Should we watch movies or media with swearing?

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In the United States, the government doesn’t run movie theaters, they are private businesses owned by people. The industry group is composed of American citizens who actually determine (not just authorize) the ratings.

Are we perhaps thinking of different definition of “authorities?” In the United States, authorities is used to define a government agent or someone acting with the power of the government. In private business or our civilian life, we wouldn’t define anyone above as as authorities. Boss, CEO, management, VIP, in charge, etc. might be used for civilians.

Whether or not a ticket is sold is at the sole discretion of the business owner. They could sell a 14 year old a ticket if they chose. In fact, looking at my local theater’s policies, they would (if you are interested: https://www.marcustheatres.com/rating-policy). There is nothing in law requiring them to not allow children into a “R” rated movie. It is a completely voluntary industry standard. That being said, many studios will not allow theaters to show their movies if they do not adhere to it.

Further research, if you’d like: History. If you really want to dig into it and get specific: https://www.filmratings.com/Content/Downloads/rating_rules.pdf
 
AlNg said:
Is it true that the industry group is composed of Americans who authorize the given ratings?
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Well, yes. But they have no authority or power. It’s just an advisory opinion people are free to ignore. They’re not affiliated with the government.
AlNg said:
Is it true that if a 14 year old has the price of the PG - 13 ticket, he is allowed to buy the ticket by the American authorities selling the tickets at the door? Do the Americans selling the movie tickets first call the parents to check if it is OK that their 14 year old wants to buy a ticket to a PG 13 movie? Or would they just let the 14 year old buy the ticket without calling the parent to check for the permission?
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That’s up to the movie theater, which is a private business. It has nothing to do with the government.
 
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AHapka said:
the government doesn’t run movie theaters, they are private businesses owned by people
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In the US, do private businesses have to either register or have a license to operate?
The fact is that Roman Catholics are not demonstrating against the use of the Holy name of J in vain. It is commonly used as an expletive in many movies. This is a big difference with Islam when Muslims demonstrate fiercely at any misuse of the name or image of their prophet.
Americans like to condemn Russia and they even make a big deal when Trump or one of his aids meets with a Russian official. But in Russia, which is under the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, cussing and profanity is not allowed for movies shown in theaters (although you can buy specially wrapped and noted such DVD’s). So is it true that Roman Catholics in the US (unlike Russian Orthodox and unlike Muslims for their prophet) do not have a big problem with movies shown in theaters to 14 year olds where the sacred Name of Our Lord is used in vain?
 
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AlNg said:
In the US, do private businesses have to either register or have a license to operate?
The fact is that Roman Catholics are not demonstrating against the use of the Holy name of J in vain.
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It’d be nice if you just made the point you’re trying to make instead of doing this Socratic thing where you just keep posing questions.

Yes, it’s true that most Catholics are not trying to close down movie theaters because they show a movie in which a character uses Jesus’ name in vain. What’s your point? We should be more like Saudi Arabia?
 
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AlNg said:
It is commonly used as an expletive in many movies. This is a big difference with Islam when Muslims demonstrate fiercely at any misuse of the name or image of their prophet.
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I think you’re putting this too lightly, and I think you’re doing it on purpose. The Muslims prone to “demonstrating fiercely”, as you put it, are also prone to murdering people who misuse the name of their prophet (Theo van Gogh), issuing and trying to follow through with fatwas to assassinate those deemed to have insulted Islam (Salman Rushdie), and a host of other barbaric behaviours that decent Muslims and decent people do not and should not engage in.

I realise that your post is nothing more than a distasteful, thinly-veiled attempt to bash Western Catholics, but you’re really going to have to do better than that. For starters, you’re gonna have to represent the actions that you praise in the full severity that they occur in. So “demonstrate fiercely” should really be “riot, burn, assault, or even murder”.

I honestly find it quite dishonest of you to manipulate extremistic Islamic intolerance of criticism and Russian-style repression and authoritarianism in an attempt to try (and fail) to bash Western Christians. But agenda-based posting does tend to incline one towards “smoothing the rough corners”, no?

I don’t really get what you’re praising anyhow. Would you like us to target and assassinate directors who make films that are critical of Christianity, or even blasphemous? Do you think that is behaviour a Christian should engage in? Myself I am content with just not watching them. If you want to fly into a rage and assault the director or anyone else who disagrees with your religious beliefs that’s up to you. Hooray for civilisation.
 
Do people believe that Jesus is with them everywhere they go? Do people believe that Jesus is sitting next to them on the couch watching a violent bad movie with lots of swearing, etc?
 
QuietKarlos said:
I think about this a lot but should we watch things that contain bad language? Is it immoral? I would like to hear the best arguments for and against.
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Hollywood has never been known to be particularly friendly to Christ…
 
EndTimes said:
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QuietKarlos:
I think about this a lot but should we watch things that contain bad language? Is it immoral? I would like to hear the best arguments for and against.
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Hollywood has never been known to be particularly friendly to Christ…
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I’m struggling to think of any films at all that showed Him in a bad light.
 
