1/3/09 (Sorry I was just not going to update all the verbs to past tense)
Yes you read the title correctly. Today after not having been to the movies in like a gazillion years, I decided to go with some of my friends I know from another church. I did not know which movie we were going to watch but trusted in the wisdom of my brethren. When we got there I inquired as to which movie we would be watching and to my surprise found that it would be Twilight. Since I was already there and there were three others already waiting in line to go in I chose to go in as well.
Yes you read the title correctly. Today after not having been to the movies in like a gazillion years, I decided to go with some of my friends I know from another church. I did not know which movie we were going to watch but trusted in the wisdom of my brethren. When we got there I inquired as to which movie we would be watching and to my surprise found that it would be Twilight. Since I was already there and there were three others already waiting in line to go in I chose to go in as well.
1. Why on earth would any Christian like this movie? Granted, there were some scenes that were funny/cool/ok/great.
But why on earth would I waste my "spiritual calories" on a movie that is so devoid of any nutritional value, spiritual-wise?
But why on earth would I waste my "spiritual calories" on a movie that is so devoid of any nutritional value, spiritual-wise?
2. Yes the movie has no sex scenes, woohoo! but many parts of the movie were very sensual thus VERY uncomfortable.
3. Romantically speaking, ughhh people wake up! STOP drinking the Hollywood Koolaid! Love and Marriage as defined by Christ in the Bible is sooooo muchhh better than the oh-I-can't-live-without-you idolatrous love that Hollywood and most romantic movies offer!
4. Fine there was one thing about the movie that I liked: That the girl was willing to give up her life to save her mother.
4. Fine there was one thing about the movie that I liked: That the girl was willing to give up her life to save her mother.
I. On Chick-Flicks
I used to love romantic comedies, romantic dramas and everything that ever had to do with Romance, I'm a fool for it, or used to be. Among my favorites were When Harry Met Sally, The Notebook, Titanic, and many others. But as I continued growing, and studying God's word and learning about the true meaning of a biblical marriage, I began to see that the view of romance as presented in these movies was not only unbiblical but sinful.
Let's see one example, a common favorite:
a. The Notebook(Spoiler alert),
- Noah and the Girl have premarital sex also known as fornication.
- The girl (I forgot her name) is very disobedient to her parents all because of this boy (and people confuse that with love?)
- Finally it's time to go, because she was just there for the summer, and when she moves back to her hometown the relationship ends. She meets another man, gets engaged but after having seen a picture of Noah in the newspaper she has an urge to go see him, thinking if she gets married to the man she's with she'll spend forever wandering what if?
- STILL engaged, she goes back to the town where Noah lives, fornicates yet again, and when her mother arrives to confront her, she justifies her sin by reminding her mom of her past (the mom had in a sense gone through the same experience, falling in love with a poor man), only the way she did it is commonly called SASSING.
- She breaks off the engagement with her fiancé, and ends up with Noah.
- She writes a book about their love story since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and after they're really old Noah spends the rest of his days reading their love story to her trying to get her to remember him, she does and then forgets again and then dies, and he dies beside her.
RECAP:- The girl (I forgot her name) is very disobedient to her parents all because of this boy (and people confuse that with love?)
- Finally it's time to go, because she was just there for the summer, and when she moves back to her hometown the relationship ends. She meets another man, gets engaged but after having seen a picture of Noah in the newspaper she has an urge to go see him, thinking if she gets married to the man she's with she'll spend forever wandering what if?
- STILL engaged, she goes back to the town where Noah lives, fornicates yet again, and when her mother arrives to confront her, she justifies her sin by reminding her mom of her past (the mom had in a sense gone through the same experience, falling in love with a poor man), only the way she did it is commonly called SASSING.
- She breaks off the engagement with her fiancé, and ends up with Noah.
- She writes a book about their love story since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and after they're really old Noah spends the rest of his days reading their love story to her trying to get her to remember him, she does and then forgets again and then dies, and he dies beside her.
Basically in this movie, their concept of love includes:
- Fornication
- Idolatrous love (Oh-I-just-can't-live-without-him)
- Infidelity
- Dishonoring of the parents
If you're a Christian and I just ruined your favorite movie for you, good I'm glad, trust me I'm doing it out of my love for you sister and brother. Love as described in the Bible is soooo much more glorious and with a much more glorious purpose than that which is depicted in the typical American sap romantic movies. Why expose our eyes and our very souls to movies, songs, among other things that will not glorify God nor edify us? Because of the fun of it? what fun? If people knew how harmful watching that stuff can be, they influence us without us even noticing. We may be saved but we are still fallen, and Satan never misses an opportunity to make us fall into sin.
II. TV Series
How about a common favorite TV show, which I too once liked: Grey's Anatomy
Here we have Meredith, a frustrated surgery Intern who met a guy at a bar, Derek, without knowing much about each other and after a few drinks they leave together and fornicate, they had what is commonly referred to as a one night stand. But she then finds that this man she had sex with is her Resident at the hospital she just got in for her internship. This is just the beginning of endless seasons of the following:
- Fornication
- Deceit
- Lesbianism
- Drunkenness
- Cohabitation
- Infidelity
And a myriad of other sinful activities. Please spare me the justification if you're about to say or are thinking that you're watching the series for your interest in medicine, sure there are interesting cases every once in a while but the LAST thing you will "learn" from this series is anything interesting about medicine.
