Real life(?) TV fare is one thing; movies are another. Let me assure you: I love a good movie when I can find one. But relying on Hollywood’s rating system to find a watchable film is a mistake. Even movie maven Roger Ebert is beginning to condemn the tendency to put R-rated material into PG-13 films.

His point is illustrated by the writer of the guide that appears in the Friday edition of the Bee, in the Ticket section.1 A new film entitled Bring It On contains "much profanity and crude language, verbal and visual sexual innuendo...funny but gross," she says. Another movie, The Crew, contains "vulgar humor… topless bathing beauties, exotic dancing, profanity, crude language and violence." Even Nutty Professor II includes (among things I don’t even want to mention in a church bulletin) "…profanity; sexual situations; gross sexual humor." The guide says it’s "not for preteens" (that’s nice). How far have we come from Jerry Lewis, who was the original "nutty professor"?

Hollywood tells us these are PG-13 films! That means your 13 year old can view them without restriction.

Let’s be clear: we live in a society in which it is OK to produce garbage destined for the minds of our people as long as it is funny. Funny trumps vulgar and we call it "good." That’s the value system of our day.

It gets worse. The guide says The Cell should be rated NC-17 (used to be X) calling it a vile, exploitative tale… But of course, it’s "visually arresting," so that makes it all right! It’s disappointing to know that some of God’s people, who are supposed to be increasing in "moral excellence" (2 Pet. 1:5) are not even holding the line at this level, and may have already seen that movie.

There are some worthwhile films. I’ve actually recommended a few in my life. But, as a rule, movies seem to seek the lowest common denominator in our society. Cursing has been so assimilated into our culture, that some in the church think it’s no big deal (but see Paul’s verdict in Eph. 4:29). Sexual references, innuendo and simulated sexual activity are dismissed with a wave of the hand, even by some members of the body of Christ (was that an oxymoron?).

Parents have a full-time job keeping track of all this stuff. The job is not done, however, when you successfully block your children’s eyes and ears from the garbage. In the process you must teach them principles that will help them make the proper decisions later on. Otherwise, the minute they are free of your "rules" they’ll be indulging in these things to see what they were missing. That’s why we discuss principle passages like Philippians 4:8 and 2 Peter 1:1-11 so often. The goal is for all of us to so internalize these principles that specific things, like profanity, lewdness and promiscuity, will stand out in stark contrast and will have no appeal to us. Those things are of the flesh but we are of the Spirit (Gal. 5:14ff.; Rom. 8:5ff.).

In every church, though, there will be a few people, old enough to know better, who will, on Sunday, sleep through an hour of worship, not study for the Bible class, and complain about the length of services, after sitting still on Saturday night before for 2 hours watching multi-millionaire movie stars spew the most vile language, commit horrific acts of violence and treat women as discardable sex objects. These sleepers will then describe what they saw by saying something like, "it was a pretty good movie."

Now, you know that if your kids’ heads are filled with this garbage it will affect their view of morality — Madison Avenue knows that, whether we admit it or not.

We need to shield them from evil, but also to teach them to prefer the good. That’s a tall order, but God has given us the tools to achieve it. It won’t happen without two things, mentioned in 2 Peter 1 – knowledge (i.e., an on-going, real-life, sincere relationship with God) and a real, workable faith, the soil out of which we grow a life. And the first thing Peter mentions that grows from a real faith is "moral excellence."