Posted on 10/21/2006 12:03:58 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Your children and grandchildren are in danger of losing their Christian faith, according to Mission America, the Barna Research Group and the New York Times. Entertainment is a leading influence in the paganization of today's youth. According to the Motion Picture Association and A.C. Nielsen, the average child will spend up to 63,000 hours with the mass media of entertainment by the time he or she is 17 years old, but only 11,000 hours in school (most of which are anti-Christian), 4,000 hours with their parents and 800 hours in church if they never miss a Sunday.
The destruction of the Motion Picture Code in the 1960s, the advent of the new movie ratings system in 1969, the degradation of television in the 1970s and 1980s, and the advent of softcore and hardcore pornography on the Internet all have resulted in a lowering of moral, spiritual and intellectual standards. And now, even our public schools are preaching sexual promiscuity and perversion. In fact, there are 32,000 cases of child sexual abuse by American school teachers each year, according to statistics from the U.S. Dept. of Education ("Educator Sexual Misconduct," by Charol Shakeshaft, 2004).
To help you protect your children and grandchildren from this media terrorism, MOVIEGUIDE® began publishing movie reviews for families more than 21 years ago. Since then, several other publications and web sites have attempted to serve the same or a similar purpose. Some did not last. Some are still with us. This is fine. We believe in free enterprise and competition.
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The New York Times calls MOVIEGUIDE® the most conservative Christian review service, which is extremely interesting since we are the most familiar with the workings of the entertainment industry (I financed five feature films and was the president of the organization that produced the Emmy Award-winning "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" for CBS Television in 1979 and 1980, besides producing hundreds of other television programs) and the most degreed (Dr. Tom Snyder got his Ph.D. from Northwestern in Film Studies and Dr. Ted Baehr is the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Christian Institute for the Study of Media, at the Center for the Arts, Religion and Education (CARE), at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) at the University of California at Berkeley). In this regard, the New York Times on Dec. 26, 2005 noted that MOVIEGUIDE® called the homosexual movie "Brokeback Mountain" abhorrent, while the Office for Film and Broadcasting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said, "The universal themes of love and loss ring true."
The New York Times went on to say that Christianity Today "favorably reviewed 'Vera Drake', about a British woman who secretly helps terminate unwanted pregnancies, saying that it 'portrays immoral behavior and leaves us to make up our minds about the film.' While Mr. Moring said many readers objected to a Christian publication endorsing a movie that showed abortion in a positive light, the site named 'Vera Drake' as one of the Top 10 movies of 2004, a list headed by 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.' ('The Passion of the Christ' did not make the list. . .)." But, the "Passion of the Christ" did win the Christian Film & Television Commission™ MOVIEGUIDE Epiphany Prize of $50,000!
Another family guide to movies is the Dove Foundation. They award Dove Family Approved seals to movies they find fit for family viewing. In the tradition originally established by MOVIEGUIDE®, they have codes for the level of language, sex, violence, drugs, nudity, and the occult. They include descriptions of content and give between one and five doves based on how well they liked the movie. They also have a section in which they supposedly explain the worldview of each movie.
MOVIEGUIDE® reviewers are trained to pay very close attention to a movie’s worldview. As Christians, we view the world through the filter of God's Word, the Bible. We begin with a solid belief that God created the world with both physical and moral laws that govern life. We review movies with these laws foremost in mind. Many movies are made by people who wish to promote another worldview. We consider it a vital part of our work to expose themes in opposition to Christianity. Thus, we will often give stern warnings against "family" films that promote concepts in opposition to a Christian worldview.
The Dove Foundation gave its Dove Family Approved seal to "The Ant Bully". Their "worldview" section opened with "This story is very cute" and closed with, "The characters are delightful and this is a fun filmgoing experience, approved by Dove." Even the secular Box Office Mojo review said, "The idea – man is bad, ant is good, and the only thing worth exterminating is one's individuality – sounds more like a college professor's political science class or a Hezbollah training video than a kids' movie."
