HD: Discernment - restriction of movies and tv shows that we watch

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Monday, 01 June 2009

Higher Distinctions: Discernment - Is it necessary that we voluntarily restrict ourselves in the movies and tv shows that we watch?

Kerrie Ternes, 1 June 2009

I believe that the biblical injunction to purity of mind as well as actions suggests strongly that we do just that, particularly when we sit down of an evening in front of the “box” to “go blob” for a little while, to reduce the stress levels after a busy day.

Is it OK to watch anything and everything that is on offer on television? I am of the older generation and fail to see the attraction of shows like Friends, How I Met Your Mother and others of similar ilk, which some of my (adult) children enjoy watching. I have on occasion sat with one of them to work out the attraction of a show that, however amusing the dialogue and situations are, the underlying messages are of promiscuity without consequences, marriage without due respect and easy and painless divorce, after which the two individuals involved are the best of friends.

I find that, whereas I take a great deal of notice of the rating and warnings at the beginning of a show or movie, my children will often ignore this. A rating of MA with language, violence and sex scenes would generally be an indicator to me that I won’t thoroughly enjoy the ensuing show. For me to watch an MA rated show or movie takes a good deal of consideration, other than my age qualification allowing me to watch it. An example of one such movie I recently deliberately watched, by hiring the DVD and not seeing it on the cinema screen however, is Slumdog Millionaire (link to my review on the Resistance Thinking website).

I will often consider the actors in a movie and the storyline before deciding whether to watch it or not. Australia, the Movie with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman is one example of a movie I have chosen not to pay to see as I have lost respect for Kidman, the person, not the accoladed actor. If she and Tom Cruise had still been together as a family I may feel differently about her. I always found it interesting that their marriage breakdown was “hot on the heels” of their “expose it all” movie, Eyes Wide Shut. This movie, from what I know about it without seeing it, verged on the pornographic, and, like pornography, it destroyed a marriage.

Somehow, I can enjoy shows like Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War, which storylines revolve around the detective work of solving murders, more easily than shows involving sexual innuendo, sex scenes, nudity, bad language and violence. I don’t think it is genre so much as the way the movie is made. MM and FW don’t seem to me to be made to titillate the audience.

I appreciate the intrigue of shows like Spooks and the political savvy of West Wing rather more than the complicated plots, loud noises and violence of Arnie’s Terminator series.

Waiting until the DVD of a movie is available at the local Video library or using the recording facility of our DVD recorders is a boon as it allows me to choose the time to watch and company in which to watch the show. It also allows the possibility of not watching, if the first ten to twenty minutes indicate too much bad language, too many sex scenes or sexual innuendo or too much violence, and deleting instead.

When my children were younger, we used to record even the 7pm Channel Two news broadcast as it had often contained scenes of (real life) violence and war in middle east countries and we deemed these pictures unnecessary for young children to deal with.

I also believe that as Christians we should voluntarily limit ourselves (put the millstone around our neck) for the sake of our non-Christian or new Christian friends, so that we are not responsible for causing another to sin. Perhaps considering what is good and upright and edifying and helpful for others with us to see means we don’t just watch anything and everything offered in the cinema or on TV.

Is it okay to just sit in front of the TV in the evening without thinking about it?

Are there particular shows you wouldn't watch? Where do you draw the line?

Would you change what you watch with different friends? Why?

Debate this on the forum