Irishmom2 said:
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Freddy:
I’m struggling to think of any films at all that showed Him in a bad light.
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en.wikipedia.org

The Last Temptation of Christ (film)​

The Last Temptation of Christ is a 1988 epic religious drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Paul Schrader with uncredited rewrites from Scorsese and Jay Cocks, the film is an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ controversial 1955 novel of the same name. The film, starring Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Andre Gregory, Harry Dean Stanton and David Bowie, and was shot entirely in Morocco. Like the novel, the film depicts the life of Jesus Christ and his struggle with var…
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And that’s but a drop in the bucket of anti-Christian movies pumped out by “HollyWood”
 
I do have to say one positive thing about that film, to be fair. At the end when he shouts it is accomplished and the film broke unintentionally, with a flash of psychedelic colors and the music of Peter Gabriel blaring. That was a truly magical moment.
 
Some might see it that way. Others would say that God has been disrespected many times, in more subtle ways in many films. And no, I am not going to list specific examples. But think of all the times people have taken the Lord’s name in vain in movies and thought nothing of it, for example.
 
LilyM said:
People regularly watch movies that portray all sorts of and behaviour - infidelity, drug use, crime and whatnot. At least some of them inspire us to become better people.by showing us how NOT to be.

I for one have never watched a mafia movie, for example, and gone ‘yeah, that movie really makes me want to go join the mob, and get up the violence and crime and whatnot that they do’. Quite the opposite.
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Yes, but normal, typical human nature does not entice a person to want to take up a life of organized crime, or to find excitement, titillation, or a frisson in watching someone else do it. Sexual scenes, however, that’s another story. Human nature just itches to do what you see the people in the movie doing.

There is a certain stripe of very conservative, traditional Catholic (and this probably isn’t confined to Catholics) who finds the modern world threatening — I’m not so crazy about it myself sometimes — and basically lives and organizes their lives as though time stopped in 1953. All they can watch are old screwball comedies, love stories, and westerns. Some of the women dress like Audrey Meadows in The Honeymooners, and you can almost imagine the men relaxing in the evening, wearing shirt and tie with a cardigan and slippers like Ward Cleaver in Leave It To Beaver. I’ve known people like this. It’s like walking into a time warp!

Some fiction, what is called “picaresque”, can lead the reader or viewer into almost sympathizing with the “bad guy”. Breaking Bad — best show ever in the entire history of television — was kind of like this. I found myself rooting for Walter White even when this wasn’t really the thing to do. What crossed a line with me, was when they killed the young boy riding his bike in the desert, simply because he saw something he wasn’t supposed to see. That’s when the show “jumped the shark”, if you ask me.
RolandThompsonGunner said:
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po18guy:
Personally, I am ancient, but black and white movies and TV are cleaner and frankly, more interesting.
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You hear this a lot, the idea that “old stuff was better“ and in my humble opinion it’s a myth. I think it’s usually a mix of nostalgia (if the person is older, of course they’re going to partial to movies and music from their youth) and selection bias (the movies from 40 years ago seem disproportionately great because we’ve long since collectively forgotten about all the duds.)
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www.imdb.com

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) ⭐ 3.9 | Horror, Sci-Fi

1h 19m | Approved
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com
 
HomeschoolDad said:
That’s when the show “jumped the shark”, if you ask me.
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I would disagree. That was the last straw for Jesse and prompted the final events of the show. It was showing to what level of depravity Walter had reached.

Besides, The Wire is probably the best show ever. 😋
 
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I think it is usually unwise because we, as social creatures, are influenced and affected by the people and media with which we interact. That being said, I do not think that it is necessarily sinful; we live in the world. It is impossible for us to not encounter foul language without becoming recluses cordoned off from the world. So long as we do not actively seek media that contains immoral behaviour in it for the express intent of viewing that immoral behaviour (i.e. not the story - violent stories are fine), we are fine.
However, I think that to deliberately expose minors to such media would be immoral for it would set a bad example to them of moral conduct. Adults are generally wiser and more prudent and should not necessarily be prohibited from viewing that media although it is generally quite unwise to view such media.
 
StudentMI said:
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HomeschoolDad:
That’s when the show “jumped the shark”, if you ask me.
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I would disagree. That was the last straw for Jesse and prompted the final events of the show. It was showing to what level of depravity Walter had reached.

Besides, The Wire is probably the best show ever.
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I’ll have to take a look at it. Anything with Idris Elba in it couldn’t be bad.

The only thing I know about that show, is the scene where one of the characters didn’t realize that different cities have different radio stations — I guess he thought the whole world listened to Baltimore radio. I’ve known people who were just about that insular.
 
Irishmom2 said:
Others would say that God has been disrespected many times, in more subtle ways in many films. And no, I am not going to list specific examples. But think of all the times people have taken the Lord’s name in vain in movies and thought nothing of it, for example.
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Fully Agreed… The list of AntiChristian Abominations is lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng

AntiChrist and his minions have been very active - even over the past 2000 years

Their Goal has always been the destruction of Christ // Christianity

They’re not about to stop… AND? They’re facing the biggest Failure ever…
 
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