MOVIEGUIDE® said:
"Simply, 'The Ant Bully' is very preachy. It mocks God. It extols Communism. It also mocks human beings. As such, it also is one of the most politically correct movies of the year. It also lacks any joy or fun. There are a few exciting moments, but they are too few and far between. "In previous animated movies about bugs, 'Antz' and 'A Bug's Life', the message was that the individual and the group are equally important. As such, they solved the political problem of Society versus the Individual in a way reflecting Christian values. They also pointed the way to a solution to the philosophical problem of the Many and the One, or the variety in the universe created by God compared to the unity of God's creation. (By the way, God's revelation in Holy Scripture that He is a Holy Trinity, or Triune, also solves these vexing intellectual problems or logical contradictions for us.)
"'Ant Bully' shows that a lot of big stars, creative people and good animation cannot save a mediocre, politically correct anti-human environmentalist screed that violates God's revelation."
Moviegoers this year tended to agree with MOVIEGUIDE®'s biblical assessment. "Cars", our favorite animated movie of the year so far, made $243 million, our second favorite, "Ice Age: The Meltdown" made $195 million, "Over the Hedge" made $155 million, and our least favorite "The Ant Bully" made $27 million.
The Dove Foundation also gave its Family Seal of Approval to such films as "Lady in the Water" (New Age, mixed pagan worldview), "An Inconvenient Truth" (strong environmentalist worldview with anti-capitalist elements), "The Shaggy Dog" (very strong New Age pagan, false religious worldview with very strong Americanized references to Buddhist meditation and prayer), "Doogal" (strong pagan worldview), and "Nanny McPhee" (very strong occult worldview).
Lowering standards like this puts your children and grandchildren at risk.
If you want to protect the faith and values of your children and grandchildren and are looking for reviews with a solid moral, spiritual, and biblical foundation that you can trust, look no further than MOVIEGUIDE®. Visit our website, www.movieguide.org, for reviews you can trust and articles that can help your family become media-wise.
The standards that you defend today are the standards that will guide your children and grandchildren tomorrow.
No matter how obvious and enormous the mountain of evidence, some will still have their head in the sand. Those who hate Christianity will deny the attack against Christianity because they support the goal of a godless culture.
Ted Baehr bump.
Antonio Gramsci taught that Marxism cannot succeed until Western Civilization has been reduced to rubble. The destructive urge is a creative urge. So destroy all the things that people love and depend on, and in the years, and decades, and centuries will follow such destruction, you can try to build a worker's paradise without the distractions of government, church, marriage, or families.
Chief enemy of Socialism is always God because He teaches us moral values and the worth of the individual.
...and of course, the State cannot tolerate something which is more powerful than itself - the State is God and all must bow down to it.
Under Socialism, that which is right or wrong is whatever the State says is right or wrong. Eric Blair - aka George Orwell - recognized this very clearly in his books 1984 and Animal Farm.
Great article! We don't watch tv at all here. For the kid I buy old movies on ebay. Our Halloween fare, for example, includes:
Ghost and Mrs. Muir -- 1947
Wuthering Heights -- 1939
Bell Book and Candle -- (James Stewart, 1950's)
Arsenic and Old Lace -- 1944
Topper -- 1937?
Time of their Lives -- Abbott & Costello, 1946?
They don't cost much and they don't offend unless you're even more hardcore Catholic than we are! (nttawwt)
Here's a $5 winner I got at Target's cut-out bin.
"Black Beauty" (1994)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109279/
It's a winner with my four-year-old niece. She watched it about 10 times the
first month she had it.
Sure, it's sappy, with all sorts of morals about how badly humans can behave.
But it's beautifully photographed and a good supporting
cast of humans.
I suspect the 6.3 stars is from adults...and the real fans aren't
yet old enough to type.
Try Narnia and the Lord of the Rings movies. Both written by devout Catholics, with many Christian themes.
And in Narnia's case, it's just an alternate way to teach the themes of the Crucifixion and Resurrection.
What are you calling "godless"? Bacchus and Venus are much worshiped by today's youth, and have always been. To speak nothing of Mammon, but that devotion takes over at a bit older age.
Sappy is good :) I've seen so many versions of BB! First read it when I was 3 and was still enjoying it (in another format) when my youngest was three...almost a half century later. So I can vouch for its timeless appeal!
Thanks Maury, will do! I'll put them on the Xmas list. Running out of good flicks after 6 years of ebaying!
You may want to preview Lord of the Rings first, depending on how old your kids are, and your views of violence on screen. There's a good bit of blood and killing. It IS a PG-13 film, however, not as graphic as many violent 'R' films.
Later read/MA pingout.
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