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Post by Afgncaap5 on Jun 8, 2006 17:15:06 GMT -5
www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=RELIGION-FAITH-06-07-06Okay, first of all, I don't think that any religion should warrant equating with the normal things that the MPAA warns parents against. That said, I'm not the MPAA, and if they decide that religion or faith warrant higher ratings, then I can't stop them. I wonder if they'll start cracking down on other movies with different kinds of religious content. I'll ignore the obvious "heavy gnostic themes" in the Da Vinci Code as that's an earlier movie and might've been part of what led to this. Let's say we've got a movie about some different religion. Hindu or Buddhist faiths, for instance. Native American religion, perhaps. Does this mean that a film by some of my friends about their religion, different than mine, would warrant a PG rating despite a total lack of other objectionable content? And why the heck was the Veggie Tales movie given a G rating? We'll have to wait and see if this is a trend geared towards religion in general, or what.
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Post by Unsavory on Jun 8, 2006 17:23:33 GMT -5
I actually think this is a good (or at least not an objectionable) decision. I really want to tread carefully here because I very much respect Christianity and the philosophies that go with it.
That said, I read this article and some of the dialogue is, for lack of a better word, pushy. It expresses religious viewpoints in a manner that is blunt, obvious, and even uncomfortable. People should know what they're getting into when they go to a movie like this. It's not as fluffy and innocent as I'd expect a G rated movie to be. I could actually see this bothering people if they didn't know what they're getting into. Maybe a PG rating isn't the best way to go about expressing a content warning in theory, but it's the best way we have in practice.
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Jun 8, 2006 17:31:00 GMT -5
I actually think this is a good (or at least not an objectionable) decision. I really want to tread carefully here because I very much respect Christianity and the philosophies that go with it. That said, I read this article and some of the dialogue is, for lack of a better word, pushy. It expresses religious viewpoints in a manner that is blunt, obvious, and even uncomfortable. People should know what they're getting into when they go to a movie like this. It's not as fluffy and innocent as I'd expect a G rated movie to be. I could actually see this bothering people if they didn't know what they're getting into. Maybe a PG rating isn't the best way to go about expressing a content warning in theory, but it's the best way we have in practice. I agree, I'm just wondering if it's going to focus on Christianity in general, or if they'll expand it to other religions. I mean, I'd prefer it if they expanded it to other religions, even though it's pretty obvious that the idea of accepting an eternal life via Christianity is more upsetting than many other religions combined. So maybe it's fair to only do this for Christianity since more people get upset by it. Maybe it's not fair, and everything should get a higher rating for spiritual content (I've got some friends...not me, but some pretty good friends...who were a little freaked out by Pocohantas. Yes, I know, stupid, but they were honestly nervous about it.) And again: why wasn't that Veggie Tales movie given a higher rating? Sorry, it's just too much fun to imagine the Veggie Tales movie being given a PG or PG-13. That'd just be absurd.
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Post by Unsavory on Jun 8, 2006 17:39:47 GMT -5
Ah, I guess I missed your point. Sorry 'bout that. (Though I'm not touching the Veggie Tales thing. Never seen it, know nothing about it.)
This is tricky. In theory all religions should fall under the same guidelines. But the beliefs and dogma of other religions aren't always as... well... threatening as say those of Christianity. Buddhism for example can be taught as a philosophy and I really can't imagine a movie about Buddhism threatening peoples ways of life. No Hell, no problem!
It actually depends on how the religion is used. It appeared that this movie was presenting Christianity as the one true faith, and dare I say making promises that the film can't really keep. (Your life will change forever?! Depends on the person.) It would have to be a case by case judgment, and in this case, the PG rating fits.
Oh, and I have to say, I find the following quote to be damn silly.
"It is kind of interesting that faith has joined that list of deadly sins that the MPAA board wants to warn parents to worry about."
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Jun 8, 2006 18:04:12 GMT -5
I keep mentioning Veggie Tales because it's such a blatantly Christian (or, possibly, Judeo-Christian depending on who you talk to) that there's no way that it wouldn't meet the same standards as this film, but it's such a funny, cutesy movie that anything more than a G just seems hilarious in my mind.
I'd rather see a set list of guidelines than it be a case-by-case thing, but I'll admit that I can't think of a reasonable set of guidelines just at the moment, so maybe that's just the way it'll have to be.
