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In Saved! the term Bible-beater is given a whole new meaning. In one scene a frustrated character literally throws the Good Book at another, screaming “Jesus loves you!” The target of the attack responds,“You don’t know the first thing about love.” Holding up the Bible, she concludes, “This is not a weapon.”

This key scene cuts to the heart of what’s wrong with evangelicalism today. So often we militarize our faith, making it a marquee match-up between good and evil — an epic battle on the front lines of social, political and spiritual dysfunction. We forget that it should not be us versus them, but us versus us. We are instructed to deny ourselves and take up our cross, yet what the world observes in Christianity is often an unsettling self-assurance and an unconvincing “everything is done for a reason” pseudo happiness. ...