Are Movies Evil?

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The movies of Hollywood are becoming more and more successful as each year goes by, but why is the church always speaking out against the world of Hollywood?  Why are we not trying to reach the lost there just as we are trying in the inner cities?  Why are so judgmental to celebrities?  Should the church be against Hollywood?  Is Hollywood Evil?  Find out what Ryan and Stephen have to say on this episode of the Elephant in the Pew!

https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/710-birdman-vs-mockingjay-the-movies-americans-watched-in-2014#.VsI1YMfsOAQ

2014 – Christians watched the same movies as non-Christians. Including those ‘Christian’ movies.

“While practicing Christians are people who have attended a church service in the past month and who say their religious faith is very important in their life, evangelicals are defined by how they answer a series of nine belief conditions. Practicing Christians make up 26% of the U.S. population and evangelicals 7%.” -Barna

“Evangelicals movie preferences are, in general, similar to other Americans. However, they edge slightly toward films like American Sniper and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. They are slightly less likely to have seen Selma, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and several of the more popular blockbusters such as The LEGO MOVIE, Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Evangelicals are, in fact, less likely to have seen any of the movies on the list of 30: Two-thirds say they saw none of the films (35% compared to 29% of the general population).” – Barna

There are statistical differences between ‘Christians’, and ‘Evangelical Christians’.  ‘Evangelicals’ are defined in this survey as people who meet nine belief conditions.

1. they have made “a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today,”
2. their faith is very important in their life today;
3. believing that when they die they will go to Heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior;
4. believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians;
5. believing that Satan exists;
6. believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works;
7. believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth;
8. asserting that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches; and
9. describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today.

Convictions vs. Law
Discernment, from the Spirit

• Hebrews 5:14 – But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil
• Colossians 2:8 -“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Example, to those you influence
-Romans 14:13-23 -The Law of Love- “Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way.  (I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.) For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy that one Christ died for by what you eat. Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then, we must pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong for a man to cause stumbling by what he eats. It is a noble thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother stumble.[a] Do you have a conviction?[b] Keep it to yourself before God. The man who does not condemn himself by what he approves is blessed. But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from a conviction,[c] and everything that is not from a conviction[d] is sin.”