is watching r rated movies a sin

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No.

Keep in mind that virtually anything has potential to be sinful-if you go to church 24/7, ignore your family, don’t work and don’t talk to other people-that’s probably sinful.
 
avemaria2010 said:
is watching r rated movies a sin
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Watching violence in movies is in of itself, not sinful. If you enjoy watching violence, there might be an issue, but that’s when you have to show discretion.

As for sexual imagery, it is always a problem in movies, since deliberately viewing impure images or video is a gravely wrong act. A few sexual jokes here in there is probably not too much of an issue, but skip over any sex scenes, or sexualized scenes of kissing or other such things.

R doesn’t mean you can’t watch it. Most of my favorite movies are R rated, even such movies as “The Abyss” which contains zero sexual imagery, but some violence, and a lot of cursing. Don’t forget as well, that R rated movies can contain similar levels of violence, and sexual imagery, but one can be easy to get around, and the other, not so much. For instance, “Wanted” vs “The Matrix: Reloaded”. They both contain high levels of violence and language, but one (Wanted) has multiple scenes of sexual acts, and sexualized poses by the main character, and the other (TM: Reloaded) has a somewhat sexualized side character, a couple of scenes of impure dress, and one easily skippable sex scene.
 
The Passion of the Christ is R Rated. I completely agree with Rascalking, I wouldn’t worry about it unless the REASON you’re watching the movie is for the sex and violence. I would even disagree (politely) with the above poster, and say there’s no need to skip over sex scenes (depending on the sex scene, if its more like soft-core porn (think Rome or the Tudors) then yes but for your average sex scene that’s a face shot of them panting I wouldn’t worry about it) UNLESS you find yourself thinking impure thoughts or being aroused. If you do then skip over them because they are causing you to sin, but if you can watch without anything impure going on in your head then you’re in the clear.
 
avemaria2010 said:
is watching r rated movies a sin
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it depends. how old are you. what is the content that earned the R rating. Is there anything in the movie that is a temptation or leads you to sin. For most adults, no it would not be a sin to watch a movie with an R rating.
 
One should avoid allowing impure images to enter one’s mind (there is a big difference between knowingly renting/watching a movie with impure scenes and walking by an impure billboard and looking away once you realize what you are seeing). You can look up a movie before you go watch it or rent it (the usccb has a list of movies to help out with this). If you are watching something and a bad scene pops up you can fast forward through it or if you are at the movies, look away and think of something else. There is no age at which dirty scenes become ok. What Annie said, if it can be a temptation then you should avoid it. With that being said, this is something that can vary more by movie than by rating. There are some PG-13 movies that are crass and pretty much like allowing yourself to take a bath in mud, no true good reason to watch them, they just desensitize you to the junk around us and that’s it. On the other hand, there are rated R movies that can be entertaining and may not even have any sexual scenes, just strong themes that one may be able to watch without any negative moral repercussions.
 
Remember that people who have alot of time on their hands and enjoy bossing/bullying people around can make anything sound sinful.
 
AveMaria,

You seem to be on here a lot asking is this person sinning, is this a sin,etc. That is good. But when it gets to a certain point it can make faith a thing of confinement instead of beauty. This condition is called scrupuolisity - I would strongly advise getting yourself a good spiritual advisor - such as a parish priest or deacon that you can trust and confide in as well as a regular confessor that you can build a relationship with who will get to know you. This will help you find the joy in obedience rather than the confining nature of what you can’t do. God bless.

Pax,
 
Joan brought up a great point, it is a great idea to find a good priest whose judgement you trust and ask him these kind of questions, have him be your spiritual advisor, as you can find a variety of opinions out there always, plus he can get to know you and help you better that way. I was looking at an examination of conscience from a prayer handbook published by the authority of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops and it had a question that was relevant to this: (under 6th and 9th commandment, thus probably in reference to sexual content in movies)
  • Did I look for fun in forms of entertainment that placed me in proximate occasions of sin, such as certain dances, movies, shows, or books with immoral content?..
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There are all sorts of R movies out there, some good some not so good, and the R-rating could be due to a variety of factors (an excellent example of a good R movie being, as someone else mentioned, The Passion of the Christ), but as you can see, if they are occasion of sin ( for example, if they can cause impure thoughts then or later on, etc. ), then yeah, one needs to avoid them.
 
I think it is sinful if you are putting yourself in “the occasion to sin” when the film contains things that might tempt you more than you would ordinarily be tempted, such as movies that contain sexual immorality, etc.

I think a good barometer to use is to ask yourself if there is an overriding moral value to the film. For instance, a war movie like “Saving Private Ryan,” which contained profanity and was very violent and gory, but had the overriding moral strength of fighting against Nazi Germany. That is a kind of R-rated film that I think is acceptable to watch.
 
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