There are three places I think Christians get hung up on the most as it comes to movies. The sad thing is, as I was thinking about these three, I found myself either tempted or and giving in to all of them. Although I would like to think of these issues as juts stuff others deal with, I am in their with everyone else. But I think we need to take this stuff seriously if we are going to live holy lives.
1) ESCAPISM
A lot of us use films to escape
life. We feel trapped by the toil and monotony of our own lives and we turn to
film to make us feel better. When I was in High School, we had a German
exchange student that stayed with us for a couple months and she was obsessed
with Star Trek Voyager. She had a tough family situation and not a whole lot of
friends and she saw the characters on Star Trek Voyager as her family and
friends. Her reality was so hard for her to deal with that she felt the need
to immerse herself in a different reality that was not really a reality at all.
Although that is an extreme case, I
admit that I struggle with this all of the time. After a hard day of work or
after a stressful conversation, I want to go home and plop in a movie and
escape life for a while. And although film as an art is supposed to make our
lives more fulfilling and help us understand ourselves and the world around us
more, when habitually use media to escape, we become lost to our actual
existence.
So I urge you, after
that tough test, after that hard conversation, after hours of labor on that
project, go to Jesus. He is the well that will satisfy. He is the one who
always brings you to the true reality. Leave that film for another time. Don’t
escape life, live it.
2) VIOLENCE
I know what I am about to say will get
many of you mad at me and you will be tempted to shut down, but I pray hear me
out. We live in a culture inundated with violence. The average 18 year-old hasseen 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 murders on television. Ninety percent of movies, 68% of video games, and 60%of TV shows show some depictions of violence. I remember going to a house of a
pretty fundamental Christian home as a teenager and when it was time to watch a
movie the Mom said, “You can blow each other up as much as you want but make sure
there is no sexual stuff.” I feel like this is the standard we have in America.
We don’t see violence as a problem.
Just in the past couple months, we have seen a commercial for the latest call of duty game showing the fun of ultraviolence with Sinatra singing in the background. We have also seen friends singing “Oh what a perfect day” as they chop each other heads off, shoot each other, and blow up everything around them.
And its all a big lie. It doesn’t show the death and misery that real violence
brings. It doesn’t show the loss of fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons,
and daughters. Violence is a game to us. It’s a joke to us. And the more savage
it is, the more we get in line with cash in hand. I believe the culture of
violence in our society is so thick we have no idea how sick and messed up we
have become.
And when we go to scripture we see
God respond in a different way to violence.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with
violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh
had corrupted its ways upon the earth. And God said to Noah, “I
have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with
violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. -
The Lord
tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates the lover of violence. - Psalm 11:5
God hates
violence. He hates its so much that he would rather see the whole world
destroyed and start afresh rather than see it filled with violence. If we
consume violence, do we not then glorify it? Are we then standing for the thing
God hates?
Media
violence and been shown time and time again to lead to people being more aggressive,
more depressed, and more willing to use violence in problem solving. Studies on
college students playing games with E-rated violence - not M-rated or T-rated, E-rated - have shown to produce more aggression as well. Studies also show that media violence causes people to be less empathic
and less of a willing to help others who are in need.
In
other words, media violence leads to us having the antithesis of the fruits of
the Spirit. It leads to less love, less peace, less patience, and less kindness.
If the eye is the lamp of the body, how much darkness are we going to allow in?
How great is our darkness. Is violence what we are going to minds with, or are
we going to set our minds to what is true, honorable, just, and pure?
3) PIRACY
I know I am
touching a nerve with some of you now. And I hate to break it to you, but I’m
just getting warmed up. I can’t talk about movies at RIT if I don’t talk about
piracy. For some reason, we as Christians throw the seventh commandment to the
side when it comes to pirating movies. We want to watch what we want to watch when
we want to watch it. And if I can find something on the internet to watch
that’s illegal, why shouldn’t I? If I want to borrow some else's netflix account, why not? Everyone else does it. The movie producers
aren’t struggling; they can afford it. Big deal.
I think its
funny that when we call people to follow Christ, we make some big demands on
how they should change their lifestyle. But when it comes to our lifestyle, as
soon as we are called to make a little sacrifice like paying a little bit of money
to watch a film or waiting a few months until its released legally, we just
give in.
And I admit
that I have done this. Last year, I was watching Mad Men on Netflix and wanted
to see the latest season. A simple google search helped me find a pirated copy
online. It so simple we think, who cares? But if we want to live lives of
integrity, maybe we should handle things differently.
WHAT THEN SHOULD WE DO
So where do
we go from here. I have some challenges for you. The season of lent is coming
up three Wednesdays from today. Lent is a traditional time for the church when
we give up luxuries in order to focus more on Christ’s sacrifice. Maybe this
coming Lent might be a good opportunity for you to reevaluate your habits with media.
1. Challenge
1: If you are an Escapist, if you are quick to watch movies to get away from
stress of your life, I would encourage you to give up movies or TV for the
season of lent.
2. Challenge
2: If you find yourself watching shows and movies or playing video games that
involve a lot of killing and bloodshed, challenge you to give up those things
for the season of lent.
3. Challenge
3: If you choose to give up movies, TV shows, or video games for lent, try to go through the
past year and figure out how money you spend on movies. If you are an escapist,
use the money you would normally spend on a movies and invest it in your spiritual
development. But a devotional or go on a retreat. If you are an RIT student, put the money towards
Basileia. If you love violent movies, TV shows, or video games, use the money you
would usually use and give it to a domestic violence shelter or victims of
violent conflict like Syrian refugees.
