The Most Important Message for Movie-goers

Movies are always communicating something, so let's be clear about one truth.

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

I think many of you would agree that this month of articles have definitely pushed the envelop a bit. I hope I haven’t offended too many of you, but I do hope I've challenged you a bit. As you will read below, your comments challenge me and I continue to welcome them - we need to learn from each other.

In light of all the recent articles of scary movies and the horror genre as a whole, I thought it would be good to keep a truth at the forefront of our movie-watching. Not just a truth but the truth.

A reader of this newsletter made a wise comment that encouraged viewers to seek to discern the messages of movies our children watch. Those opposing worldviews and truths contained in movies, which we must help young hearts and minds discern. Part of our job as parents is teaching our children how to think. Discussing the messages of movies is one way to train them to be more thoughtful viewers.

This got me thinking about a quote I heard a long time ago. I’ve forgotten who said it or where it was from, but the essence was this, “We should clearly teach and communicate the gospel message to our children and then look at the world and say, ‘Bring it on!’”

Here’s a truth parents must grasp: You will not be able to tell your children everything they need to know for life.

Time is too short. You are too busy. Life is too crazy. There will be moments and scenarios that happen to our children that we won’t even know about. People will make comments to them on the playground, they will observe something as they walk through the grocery store or overhear a comment and process it without us ever knowing it. There’s too much coming at our children and we are finite.

This doesn’t mean we shrug our shoulders with a defeatist mentality, shirking our responsibility to raise our children. It means that we must be crystal clear about one message; i.e., the gospel. Our children are sinners and there’s only one Savior. By grace, through faith, Jesus takes their filth on himself and gives them his perfect righteousness.

Christian parents need to continually hammer this message home and then look at the world and say, ‘Bring it on!’ More specifically, we need to look at movies and say, Bring it on.

Once again, I’m not saying the gospel frees us to let our children view anything and everything. But I am saying that we will not be able to always know every single message they hear or see from every single show or movie they watch. Even when we’re watching the same movie right alongside them, they may hear or notice something we don’t and they may never share that with us. This is only one example of our finitude and need for a Savior.

By grace, we can continue to help them know the gospel, connect it to what they watch and pray like crazy for the Spirit to make it a message that transforms their heart.

Let’s continue to talk to our children about the messages contained in movies, but ease our anxiety with the understanding that we will never do this perfectly. After all, the message of the gospel also applies to the ways we fail through our movie-watching practices.