The scene with Matt Dillon @ the car rescue…… oh man…. And Sandra plays the …… so well….

A buddy of mine walked out of the movie theatre but then he wants us to shut down the borders and send everyone back home. I was born here does that mean that one foot goes to Scotland, one to Wales, one hand to Germany and the other to Ireland. Arm the indians.

I was watching King of the Hill last night (once in a blue moon) and Hank finds out he wasn’t born in Texas. The sparks flew. Funny Episode.

Have a great trip!

Crash was a fabulous film on many levels and great fodder for continuing coversations at our house. It will be a frustrating 100 minutes for those who like pure black or white, good guy vs. bad guy delineation.

Good news here in Russia. The Star Wars DVD (English version) comes out tomorrow. The Russian version came out 2 days before the movie hit the theatres. You gotta love this country!

I saw Crash this week, mostly because I trust your judgement. Good show, thanks for the heads up. Every now and then, Hollywood can you make you think.

i thought the profanity in crash was highly inappropriat….especially for it to be promoted by a christian.

91 F words and bare breasts. Wouldn’t Jesus be pleased?

With all the fear, hatred, and casual disdain for others’ lives, I’m sure it would be profanity and nudity that would be Jesus’ focus. (That was sarcasm in case anyone missed it.) I enjoy a movie that works outside my comfort zone because I’m seeing how someone else sees the world. It’s not pretty but if it’s real to them, then it’s something I have to understand to reach them. Jesus wouldn’t object to this movie because, rather than watching a movie about it, he’d be in those places with those people helping them.

Wade, it was a great thought-provoking movie, and I’m even prouder to be a fan of your blog seeing your endorsement.

Often, we as Christians lose sight of what life is like for those who have no faith, and no connection with anyone that does.

Maybe instead of counting f-words, we shuld take a step back and look at the larger picture to see what the theme was. To me, this movie was all about the lives of people who have no hope, and the way their hopeless lives affect the lives of others.

It strengthened my resolve to be outreach focused - not only as a pastor in the broad sense, but as a person who has people living around me.

Sam wrote:
“Maybe instead of counting f-words, we shuld take a step back and look at the larger picture to see what the theme was. To me, this movie was all about the lives of people who have no hope, and the way their hopeless lives affect the lives of others.”

Right on.

I’m glad I saw the movie, I had no idea what to expect before the movie (which is very refreshing for a change — I’m tired of seeing previews of movies that spoil the story surprise in many cases.)

It reminded me that this world is full of people who have a very different perspective of this world than I do. I need to be reminded of that. I also need to be reminded how wrong it is to make judgments about people from my limited perspective. I’m so thankful I have a Savior who loves me in spite of my lapses in appearance, language, and/or behavior.

You can thank screenit.com for counting F words for me. I don’t go to movies like that. I love it when people excuse their living exactly like the rest of the world with things like, “Well, we need to understand how they live.” No, we don’t. We need to be set apart. We need to love people no matter what, but that doesn’t mean we need to compromise by desensitizing ourselves to evil. Do you need to watch porn in order to witness to people in that business? I do not believe that Christians belong in a movie with this (from screenit.com) We hear sexual sounds and then see Graham on top of Ria, first just a torso shot and then a full body shot of both (we see her bare breasts). I hate to be an extremist, but I think it is, dare I say it in this world of no absolutes, wrong. Even if you think I am totally full of it and some big conservative dinosaur at the ripe old age of 27, I encourage you to pray about it honestly, and see what you come up with. Do you think that it is okay for us to watch other people do all the things God tells us not to do? Aren’t we sinning just the same when we watch/promote movies whose ilk have produced the sex saturated, heathen culture we have these days? I just think it is the duty of us as Christians to show people that there is a different life out there. But when we are doing the same things, watching the same movies, living the same lifestyles as everyone else, how can that be a witness to anyone? We are leading people to Christ under false pretenses. “Look how easy it is to be a Christian. You can live basically the same life you live now, and call yourself a Christian.” What a deal! Except that it is destroying Christianity. This is where the line that “Christians are hypocrites” comes from. We are exactly the same as everyone else! I know you think I am wrong, and that’s fine. Just think about it.

