Faith, philosophy, religion and truth

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The way I see it, there are two factors involved in any movie/game etc.

1)How is taking part in this going to affect me spiritually, emotionally, mentally and even physically? (Proverbs: "guard thy heart my son...")

2)Is what I am watching offensive to God? (Jesus: "The son only does the things he sees the Father doing")

I present the following summaries:

1) I) I'lll start simple; the potential physical effects are obvious. Sitting in front of the TV feeds apathy and lethargy, both of which should be avoided like the plague. This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the content, although I suppose longer and more engrossing films take more time.

ii) The emotional effect is one not always considered. I try to be very wary of how my emotional state is effected by what I watch/listen to/play etc. In the life of the charismatic church, sensationalism and hyper-emotionalism can be dodgy areas. There is a time and a place for strong and even bordering on hysterical emotion within the life of the Christian (Bible refs on request), but we are reminded these are all to be done in order and control. If control is lost it has gone over the top, with any number of results on a spectrum ranging from bad to tragic. So anything which stimulates emotions to any degree could have the potential to feed such tendencies in a person. It is also very difficult to hear God clearly and discern spirits when emotions are involved- especially strong ones. Therefore, the scripture "keep your head in *all* situations" rings true. Sometimes even things with no ungodly content at all can require caution because emotions can be raised.

There is a particular Christian song which is very good and an anointed song, but whenever it is played I actively monitor myself, because I know that this song can incite powerful emotions in me, which can be mistaken for the presence of God, although His presence may also be there. On the whole, such content in movies or games isn't bad in itself, but needs to be weighed against your weaknesses and how it effects your emotional state.

The other, maybe more obvious emotional effect things can have on you is to inspire negativity in its various forms; depression, anger, introspection- in short, anything that incites feelings which take your primary attention away from Jesus and either on to yourself or onto another person, or promotes the belief of lies (such as self-doubt, or cynicism). Such things are very bad for our mental and emotional state, and I guess there is quite a lot of crossover here although I listed emotional and mental as two distinct things above.

iii) on a mental level then, it seems worth noting that whatever you take in is in some way going to effect how you think, either temporarily or on a more long-term basis. For example, playing lots of Street Fighter *will* (and I really mean *will*, not just should, or might) sooner or later begin to incite fantasy in that direction. What do I mean? I mean when your mind wanders it's own way, it will wander onto what you have put into it. If you've been filling your head with martial arts, fighting, and such things, don't be surprised if you find yourself imagining yourself doing them or being involved in them. Just think of kids in the playground pretending to be their favourite cartoon characters. The same things occur in the heads of adults, it is just that we learn what behaviour is appropriate for us and so (generally :P) don't run around pretending to be He-man etc. Generally speaking, we are so unaware of how our minds process and take in what is around, a lot of the time we don't even notice that we are thinking these ways. Someone couldd challenge me and say that this doesn't happen for them, but I challenge you to keep track for just a day of where your mind wanders to, and you may well be alarmed at what you find there.

I have mentioned children so it seems good to bring them up in slightly more detail. Adults can handle a lot more mentally than children can. An adult's mind, being more developed than a child's, is able to a greater or lesser extent to keep track of reality and how their minds are moving (note, this doesn't mean it's having no effect on them, just that they have more control over it). Children do not have this luxury, which is really why many Christians oppose the Harry Potter series. Kids take this stuff in, and it is all to easy for the things put across in films to invade their minds and combine with how they begin to understand reality. Feeding a constant stream of wierded up fantasy (in the strict sense of meaning any kind of fiction, not just orcs and stuff) into a child's head influences the deep foundational workings of their souls as they develop. It's sort of like smoking when pregnant; the developing child takes the poisons in, and in can mess them up physically in quantities that would be virtually harmless to anyone fully grown. I'm not saying that all kids stories/fantasy shows or whatever should be ditched straight off, but I would almost insist that children should not be left in front of a TV to occupy them. Children need interaction and communication to develop properly- this is one principle reason why family is so important. If they aren't getting this time with parents, but instead are taking in this stuff from the TV, this is going to weird up their heads in some way or another, and may well be a significant source of many issues which they will have to work through if they become Christians.

