When Is a Movie "Bad"?

I recently taught a class at my high school on worldviews and film. We were, I told them, exploring the intersection of worldview and pop culture. We viewed and discussed films like The Truman Show, Signs, Doubt, Chariots of Fire, and Walter Mitty.

What we all had in common -- me and my students -- was a love of movies. They loved the discussions of the aesthetics of film-making: character development, cinematography, pacing, storyline. And I tried to push them to think deeply about what each film "teaches" about life, about God, human nature, the purpose and meaning of life, ethics.

After a few days of viewing and discussing films, we stopped one day to discuss the selection of films from a moral perspective. When is it "wrong" for a Christian to watch a particular film?

Here's what I told them that day.

1. We don't get much specific guidance either from Scripture or from the ratings system. 

The ratings system, of course, is a notoriously blunt instrument. It would be easy  -- and simplistic -- to declare that no Christian should ever view an R-rated film, but that would eliminate some truly great stories such as The Passion of the Christ, The Matrix, The Book of Eli, Saving Private Ryan, and Last of the Mohicans. Films like these are rated R for good reason, but the factors that earn that rating are never gratuitous (think Saw); some stories could never be properly told in a PG world.

Besides, there are many PG-rated films that are so crude and obvious that the best that could be said for them is that they are a waste of time and money. Ratings can provide a valuable guide, one I use myself, but it is only one guide, and not a very precise one.

As for Scripture, there are general guidelines. We know we should guard our heart, "for out of it are the issues of life," says the proverb. We should never take pleasure in cruelty, and lustful thoughts are tantamount to adultery. This much we know, and these broad principles are useful in guiding our choices in what we consume in pop culture.

But God's Word doesn't provide specific guidance on every moral issue for every cultural situation for all times. It simply couldn't. Think how long and how detailed the Bible would have to be to provide that kind of specific guidance. And think how much of the Bible would be irrelevant to most of us: most of us would never face most of the cultural situations such a Bible would address.

This is one of the reasons God has given us His Spirit, to "guide us into all truth," including moral truth. God's Spirit, His Holy Spirit, resides within us to guide and focus our conscience in matters that lie beyond the plain teaching of Scripture.

2. Since neither ratings nor Scripture provide specific guidance, each believer must work out these questions on his or her own. 

I reminded my students that in this area, while they are living at home, their parents' guidance must predominate. Even if they disagree with their parents' views, they are obligated by Scripture (which is precise on this point) to obey their parents now and honor them for the rest of their lives. With our own children, as they grew older we gave them more and more leeway in making choices about the movies they would watch when they were with their friends. We knew that they needed to develop the ability to make those discerning choices, and they needed to be able to handle the dynamic of dealing with friends who sometimes make bad choices.

However, everyone in my classroom knew that the day would soon come when they would be making these -- and many other -- moral decisions on their own. And since this ultimately boils down to the individual conscience and leading of Spirit in each believer, I cannot provide final and specific guidance on this question. But I can tell them how I make moral judgments about film.

I told them I try remember two things in my selection of films:

A. I must remember what my triggers are. 

We know the three main components of movie story-telling that can be objectionable: language, sex, and violence. Not all three trouble me at the same level.

It's not as if cursing and violence don't bother me, they do. But sometimes strong language and violence are essential components of the storyline. Just imagine a PG-rated Saving Private Ryan. It wouldn't be the same story. War stories often involve uncomfortable levels of swearing and violence. If I want to watch a movie that seriously considers the matters involved in war, I've got to be prepared to tolerate a certain uncomfortable level of language and violence.

But language and violence don't bother me the way steamy love scenes do. I just can't let my imagination go there. I still recall some of the troubling images from the last battle scene in Private Ryan, but those don't trouble me the way a steamy love scene would.

Years ago a friend asked me about a film he and his wife were considering. He heard that my wife and I had seen Room with a View, a 1985 film based on the EM Forster novel. My friend asked if there was anything objectionable in the film.

Knowing my friend and his wife, I tried to recall what my wife and I had seen. The only thing I could recall was the scene in which the young English woman had witnessed a street fight that appears to have resulted in the death of one of the combatants. I told him about that scene.

What I had forgotten about and what offended him and his wife so deeply that they left the theater in the middle of the film was the skinny-dipping scene. Two young men are taking a hike through the woods with the village priest. They persuade him to take a dip in the pond, sans clothing. There are brief glimpses of male nudity, but that didn't leave a strong impression on my mind.

My friend, of course, was furious with me for not warning him about that scene. I thought later about why I hadn't remembered it when he asked me about the film. I realized that if it had been a female skinny-dipping scene, I would not have forgotten it. In fact, I would have had difficulty forgetting a female skinny-dipping scene.

I must remember what my triggers are. Paul told the Romans that it is wrong for a believer to violate his or her own conscience: "If anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean" (Romans 14:14). This means that in a room full of Christians, the same movie scene might be permissible for some to watch and impermissible for others. Some would have to abstain for the sake of their own conscience or abstain out of kindness to their brothers and sisters in Christ, while others could enjoy the same scene without troubling their conscience.

Which brings us to the second thing I must remember...

B. I must remember that I can so easily lie to myself, especially about matters of right and wrong. 

It would be easy to tell myself, as I see a scene moving toward a steamy encounter, all kinds of lies.

This is no big deal, Paul. You're over-reacting. 

Other Christians aren't troubled by this sort of thing. Why does it bother you so much?

It will be over in just a moment. Just don't watch. (Right.)

This is the great risk we all face in acknowledging that on some moral questions -- like the choices we make in what we consume in pop culture -- we can convince ourselves that it is permissible to violate our conscience. Since all the action is interior, since there is literally no public accountability for the inner workings of our minds, we can easily find ourselves in a morally compromising situation, we can injure our conscience, and -- most disturbing -- offend God's Spirit, who has taken up residence in our bodies and minds.

One more thing about lying to ourselves. I haven't yet mentioned the role that community can play in this process, and I didn't think of it that day when I talked to my students. One of the great things about marriage in particular and Christian community in general is the ability of our spouses and our friends to point out when we are lying to ourselves. I value my wife's input on these matters; she can tell when I'm talking myself into a compromising situation. And I'm glad to say that she's not afraid to call me out when she sees me lying to myself.

This is one of the reasons we need Christian community. We need Christian brothers and sisters who are close enough to us to know when we are violating our own standards and honest and courageous enough to say so.


This is what I told my students that day. I do use the ratings as a guide. But ratings can provide only rough and general guidance.

And I try always to keep before my mind two important thoughts: I know my triggers, and I know I can lie to myself.

In the selection of movies -- and music, and books, and all sorts of input into our mind and imagination -- we must, as Paul told the believers in Thessalonica, "test all things, hold fast to that which is good."

There are a lot of good movies out there among the truly bad ones. In our conscience, in Christian community, in the general moral principles of Scripture, and specially in the Presence of His Spirit, God has given us the resources to make sound moral judgments about even private matters.