Michelle,

I just checked out your blog, and I notice a reference to Monty Python. While I love it as well, one of the things that makes them memorable is their willingness to perform scenes that many considered beyond the pale. Not sure where that fits in “movies like that.”

I’ve never liked the phrase “set apart” personally. God’s grace is available to all, and I’m thankful I’ve accepted it, but I don’t think my life before that was evil, just misguided and wrong. There are certainly people who use media and other tools to deliberately lead people down the wrong path, but there are also storytellers who are working in the world as they see it. Of course, no one should be forced to see anything they’re uncomfortable with, but I’d hope people would be given the initial benefit of the doubt in using all of the tools God provides us (including the billions of nonbelievers) to bring more people into his grace.

This is a bit tangential, but I’m not sure I’d use “evil” even for deliberately leading people away from God. The only reason is that I’ve never met anyone who knew and understood God, and could turn their back on him. I’ve known people with a partial knowledge of God (frequently a fuller knowledge of churches) who deny an entity that doesn’t match God, I’ve seen a lot of people (including myself) put our selfishness ahead of the life He calls us to, and all of us who know Him have our wrestling moments, but “evil” in a diabolical sense seems pretty rare.

I hope this helps - I’m not trying to start a flame war or anything, but I’m interested in this conversation.

Michelle,

It’s interesting that you see Christianity as a life of doing things as opposed to being something. Going or not going to a movie does not “set me apart” in any way, shape, or form.

The condition of my heart does.

The condition of my heart was such that I could cry at a movie, not because of the story or the acting, but because of the accurate portrayal of the hurt that the people who live in my communty experience when they go through life without the love of Christ.

It has renewed my passion for outreach (Biblical principal).
It has opened my eyes to the hurt around me (Biblical principal).

The condition of my heart allowed me to see a rather crass, inappropriate movie, and come away vowing to be more for the sake of the Gospel. Had I not gone to that movie, perhaps the Spirit would have used something else to spur me on in these areas… But, because my heart was in the right place, the movie impacted me.

I think that’s the essence of following Christ.

P.S. If we set ourselves apart in the incorrect way, we remove ourselves from the very people God has commanded us to reach out to in love.

Thanks, Sam - I liked your response even better than mine.

The condition of your heart can be influenced by what you let in. Garbage in, garbage out.

Okay, let’s assume the movie was garbage. Are the things that I walked away with in my heart garbage?

Is a renwed passion for outreach garbage?

Is a heart that is hurting for lost people around me garbage?

You’re obviously going to think whatever you’re going to think, and I’m not going to try to pursuade you othwerise. I would, though, encourage you to think about whether the Christian life is about following a set of rules, or about living a life that exemplifies those rules.

There is a difference, and it’s all in the heart.

Where do David’s words about not putting vile things in front of his eyes fit into this conversation? I KNOW (for me and for most men…some who post on this blog even) that what is put in front of my eyes, be it for entertainment or research, has a direct effect on my thoughts, my actions, and my heart.

I really don’t seek or need reminders from Hollywood about the lostness of people. I talk to enough people daily to fully get the point they are lost without hope and without God. I think that truth has been permanently burned on my heart. I look to communicate with those lost people in ways that are germaine culturally but rarely do I get those means from movies. If a conversation starter is all one needs, that can be found without seeing the movie.

I’m asking while also seeking here so don’t think I’ve landed. I just want to know where the words of a very real and viral man, King David, fit into a discussion about what we, for any reason, put in front of our eyes.

Thank you Michelle. I found your words filled with wisdom. Your stance reminds me very much of my wife’s convictions along the same lines. Interestingly enough, she is the purest hearted Christian I know.

Could it be not so much what’s in front of our eyes as what we see? We’re called to see the poor, the hopeless, the wretched, even those who are such by their own folly, as glorious creations of God with potential for goodness. I like to think I notice most things about people, but I couldn’t follow God without choosing to focus on and remember what God put there, no matter how covered it is. Was it David’s seeing Bathsheba that led him to sin, or his seeing her as a desirable woman rather than a man’s wife? This was an opportunity, even an inspiration, but it was what was inside David that caused his reaction.