Here we have Meredith, a frustrated surgery Intern who met a guy at a bar, Derek, without knowing much about each other and after a few drinks they leave together and fornicate, they had what is commonly referred to as a one night stand. But she then finds that this man she had sex with is her Resident at the hospital she just got in for her internship. This is just the beginning of endless seasons of the following:
- Fornication
- Deceit
- Lesbianism
- Drunkenness
- Cohabitation
- Infidelity
And a myriad of other sinful activities. Please spare me the justification if you're about to say or are thinking that you're watching the series for your interest in medicine, sure there are interesting cases every once in a while but the LAST thing you will "learn" from this series is anything interesting about medicine.
Please take heed of what we are told here in 1 John 2:15-17
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."
Is it so hard for you to not watch these things? Then you need to ask yourself just how precious Christ is to you. As Christ becomes more precious to us and we delight in and meditate on His word daily the temporary trappings of this world will seem less appealing, less entertaining and less lovable to us.
Recomended Reading/watching: Book Review - Twilight by Tim Challies
For a biblical perspective on marriage and love and singleness: This Momentary Marriage by John Piper
A movie worth watching: Fireproof - The DVD comes out this month, 1/27/09
5 comments:
Amen, Rita! This is an area I've definitely been convicted in...the more you grow as a Christian the less these movies/shows appeal and the (seemingly) subtle sin/wordliness they contain becomes not so subtle, but extremely blunt, even in those PG films...
This is a really good post, thank you.
Thank you Rita for this post. I totally agree with you. What is more important Christ or being entertained? Christ should be more important. :)
"subtle sin/wordliness they contain becomes not so subtle, but extremely blunt, even in those PG films..."--> This is so so true!
thanks girls for the input! Glad to know I'm not alone in this boat :)
Rita, this may not seem like it's so bad compared to the examples you've given, but I only saw one episode of "House" and I was appalled at the utter nastiness and sarcasm on behalf of the title character. In today's society, we find sarcasm to be a form of humor but it is not. Satire is a legitimate form of humor. Sarcasm is nothing but biting, caustic mean-spiritedness. I was truly saddened by this character's attitude and I couldn't bear to watch the show again.
Hey Jen! thanks for the comment, I wouldn't say sarcasm is necessarily bad it all depends how you use it, cause we do find examples in the Bible of sarcasm. There is one example which I must confess I laugh every time I read it, and its when Elijah is waiting for the baal's god to burn up the wood and animal and he's like go on keep on calling him maybe he's sleeping, or out town (1 Kings 18:1-46)...that was hilarious!
But yes the way House uses it is terrible, it doesn't edify and most of the time he's out to hurt people's feelings with it. In that case yes sarcasm is not good at all.
And as for House, there was a time when I had a small glimpse of hope for this tv series, I mean all the doctors raved about it and how great it was...so I watched one episode, although I had watched a few of them a couple of years ago when I actually had time to watch such things, anyway blasphemy, sarcasm, and cursing aside house was very good at diagnosing weird pathologies, and there was one disease that he was like yes that is X thing! these are the symptoms: bla bla bla...I was pretty impressed, that I could actually learn something from a tv series..right...I looked up the disease online, NONE of the signs and symptoms he had mentioned were true...ugh...so I don't watch it, it doesn't edify, it doesn't honor God when he blasphemes so often, you don't even learn real stuff in there so why watch it?
We have got 24 hours a day, we are supposed to do everything for God's glory in those 24 hours. Personally out of those 24 hours, I sleep 6 hours at night, I spend 8 hours at a hospital where I have to spend time with a lot of unbelievers and some who think they're believers; 1 hour in a bus on my way home, and then on a regular non-church-going-day I spend the rest of those 24 hours, 10 hours, at home. How am I going to spend those 10 hours at home? Taking in consideration that daily I have to honor God in everything I do and do everything for His glory, and be blameless for He is blameless, and merciful for He is merciful, etc. I'm going to waste those 10 hours watching stuff that don't do anything for God and certainly not for me? That's the question right there. How many hours do we spend reading our bibles? or praying (and this one is a tough one for me because I don't spend enough time praying)?
And I'm not saying never watch tv, or movies, there are wonderful movies out there that edify, I can make a list! or perhaps are just entertaining but are healthy to watch. Even the finding Nemo one, how we watch the character of Marlin, Nemo's dad, change completely although gradually and after some tough lessons when he befriends Doris, who bless her heart had to bear with that grumpy old "man". The thing is what we do with what we watch.
And I know this response is long enough! sorry Jen!! :P
But I would like to point out an example, your blog, the movies you watch are not Christian and yet you have found a way to bring glory to God by edifying the Saints with a Christian perspective on topics seen in said movies.
God bless!
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