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Post by Chuck on Jun 8, 2006 18:04:21 GMT -5
Well, turnabout is fair play, since Christianity has monitored movies forever. Remember the Legion of Decency?
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Post by Unsavory on Jun 8, 2006 18:15:39 GMT -5
I'd rather see a set list of guidelines than it be a case-by-case thing, but I'll admit that I can't think of a reasonable set of guidelines just at the moment, so maybe that's just the way it'll have to be. Yeah, that's true. Otherwise it's up to the interpretation of some random clown or clowns, and that can get ugly. This is too subjective though. Language, violence, and nudity are all easy to monitor. I don't know about this. I guess showing prayer could be slightly sensitive. And showing a prayer being answered could be much more sensitive. Showing the life of someone change through a change of faith could be sensitive. Similarly showing happy Christians being blessed by the Lord with rainbows and winning turkey raffles vs. showing sad atheists being rained on by big black clouds while their dogs run away. Basically if something in the movie is preachy. But I can't personally define "preachy" in a way that will satisfy everyone.
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Post by Unsavory on Jun 8, 2006 19:53:59 GMT -5
PG isn't the end of the world. It's just a warning to tell you what's going on. I find the dialogue in the article to be preachy and in my personal opinion laughably lame in how it almost guilt trips the viewer into liking Christianity. I guess the "laughably lame" part is totally subjective but people should be aware that the movie they're about to see is going to try to force faith upon them.
The more I say the more anti-religion I may be sounding, but it's not that at all. I'm just slightly bothered by the presentation of this particular movie.
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Post by Don Quixote on Jun 8, 2006 20:02:45 GMT -5
I don't really see a problem with this, as long as they do it for every religion. Like Unsavory said, PG isn't the end of the world.
But I also agree with Dr. F; folks need to learn to take things more in stride.
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Post by In_Stereo on Jun 8, 2006 20:34:31 GMT -5
You know, some people thought I was exaggerating when I said that Christianity at large was becoming illegal in this country...
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Jun 9, 2006 12:23:37 GMT -5
I don't think he's exaggerating, personally, I'm just not very outspoken about it.
You know, there's a lot of Christians who don't participate in the activities of the crazy zealots among us.
I know. And I didn't care for the tone of the article, but I couldn't find many other articles on the subject that would treat the subject more fairly. I'm just pondering what this means "big picture."
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Post by Unsavory on Jun 9, 2006 14:12:52 GMT -5
In and of itself, this isn't too significant so I don't understand being upset by it if you're a Christian. Maybe you're worried about it snowballing into something bigger and more hurtful towards Christianity but based on this event, I don't think that's a fair assumption. There's a lot of isolated crap going on in the country against Christianity in various forms, such as people being asked to take down Christian imagery at Christmas time. But the public never stands for these ridiculous things. There may be some people who want to take away freedom of religion and religious expression in this country, but they're just a small however vocal percentage.
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Post by Unsavory on Jun 9, 2006 20:51:20 GMT -5
To me, anyone who tries to censor Christians are the same people as those who want to force Christianity on everyone. Christianity is not becoming illegal in this country, except in the mind of Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly. You could say, "Oh no the Christians are trying to make Halloween illegal" becuase many Christians have protested against Halloween as a pagan, Satanic holiday - but seriously, NEITHER Halloween or Christian holidays are becoming illegal. That's why In-Stereo is exaggerating. Maybe if he said there is an increase of millitant atheists trying to remove religion from the public square, I might buy that, but not the illegalization of his religion. Yep. All true. There may be some stupid intolerant crap going around but "illegal" is a misplaced word.
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Jun 9, 2006 21:31:29 GMT -5
I don't think anything has been made illegal. At least, not yet. What I'm more worried about are the trends of political correctness in the world that are gradually trying to enforce themselves. ...man, Farenheit 451 really made me paranoid at a young age. Again, though, while I doubt we're going to see (for instance) "Joan Of Arcadia: The Movie" given an R rating, I wonder if anything might be worthy of a PG-13.
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Post by Unsavory on Jun 9, 2006 21:53:47 GMT -5
Who really knows how long these silly trends are going to last though? The future is too hard to predict in such terms. When the concepts of tolerance and understanding quit acting as self-satire and are genuinely aspired goals of the masses, Christianity could become well respected again.
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