Ok, so I'm aware that my title looks controversial but hear me out. I recently went to the cinema with friends to see a film, like you do. We took advantage of the 241 Orange Wednesday thing, and plus being students, it meant we paid a grand total of £2.50 each so money wise its not really something to loose out on.
The chosen film was "Superbad", here's the trailer for those of you that haven't heard of it:
The film is about three high school students about to go off to college and how two of them who are best friends are secretly hiding their upset of how they can't go to college together like they wanted. It's also about them wanting to get laid before they go to college, particularly the slightly larger one.
I went in knowing all these things about the film, but after watching it couldn't help but feel offended. I found the bits with the character "Mclovin" funny, but these moments were generally more of the slapstick variety and involved the police as well.
The rest of the film and the characters quest for alcohol, although quite common among young people in both the states and the UK felt wrong to me.
And that because it is. The only way to describe the feeling is that my spirit felt offended and this raised the question to me, should we as Christians be offended more often by what is around us? I know many Christians who would think nothing of films like American Pie, Superbad, Girl Next Door, and until recently I would not have registered the difference, yet the more I think about it, the more I realise these films are advertising a culture that as Christian's we should be standing against.
Now I'm not saying we shouldn't watch any media. Unfortunately because of the world we live in, all programs we watch will feature relationships that lead to sex before marriage, because this is apparently common to the world. However if a film is so against the morality of Christian living, I don't think it's healthy for us to be watching it.
I'm interested to see other people's reactions to this. Do people think I'm being to legalistic or do people think I have a point.
And the ultimate question, should Christian's be offended by these things? Let me know.
Blessings.
The chosen film was "Superbad", here's the trailer for those of you that haven't heard of it:
The film is about three high school students about to go off to college and how two of them who are best friends are secretly hiding their upset of how they can't go to college together like they wanted. It's also about them wanting to get laid before they go to college, particularly the slightly larger one.
I went in knowing all these things about the film, but after watching it couldn't help but feel offended. I found the bits with the character "Mclovin" funny, but these moments were generally more of the slapstick variety and involved the police as well.
The rest of the film and the characters quest for alcohol, although quite common among young people in both the states and the UK felt wrong to me.
And that because it is. The only way to describe the feeling is that my spirit felt offended and this raised the question to me, should we as Christians be offended more often by what is around us? I know many Christians who would think nothing of films like American Pie, Superbad, Girl Next Door, and until recently I would not have registered the difference, yet the more I think about it, the more I realise these films are advertising a culture that as Christian's we should be standing against.
Now I'm not saying we shouldn't watch any media. Unfortunately because of the world we live in, all programs we watch will feature relationships that lead to sex before marriage, because this is apparently common to the world. However if a film is so against the morality of Christian living, I don't think it's healthy for us to be watching it.
I'm interested to see other people's reactions to this. Do people think I'm being to legalistic or do people think I have a point.
And the ultimate question, should Christian's be offended by these things? Let me know.
Blessings.
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In my opinion I think it raises the further question; Should Christians be in the world or of the world?
This is a conversation that Ben and I had with a total stranger at Grapevine a couple of years back.
While I don't have a complete answer I certainly believe that we, as Christians should see these films or read these books that society is engaged in. How can we really reach out if we don't know what's going on?
On the question of should be offended by what surrounds us? Well, yes I believe that we should but further to that I think that we should be angered that the the moral backbone of the world has slipped so far that films like Superbad are even made.
Unfortunately we are in a catch 22 situation. If we don't see the bad films and use them how can we begin to demonstrate against the larger issues.
I hope that at least some of that made sense.