Posted: 04/16/07

When Christians Feast At Hollywood's Trough

The most popular movie in America this weekend was a teen flick called "Disturbia". 13-year-olds across America are headed to the theaters to lap up the latest toxic Hollywood offering, and nobody is lifting a voice of objection. The Christian Capalert.com website breaks down the movie's content with statistical analysis. Here is a brief listing of just a few things found in this new hit movie:

·       47 uses of three/four letter words including most foul

·       tantrums

·       teen attitude of arrogance and rebellion, repeatedly

·       lies

·       arrogance at and disrespect of parent

·       teen throwing party while parents are away

·       preteen mischief, thrice

·       jesting about sexually immoral deeds by teen son to father

·       dressing to maximize the female form and/or skin exposure,

·       women as toys, ornaments

·       self touching

·       trash TV

·       sex talk

·       pose to force viewer on private parts

·       rude gaze, staring, repeatedly

·       peeping, frequent, including at teen girl undressing to skin

·       rear female nudity from the waist up

·       crude talk

·       skimpy swim wear

·       below navel skin threatening exposure of that which follows

·       gamming, full view

·       excessive chest exposure of teen girl

·       teen girl in teen boy's bedroom without supervision

·       sex games

·       teen boy on teen girl making out on boy's bed

·       vulgar gesture

·       additional teens making out

·       booze and drinking

(The full breakdown of this movie's content and the content of many other popular movies can be found here. )

That America openly and proudly feeds moral swill to its young goes without saying. A larger and more important question is where Christians are feeding themselves these days? Christian Worldview Network founder, Brannon Howse, recently gave startling statistics on my talk show, demonstrating that a huge proportion of young people who identify as evangelical lack even the basics of a Christian worldview. Christian school principals and teachers are often perplexed that so much of what they are trying to do in inculcating Scripture and Biblical teaching seems to be discarded while the world continues to make deep inroads in our churches. How many teens from evangelical families will head off to see Disturbia without their parents so much as blinking an eye about what their children are seeing and hearing?

It is not uncommon now to see hip new pastors use clips in their sermons from secular movies to make a point. Even when addressing their own supposedly saved congregations, they feel they can only drive a point home if they have help from a Hollywood movie star. Frequently, emerging church pastors now list their favorite movies on their bios. It's as though these men are immersed in the world, the flesh and the devil and carnal street cred  is the only thing that matters. They may have graduated from seminary with a Bible degree, but it's subscribing to Netflix that really counts to shepherd a flock. 

It doesn't take a sociologist to point out that our movie theaters are no longer featuring movies like "The Sound of Music", or "It's a Wonderful Life". Some evangelical culture watchers claim that the absence of Christians in supporting these wholesome movies of the past has caused the moral meltdown in theaters today. They are wrong. The moral meltdown in theaters today is the direct result of a profound failure on the part of Christians to be the church as Jesus Christ intended. Rather than lift up the cross of Jesus and live lives of holiness before the world, Christians compromised and found peace with the culture around them, becoming indistinguishable from the world and its system. When the use of God's name in vain no longer offends those who claim to be Christians, when sexual immorality, rebellion against parents, meaningless violence and vulgarity no longer causes revulsion in the hearts of those who claim to follow Christ, what is left as a societal preservative? The salt has become fit for nothing but the dunghill and that's why our country looks like it does. The church simply has no moral authority left.

Christians today often watch things that would have been found morally repugnant to non-believers just a few generations ago. Decent American citizens of the past did not celebrate cannibalism, fornication, murder, homosexuality, the occult, etc.. Motion picture producers of the past were keenly sensitive that while the Hollywood stars themselves may have been bed-hopping behind the scenes, portraying this on screen would not play well in Peoria, where a Christian moral ethic still prevailed. Now emerging church pastors openly boast of watching movies that at one time would have been scorned by those who at least cared about their children and public decency. We've come a long way...down.

The clear commands of Scripture should settle the matter once and for all for believers. God has not changed and neither has His Word, which we are told "stands forever."

Ephesians, Chapter 4:13-24

"Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians, Chapter 5:1-21

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

"Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."

These verses leave no room for the celebration of things that God condemns. We are to run from what is offensive to God, out of love for Him and obedience His Word. When we are new creatures in Christ, these things of the world should repulse us, not attract us. Christians have no business feeding at the world's entertainment trough of pig swill. We should be feasting on the Word of God which alone can make us strong. May God purify His church and help us to be a true city on a hill instead of contributors to the darkness of our times.

By Ingrid Schlueter Email: vcyproducer@aol.com Click here for bio and archived articles