I love a good movie! I love a good chick flick, comedy, western, action, Little House on the Prairie {isn’t that it’s own category} 🙂 JK, but not really! I remember as a kid I was never aloud to watch PG-13 or R rated movies. It was just a rule in our house, and I really didn’t fight it. There were enough good movies around that it wasn’t really a problem for me. I can remember once going to a friends house and I didn’t know what the movie was they put in, but it made me feel really uncomfortable {it wasn’t a horrible movie, just something I felt uncomfortable watching}. I didn’t have a way to get home so I sat by myself in another room waiting for my friends to be done with the movie. I was afraid to say anything in fear of someone making fun of me. Finally someone said, this is dumb lets turn it off, and then everyone chimed in and agreed. I was so thankful for that friend that stood up and decided it wasn’t appropriate. I wish I would have been the one to say it, but instead I just hid! Now I am trying to teach my kids that they don’t need to be afraid to stand up for what they believe. Ever since that experience I haven’t really had a problem standing up and saying I was done! It is definitely a hard thing to do. I don’t want people to think I’m “self righteous” or that I think I am better than them. I don’t. In fact, I don’t care what other people watch, just me {well and my family}. I know I don’t want the bad stuff in my head that is in movies. Bad words in movies stick in my head and it is something that I have a problem with. I don’t swear very much {only when I sprain my ankle at a church ball game and yell out a naughty word really loud}, or stub my toe} Everyone is different in how movies affect them. For me I do not like the language among other things that I know are in PG 13 and R rated movies and I choose not to watch them. I am also grateful that my husband is on board with this same choice and we can teach it to our kids! Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:
“The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life. Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we’re not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live.”
If we do not make good choices, the media can devastate our families and pull our children away from the narrow gospel path. In the virtual reality and the perceived reality of large and small screens, family-destructive viewpoints and behavior are regularly portrayed as pleasurable, as stylish, as exciting, and as normal. Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up. Immorality and sexual innuendo are everywhere, causing some to believe that because everyone is doing it, it must be all right. This pernicious evil is not out in the street somewhere; it is coming right into our homes, right into the heart of our families.
Elder Wirthlin in a talk called “The Unspeakable Gift” said,
“We, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, must stand up to the dangers which surround us and our families.
Brothers and sisters, do we turn away the still, small voice? Do we do things that offend the Holy Ghost? Do we allow influences into our homes that drive the Spirit from our homes? The type of entertainment that we permit into our homes will certainly have an impact on the power of the Holy Ghost. Much of the entertainment of the world is offensive to the Holy Ghost. Surely we should not watch movies or television shows that are filled with violence, vulgar language, and immorality.
I invite you to ponder individually in a humble and prayerful manner and ask yourself: “Do I have the Spirit in my life? Am I happy? Am I doing anything in my life that is offensive to the Spirit and preventing the Holy Ghost from being my constant companion?” Have the courage to repent, if needed, and again enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost.”
I think talking about movie watching is a hard thing. There are so many great movies, and so many that look good, but they end up throwing that “one scene” or that “one word” in. I remember when I was a kid my mom had made our favorite pudding and we were all so excited to eat it. Then she walked into the kitchen put her had in the disposal and dumped that nasty handful of wasted half eaten food into our big bowl of pudding. We were all so mad at her. She then went on to talk about how it wasn’t that bad, and that it was just a little bit, and that we could still eat the pudding. Then she related it to movies, and that really it is bad, eating that nasty food in our pudding probably wouldn’t be to good for us. And movies are the same. Lots of time it might just be a little something bad, a couple bad words, but for the most part it is still good.
If you can’t read it is says, “It’s great except for the bad parts,
Elder L. Whitney Clayton in a talk titled Blessed are all the Pure in Heart said “If something in a movie “isn’t too bad,” that automatically means that it isn’t too good either.”
When my husband and I first got married, I remember we decided to watch a couple PG 13 scary movies. One being “The Others”. I remember how that movie made me feel after, and I decided that was the last scary movie I would ever watch. I could tell the spirit was not in our home and that I felt really scared and alone. That is what I had to do. Everyone has to make their own choices concerning the movies they watch, but unless I read about it and hear opinions about it, I don’t go see it. We have to be careful with the movies we watch. I think that what it says here applies not only to youth but to adults also. We need to stay away from bad entertainment, we need to keep it out of our homes and out of our minds. The prophets have all counseled us to be careful what we are filling our heads with. Something that has always helped me is remembering the Articles of Faith. In the church I belong to there are 13 Articles of Faith, 13 statements that explain our basic beliefs. The last article of faith says…
“We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”
I have a couple of friends that have the Clear Play machine and have heard that they are great! I still have a hard time with them because I feel bad that someone has had to edit them so that I can watch them. We haven’t purchased one, but have thought about it. Even some of the PG movies that have been coming out I would like to be able to edit! As we all know the movie industry is just getting worse and worse. Movies that were rated R when I was a kid would easily be rated PG 13 now. Lots of PG movies I have to check out or preview to make sure it is something my kids would be okay watching.
There is a great web site that is part of Focus on the Family {a great Christian website} called Plugged In Online. It is a great site where you can read reviews on Movies {even Video Games, Music, TV}. It does an overall synopsis of the movie, then tells the positive elements, spiritual content, sexual content, violent content, crude or profane language content, and drugs and alcohol content. Now I am sure most of you are thinking that it might ruin the movie, and it might if you read though it all. When I am considering a movie I want to see I go to this site and mostly just read to see if there are things I don’t want to see. It has even helped me with some PG movies I am questionable about.
Go here to read many more great articles about this subject of Watching Good Movies!
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great post Kendra!