems to fit what I think, but people who have faith — awesome, more power to you. And I have noticed that Michiganders and students at EMU are more accepting of this fact than many people I knew back home (Student Center Bible Study Recruiters included). But, I still have one glaring question in my mind: where are the writers for these films getting these ideas?

Are they like me and just grew up in an area saturated by one faith that they weren’t a part of? Or is it a caricature? Is it accurate at all?

Also, those who count yourselves among the Christian population, how do you feel about this portrayal on screen? Is it funny, offensive or something else entirely?