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When you observed those things in your Christian school, how did that affect your faith?

Dannelly: That's funny; nobody's asked me that question. When stuff like that happens, it feels like you've been lied to or cheated. Sort of like Tammy Faye Bakker. That's the obvious example, but you hold people up to such high ideals that the fall is really great, and then it makes you suspect everything else. So it felt really scandalous because the girl in my school was more like the Hillary Faye character: she was perfect, and then she got pregnant. I once heard about a Christian youth group that had the highest rate of either syphilis or gonorrhea ever, because they were all sleeping with each other.

So, what's your take on all that—the pastor having an affair, the perfect girl gets pregnant, the youth group sleeping with each other?

Dannelly: My take is, honestly, Jesus loves you. You make mistakes. I think the point is to get through those mistakes. There's something shocking or scandalous about every character in the movie, and the thing is for you as an audience to ask, where do they go from here?

I don't know what will happen to Hillary Faye, or if Pastor Skip will ever go into that hotel room or what happens to Mary and Dean and the baby. They are all trying to reach an understanding of God. It's part of their journey, but they had to go through all of this other stuff.

Why did you leave the Christian school you attended?

Dannelly: For demerits. It was one of the strictest schools in the nation. You got a demerit if you didn't bring your red pen to school. So I got lots of demerits.

Faith is a journey. I'm always in conscious contact, even during a period when I didn't believe anything. You know what? I said I'm just not going to believe in anything. I'm going to start with personal responsibility and kindness. There's not going to be any reward system or punishment system. That's going to be my system. Not God. But when you're not believing in God, you're talking to him all the time! So it's a great journey.

Do you sense that you need to "define" your faith for the discussion about the movie, or do you just feel that the movie is the statement?

Dannelly: I have responded. I just did an hour and a half interview that was very, very personal. But I came out thinking: I'm a director. Is anyone asking John Hughes what his personal religious beliefs are? I understand there's a difference because I made a movie about faith, but it's very tricky.

Since this interview is for Christianity Today Movies, are you being more elusive about your faith journey?

Dannelly: I don't mind talking about the journey. I just don't want to be listed as this or that kind of a believer. That's our right as Americans. If this film does anything, I hope it will encourage dialogue about the journey.

I could see that someday, Christian schools will use this film in their curriculum to help explore the journey.

Dannelly: You know what? They won't. I'm talking about Fundamentalists. The stuff I read from them, I was really down. It was hard. The point of humor is that it opens you up and makes you look at yourself.

Do you think Fundamentalists may feel they are being ridiculed, so they can't watch the film without feeling that they are the joke?

Dannelly: At a screening, a Christian woman said she had a very hard time with the movie until the assembly scene, and then she thought, Oh, it's going to be okay.

The part where Cassandra, the Jewish girl, begins speaking in tongues?

Dannelly: Yeah. If you can make it past that scene, you're going to be okay.

The humor is broader in the beginning, but it was very important that those characters became real. I love those characters. I loved the way that Mandy Moore handles that scene where she has to swear to God. She's being dishonest and she says, "There, are you happy?" But then later she says, "Do you think Jesus still loves me?" Roland [Macaulay Culkin] makes a joke but then he says, "Yeah, he does." I love that scene.

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