The issue is more obvious with children than with adults, and this has (to a degree) been reflected by our TV censoring system, but that's another story. In short, what you take into your head effects how you speak. If you listen to swearing, you will find swearing coming up and trying to get out when you speak or write. Watch anger and violence, you will find the next time someone bugs you, the first reactions will be intolerance and anger rather than forgiveness and patience. I hope my point is obvious although I am aware that I have long since broken my golden rule of no long emails, so I'll move on.

iii) All of this dovetails into the effect on your spirituality and relationship with God. Simply put, these things I've listed above are examples of SINFUL things that we take in and which incite sin within us. You may argue that watching a film about magic is not sin, but if as a result of that, you for a moment fantasize about that magic, you have committed the sin of witchcraft (as Jesus said "Whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his mind." and John says "Whoever hates his brother is a murder.") What comes out of a man makes him unclean. This will effect your relationship with God and your ability to commune with him. All sin separates us from God even though his love for us is inseparable.

So then, we have to weigh up these and other factors when deciding what we will and will not watch/play. As we've said before, stuff on the TV ranges from not too bad to downright satanic, and I believe a definite line should be drawn and preached from the pulpit. Some things I believe are scripturally unacceptable to even tolerate on the TV and the pastor of a church should make this clear to the people in his congregation, while informing them of such things as listed above so that they might make decisions based on their own convictions of scripture and the Holy Spirit.

Let's remember that to think upon good, pure, noble, hounourable things and the like is a COMMAND of the scripture, not a suggestion. In my opinion, if someone chooses to keep away from something to keep them from sin, fair play to them, as long as the decision taken is mature. I would challenge anyone to test their standards and their reasons and justifications for doing what they do. Wisdom teaches us how and when it is right to say something to someone, and when they need to be left to work things through. I don't claim to have much wisdom, although I know that God has given me some, but we should all seek to know the wisdom of God: Christ and His Word.

Now, there is one last point I want to raise. We have a tendency to judge what is acceptable by the effect that it has on us. We say, "if you don't forgive, the bitterness of it will rot your soul" and "don't watch that because it will do this and this to you". But actually, the Bible is clear that the FIRST reason to do something, is because of God and God alone, I.e. not yourself. So unforgiveness certainly is very harmful to an individual and we should tell people this and we should know the reasons for the rules God has laid down, but the first reason to forgive is because God commanded us to do so as a pre-requisite for our own forgiveness. He has a number of reasons for that command, but we don't actually need to know any of them to obey it, we simply need faith and obedience. In terms of movies and the like, the first measure that should be judged in a person's mind is: "is what I am watching offensive to God?". If God finds nothing but travesty and abhorrence in what we are watching or playing, then how can we have close fellowship with him when we watch the things that offend him the most? In a marriage, it would be distinctly unloving to spend leisure time doing things that offended and upset your spouse. Of course marriage is different and things need to be talked through, but I think you see my point. If we love God, then why not stay away from what is offensive to him? In the book if 1 John, we are called to fellowship with God "in the light". This calls us to get out of the cover of darkness in our own hearts and lives and step into God's light to walk with him instead.

I dare to say that if we don't all soon learn this kind of attitude, we will not move into the revival that God has for us. I don't say that to put anyone down, because God knows the hearts of His people and He loves whoever you are, but I say it to encourage us to move on and take hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of us (Philippians 3)

Anyway, if anyone has taken the time to get this far I want to say that I didn't start this email prayerfully or in the inspiration of God. Had I sought God for this message it probably would have come out very different. I do apologise for this approach because I know that I often get things very wrong and end up not being a benefit to people when I act in my own strength, so I ask that if anyone has an issue because of what I've written that you please tell me and I will try to set things straight.

Thanks for reading, I'm happy to discuss,

-Paul (johnnyplan at hotmail dot com)

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