But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. (2 Timothy 3:1-4)
We are explicitly warned that the morals of society will dramatically decline in the last days. I think one of the biggest places this is reflected is our entertainment industry. Without adding to the debate about whether the entertainment industry reflects society, or vice versa, I will just say that most anyone with a reasonable amount of discernment can see that the entertainment industry has dramatically changed over the years (particularly television shows and movies).
We have gone from the days when it was risqué to say something like “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” in a movie, to the f-bomb being dropped often and unashamedly. Consider the stark contrast in TV shows like The Lone Ranger, Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best, The Brady Bunch, The Cosby Show, Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, Gilligan’s Island, and many more to the likes of what the television industry considers entertainment today.
Blasphemy of God’s name, explicit sexual scenes, nudity, extreme violence, adultery, fornication, drug use, disobedient children, and a host of other equally bad themes are prevalent (and arguably more the norm than not) in today’s movies and television shows. It is quite difficult for a Christian family to find a good movie the family can watch without compromising their values. Unfortunately, it is a sad reality that many families, including Christian families, readily compromise their values and accept that this is just “how it is.” The question all Christians should ask themselves each time they watch a movie is, “Would Jesus approve of what I am about to watch and feed my heart and mind with?” Put another way, if you profess to be a Spirit-filled Christian, would you watch that movie knowing the Holy Spirit is there with you?
A SOLUTION
I hate to always be negative, and my family and I like entertainment as much as most people. One solution we have found is the ClearPlay DVD Player. (I'm not an employee, shareholder, or anything; but I can definitely endorse it fully!) We have used it for a couple of years now and we really like it. We have played many DVD's rented from Blockbuster, Hastings, and RedBox (and occasionally purchased from Amazon or Wal-Mart) without any problems.
It is very important to us that we not feed our eyes, ears, and minds with gratuitous violence, sex scenes, and foul language. According to Romans 12:2 we are not to conform to the pattern of this world and are to keep our minds of pure thought as we seek God's perfect will in our lives.
Without this DVD player, we would not have been able to watch near as many movies that we would have liked because even PG-13 movies have very questionable content. We do not subscribe to cable TV/satellite and are busy most of the week so as to not notice. However, on weekends we enjoy having "family movie night" and have watched hundreds of movies because the ClearPlay DVD Player allowed us to.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Without this DVD player, we would not have been able to watch near as many movies that we would have liked because even PG-13 movies have very questionable content. We do not subscribe to cable TV/satellite and are busy most of the week so as to not notice. However, on weekends we enjoy having "family movie night" and have watched hundreds of movies because the ClearPlay DVD Player allowed us to.
The list of movies available are current (e.g. "New Releases" at your local movie rental store can often be found on the list). Sometimes it does take a little effort to know what's on the ClearPlay list when you visit the video store (or box), but that's easily achieved by printing out a current list and taking it with you (or visiting the web site of where you plan to get your DVD and having a list of movies you have already cross-referenced with the ClearPlay web site).
If you do forget a list, a quick call home can help you get a movie on the ClearPlay list easily since ClearPlay's web site is searchable. You can also watch a lot of older movies on the list too (the ClearPlay list has thousands of titles!). If you previously avoided watching a lot of movies that had inappropriate content, you will be able to "catch up" on MANY of them and, thus, will find great joy renting cheaper, older movies that you can now finally watch without subjecting you and/or your family to "junk".
When you watch a movie with the Clearplay DVD player, you are barely aware that it is filtering out the inappropriate words and scenes. If you have ever watched an "edited for TV" version of a rated Pg-13 or R movie, you know how it essentially works. Most of the movie is still viewable, to include the main plot and, by far, most of the scenes.
When you watch a movie with the Clearplay DVD player, you are barely aware that it is filtering out the inappropriate words and scenes. If you have ever watched an "edited for TV" version of a rated Pg-13 or R movie, you know how it essentially works. Most of the movie is still viewable, to include the main plot and, by far, most of the scenes.
It seems that there are always those one or two scenes that are put in there and ruin the movie from a moral point of view. The editing is done so that it will seamlessly "cut away" from scenes deemed inappropriate. On that subject, there are various categories (sex, language, violence, etc.) and then "editing levels" (1-5, as I recall) that you can set on your player so that you can "fine tune" the editing to your personal liking. Even just aggressively editing everything makes the movie still very watchable and most of it is left for viewing/listening. For example, the sound is briefly "silenced" at the places where a cuss word is used. Most of the time you barely notice, though occasionally you could perceive what was said because of the context of the sentence and if you can read lips. Overall it does an absolutely fantastic job.
It bears repeating:
It bears repeating:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
I believe the ClearPlay DVD player offers a good solution to ensure we can enjoy movies without compromising our Christian values.
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