Pirate Movies

No, I don't mean actual pirate movies. Just talking about R-rated ones. Growing up, my parents exhibited the same kind of control that most latin parents do over there children when it comes to questionable content - no control. Whatever I ingested through different media sources was fine. There wasn't a lot of parenting that went on in that respect. It wasn't until I started hanging out with member friends that I started to get more of a bearing about the kinds of things that I would watch.

Then while at BYU I suddenly met a host of people who had never seen an R-rated movie. Rather than take it as an affront, or assume that they were just sheltered, I thought it was actually pretty admirable. From that point up until the mission, I didn't watch any R-rated movies. It was actually pretty nice. Since I've been home from the mission, I've mostly been pretty good about not seeing them, and I've relaxed or tightened those standards at various points. The last half year or so, I've been a little more relaxed. I still try and avoid stuff with too much violence, and at least nothing that is lewd or obscene. Part of my problem is that I actually think that some swear words can be used in really funny ways, so movies with a lot of language and not much else don't really bother me.

Anyway, I only bring it up because I came across an article by my favorite author, Orson Scott Card, where he brings up the subject of R-rated movies. Here is an excerpt of the article:

Yet there are always Latter-day Saints who want to live in a pharisaical church.

The Pharisees had a pious goal: Because they wanted to avoid disobeying the law even by accident, they decided to "build a fence around the law," surrounding the deep principles of Torah with a lot of small, specific regulations, so that by obeying those little rules, the Lord's people could be sure they wouldn't accidentally stray from the great law.

The problem is that such a "fence around the law" can give us a false sense of safety. It's so easy to obey such laws and yet join the category of "fools" and "hypocrites" that Jesus repeatedly rebuked. You condemn your brother for the mote in his eye, Jesus said, but don't see the beam in your own. The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.

Paul called them whited sepulchers, those hyper-obedient souls who went to extraordinary lengths to defend the law -- and broke it repeatedly with their pride and their persecution of others.

Surely we can recognize that Jesus was not being lax or careless with the law when he resisted the Pharisees.

On the contrary. Jesus was teaching us that you can't build a fence around the law, and then feel safe. Instead you have to take the law into your heart and embrace it so that you understand and obey its purpose.

I think he's on the right path. The last few R-rated movies that I have seen have not been uplifting movies. I liked different things about them, sure, but am I better off for having seen them? Probably not. I could have done without them. There are certain lines of thought and themes that are just worth avoiding. One of my biggest problems is avoiding those R-rated movies that I've already seen in the past.

Luckily, I still feel like I'm pretty sensitive when it comes to violence and sexual content in movies. I find myself averting my eyes a lot in those films. I could be better, I know. I guess I bring it up because I think it's an interesting subject in the LDS community. Here is a really good article on how it's not just violence.