Morality of Movies

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Greg_McPherran

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Hello,

I enjoy DVDs etc. Sometimes I enjoy the story of the movie but they may use profanity or take God’s name in vain. I figure on the one hand that I am not watching the movie for that purpose so maybe it’s OK but on the other hand I figure I am paying money to hear someone take God’s name in vain. Would it be considered a sin to watch such a movie if you are really only interested in the story? I don’t want God to be offended by those who would take His holy name in vain.

What is the Catholic moral reasoning for a situation like this?

Thank You!
Greg
 
My rough rule of thumb is this: If you would be embarassed to have Our Lord and his Blessed Mother sitting next to you watching a certain movie, you probably shouldn’t be watching it yourself.
 
There is an electronic device called TVGuardian that uses closed captioning to remove foul language from tv/video/dvds. Most Christian bookstores carry it, and I think WalMart does, too. Some DVD players have it built in.
 
But it isn’t that bad to watch violent movies, is it? One of my favorite movies happens to be The Godfather. I love that movie. Of course, when I watch it, I fastforward through the sexual scenes since they don’t really add anything to the movie anyway.
 
What about movies like Braveheart or The passion of Christ? Violent to be sure.
 
It all has to work for the good of the whole. Just like in God’s movie: the history of the world. Evil probably used to be easier to spot than in our day. We have been bombarded for so long that it seems we are paralyzed like a deer in the headlights; we are morally frozen.

If you want to see how God himself has turned this situation around and crumbled the spiritual Hollywood, watch the movies of David Lynch.
 
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