The Secret Life of the American Teenager

Did you see it Tuesday??? I did. What did you think? I'm not sure about it yet. I like the fact that they are trying to expose what teens are thinking these days, how easy it is to get in a mess of trouble, what teens aren't telling their parents, etc. And I like the Christian spin on it (I think). To me, from a Christian point of view, I think the young Christian girl cheerleader is portrayed a little, well, too...what's a good word...too....I don't know right this second, but I don't think most of our Christian teens are going around "bouncing off the walls" about Jesus in our schools. Should they be? Maybe. Why maybe??? Let me explain, try to anyway.

Should our Christian teens be excited about Jesus? Absolutely! No doubt about that. Are our teens excited about Jesus? A few, yes. Most, probably not. I would definitely like to see our teens more fired up about Jesus, certainly. But, I think her character is too unrealistic for teens in this day and age. At least not the majority. I am a youth leader in our non-denominational church, and a mom of 4. We average about 75 youth every Wednesday night and of those 75, I could see maybe, maybe 2 to 4 of the girls acting the way the girl in the tv show does about Jesus. Yes, the girl in the show is excited for Jesus, and she should be!!! Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't be that excited about Jesus. I am saying I don't think it's an accurate portrayal of MOST American Christian teens these days. And I think that some non-Christian viewers might get turned off by Christians if they think they have to act like that to be a Christian.

I do love the fact that the Christian girl is standing up for her faith, and that the show is really focusing on her remaining pure until marriage. And that there is a contrast between the Christian girl and the main character who is 15 and pregnant from a one-night-stand. Not that the pregnant teen is horrible or anything like that, she seems like she wanted to remain abstinant, but yet she let the cute football player take advantage of her at band camp. She had no strong convictions to keep her from falling prey to him and ended up having sex before marriage.

I also don't like the fact that they portray the Christian guy (boyfriend of the Christian girl) as a weak, sex starved boy. Again, don't get me wrong, most teen guys are sexually driven and that's pretty much all they think about. BUT, I think the show is making Christian teen males out to be these sex starved guys, that if they don't have some sort of "release", they will go out and cheat on their girlfriends, or however else they choose to get "release". Now I know in the show, the "bad" girl seduced the Christian guy, (and there are girls out there who will do that!) but the show just made it seem like he was so weak. I know a lot of Christian teen guys who have chosen to stay pure until marriage (I don't like that phrase particularly, it makes it seems like sex in marriage is unpure...but that's another post!) and they are perfectly fine and don't feel they have to go out and find a way to "release" their God-given desires.

Overall, I like the show, and will watch it again. However, I do think they are portraying the characters somewhat unrealistically, especially the Christian characters. Perhaps it will get better in future episodes.