The Education of Shelby Knox

As a constant channel flipper, I happened upon one of the most riveting documentaries I’ve seen in a while. Last night, I caught the last half of “The Education of Shelby Knox.” The hour and a half look at Christianity and values in small town America is a ride worth taking by anyone interested in anything from politics to church to sex to family to growing up.

A coming of age story, the documentary debuted on PBS last night and will replay early Sunday morning. It chronicles the life of a teenage girl as she struggles with her own identity and who she is becoming as she grows up. The antagonists in the story include from her parents, her ultra-conservative pastor, a school board who turns a deaf ear and a town trying to shield their eyes from reality.

Alarmed by the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy, Shelby aims to chart a new course of sex education in public schools that includes both abstinence and the promotion of condom use. The aforementioned enemies, however, are quick to mobilize and tell her why she can’t do it, why she’s wrong, and why it will never happen. Armed with her city-sponsored youth council, Shelby and the group find themselves on the local news and giving speeches in front of the school board. Sadly, because the school board only funds and promotes abstinence-only programs, Shelby and her colleagues are shut out.

I found the conversations Shelby has with her parents and her pastor the most interesting. The movie shows over time how the theology of her parents changes, moving them from a strict conservative belief to that of a more open understanding of who she is and the causes she champions. Her mother even marches along with Shelby in a pro-gay rights demonstration. Not bad for a hardcore Republican. Oftentimes, a parent’s theology opens up and changes as the lives of their children inspire them. That’s not bad theology; that’s good parenting.

Success is not so easy with her pastor. Ed Ainsworth, an abstinence-only advocate has the Gen-X look, but believes X stands for eXclusion. He and Shelby have several candid talks about homosexuality, condom use, salvation, and Biblical authority. He dismisses her honest opinions as sin resulting from the freedom of choice granted to Americans. He even says, “If you want to be tolerant of others, you’ve picked the wrong religion. Christianity is the most intolerant religion.” Her soliloquy later has her saying, “Why does Christianity have to be intolerant? I think Jesus was one of the most tolerant people ever.” Bravo, Shelby.

Despite the nausea caused me by the pastor, the movie left me with hope. It is good to see that Christians, young ones, are seeking solutions to problems. I am hopeful in seeing that they are willing to work for these solutions even if they oppose old-school ‘values.’ Usually, fundamentalist Christians rail against the system, but provide no solution (other than time travel) to the problems that really need solving. I’m glad to see that a ‘liberal’ Christian sees that there are battles worth fighting, rules worth breaking, and differences worth making.

I also left confirmed that the Christianity of tomorrow is not about knowing Bible verses, but about living out the Bible. If we think that our entrance exam to heaven is based on ‘sound doctrine,’ we’ll be surprised to find out that instead of building idols of knowledge, we should have been building communities of hope, societies of love, and villages of grace. As I watched Shelby Knox, the inclusion she embodied, and the love she gave, I couldn’t help but feel that I was looking at the face of Christ.