Christians and the Movies

Russell Moore, filling in for Albert Mohler on the Albert Mohler Radio Program, starts off a discussion titled Listening to the Culture at the Cineplex with this question:

What do you think that we as Christians, what can we see in some of the themes that are out there right now in film that ought to inform some of the issues that we address and raise when we we’re talking evangelistically? Is there anything that we could see in some of these films that will say that… these are the kinds of questions that our culture is asking right now?

And I’m also curious, what do you think are some things that we ought to beware, some subtle messages that may come through popular culture, through film, that maybe we’re not looking for? Most committed Christians are going to say, “We’re going to be wary, we’re not going to go to a movie that has nudity, that has obscenity, that has profanity throughout it.” But a lot of times there are other very subtle messages that come through film that have a lot of impact precisely because we don’t see them, precisely because we don’t pay attention to them. They just simply seem to be part of the furniture in the room and we’re not even aware of what’s being said to us, so we don’t look at those things discerningly.

What kind of messages do you think are out there that Christian teenagers, and young adults, and middle-aged adults, and senior adults, are hearing coming through film right now? What should we be looking for, for good and for ill?

Listen to the whole thing here.