Christian Comment on Films, Part 2

Most films are made by non-Christians but that doesn't mean that they have nothing to say to us. Films can present positive and negative demonstrations to us of religious and philosophical concepts. Many films made by non-Christians contain objectionable elements (nudity, profanity, violence, non-Christian concepts, etc). Viewers have to decide for themselves and their children what they are willing to see or not to see,

One limit for me is the depiction of graphic, unsimulated sex. It is entirely possible to depict sexual situations, which are a legitimate subject of discussion, without resorting to showing actual sexual acts. Some would call this opinion prudery, but it is not.

An objection which some throw up is that less resistance is mounted to the depiction of graphic violence and gore than to the filming of a single sexual act. That is true, but the argument is fallacious because the violence and gore are not real, no one is injured by air bladders, latex appliances, prosthetics, puppetry, computer generated graphics, and red syrup.

A sexual act, in the Christian understanding, is to be restricted to a husband and wife between whom it is beautiful, natural, and fully approved by God. As the writer of Hebrews tells us, the marriage bed is undefiled." (Hebrews 13:4)

A recent film including graphic onscreen sex is Antichrist by the Danish director, Lars von Trier. The point being made is not enhanced by the inclusion of the insert (excuse me, that is the technical term) and adds nothing to the otherwise gripping horror film based on the emotional and mental deterioration of a woman whose infant son died by falling out of a window.

Sex outside of marriage is illicit and actual sex in a film, no matter how nobly or artistically it is intended or presented, consists of two (or sometimes more) people who ultimately are engaging in sexual union for financial remuneration. By definition, that constitutes prostitution. Look it up.