God created humans with many characteristics, one being storytelling, prominent in our culture today in the form of movies and TV shows. Every day people retire on their couches for an evening of adventure, romance or mystery. But Hollywood is also notorious for its immorality and often produces content involving depictions of ungodly actions such as drunkenness, bloody murder and sex scenes.
So how are we as Christian supposed to engage with these sinful depictions? In my experience, two common extreme responses exist in our Christian circles when it comes to entertainment. The first is the mindset of “I just watch movies for entertainment, I don’t really think too deeply about it.” The problem with this is that our brains don’t just “turn off.”
We still take in everything, and without discernment, we can start to subconsciously affirm the lies portrayed as good things. The second common response is extreme judgement. Some engage with movies like a prosecutor, counting every bad word, and condemning every decision that doesn’t align with their individual beliefs. This also has problems, primarily that this displays an attitude of moral superiority and judgement, which Jesus condemns in Matthew 7.
So back to the question of what we should do. Well, let’s look at Paul’s sermon in Acts 17. He doesn’t immediately condemn the Greek’s paganism. Instead, he opens with compliments. “I perceive that in every way you are religious” (verse 22). He then directs their worship towards the One True God and His Son Jesus Christ. Soon,“some men joined him, and believed”(verse 34).
In our case, we should identify a movie’s primary focus. If it’s a story of moral redemption, the cuss word or evil murders shouldn't distract from the primary message. Although the movie may be depicting immoral actions, depiction does not always equal glorification. Likewise we need to identify problems when a movie features no curses or explicit nudity but promotes other damaging actions like gossip and manipulation as clean and funny.
I’ll conclude with this: We should seek choices of entertainment featuring stories praising moral behavior and/or condemning immoral behavior.