Similarly, I saw this movie, and until the above comment, didn’t remember the nudity. While I remember the swearing, it’s not what comes to mind when I think of the movie - what comes to mind is its stark portrayal and mostly hopeful messages. Everything God created is good, so while this movie (along with most people/situations I encounter) has pieces I could do without, it is also an indirect creation of God. While there are many of these creations whose goodness is so small or non-unique that exposure to the associated garbage isn’t worth it, Crash has positively impacted several Christians on this post alone.

Charles wrote, “Could it be not so much what’s in front of our eyes as what we see?”

That’s exactly it - you put the words to what I’ve been trying to say all along. Well said.

Just to toss my two cents into the fray … I fail to be surprised any more that nothing can be labeled as “wrong” in the church today. We are mostly sophisticated beyond sin in such a way that we are numb to 91 f-bombs. Bravo, culture. That doesn’t mean that someone didn’t get something good out of the movie … and I’m sure that Wade noticed something about the movie that was great. I don’t know Wade very well, but I suppose he teaches his children not to say those words. My son was in the first grade when he first asked me what that word meant. I doubt that our Christian light can be brightened by the use of those words. I personally cannot be cavalier about the language with a shrug of the shoulders and send someone to pay to hear it. I think it’s wrong to be ‘hands off’ to the real flesh and blood people in our culture, or to think of ourselves so highly that we do not reach them. I think it’s something else to pay to have sensory overload (if it even affects our senses any more) so that celluloid people can invite us into their world. Rejecting a movie with 91 profanities is not the same as saying we are unconcerned about the lost around us, or even unwilling to engage them.

So at what point do sinners need to curb their sin for us to engage them, and how should we communicate that to them?

Not at all, Sam. As I said … big difference in flesh and blood and celluloid. I would ask, At what point do Christians need to curb their acknowledgement of sin, and actually pay to indulge in it? We need to get in the gutter with all people … but a cozy movie theater isn’t the gutter we need to be in.

John,

I must apologize. Your second post (#23) made me re-read your first one, and I clearly mis-read the intent of your post.

I get what you are saying about the difference between paying to see a movie and getting down to the nitty-gritty of people. I’ll think about that today and respond on Wednesday, when I’m back at a computer.

I’m not trying to be flip, but I am curious - what is the problem with profanity? I’m leaving out here taking the Lord’s name in vain, as I know the scriptural source of that. It seems that society has chosen words it considers unpleasant, and now we attach moral value to them.

I don’t remember most of the specific instances in the movie, but most usage of profanity isn’t intended as a reference to the object/activity named. (To use a non-profane example, calling someone “dawg” is not meant to say that they are or look/sound/seem like a canine.) It’s more adding intensity and shock value, which have nothing to do with the word itself but society’s perception of it. The words themselves aren’t considered totally unusable, as carpenters still use screws.

So we don’t want to use them because we must be all things to all people? Absolutely. Sometimes they’re intended to reference profane/sinful things and that’s wrong? Sure. But why do we let the words themselves serve as a barometer of one’s moral character, and particularly holiness?

I think we ‘let’ words serve as a barometer because in many respects they kinda are. How can you gather reasonable discernment of a person’s character without hearing what they say, and how they say it? Yes, okay, you can certainly watch what they do, and how they do it, but I would hazard a guess that one’s actions and words are rarely in discordance, that one will surely inform the other.

It’s a rather hackneyed phrase, but “words mean things”. Even though the meanings may shift over time and/or place, they are always the freight that words carry. Presently and currently, I think so much profanity is just used as lazy thoughtless punctuation by a wide swath of the populace, but when deliberate choice and thought are applied in the use of such words, those who hurl them are counting on society’s current perception of them to create the desired, typically hurtful, impact. When I see folks reach repeatedly into this arsenal to express themselves, I think that it does cast some light into the reflection of their character, and by extension, yes, the level of their holiness.

Now I don’t want to give the impression of myself as some haughty Jargon Gendarme, quick to judge at the slip of a lip. To be sure, this is not the sole metric I may use in forming my perception of a person, but I can’t help but think of what is said in Luke 6:44-46 about a man’s mouth speaking from the type of treasure that fills his heart.

Thanks for your thought, Sam. I appreciate it. I didn’t read it for a while and you may not ever read this…but that’s ok. Dialogue is good.