Entertainers

[jdmays]

Let me say, before I ask my question, that I think this world is really backwards. It occured to me one day that we will pay someone millions of dollars to entertain (actors, sports stars, singers) us while someone who teaches our children or protects our communities receive next to nothing. I include myself in the we because I watch movies and televison just like most other people. But it does seem wrong.

My question is:

Should we support movies that are produced or feature people who live in direct opposition to God's word (i.e. Tom Cruise -Scientology)?

[BavarianWheels]

Should we support movies that are produced or feature people who live in direct opposition to God's word (i.e. Tom Cruise -Scientology)?

If you start there, where does your "support" start or end? You'll have to do lots of research on everything you patronize to keep those who promote God as your source of everything.

I think you can curtail your entertainment if you feel the need, however it will not make the Tom Cruises of the world any less successful.

God's rain falls on all.
.
.

[cslewislover]

What do you mean by support? We don't go out to movies much, so I choose them fairly carefully. But I wouldn't avoid a Tom Cruise movie, say. I do support Christian themed or Christian based movies (and I don't mean that this has to be obvious), though, in that I'll go out of my way to buy them on dvd. I may of course see them in the theatre, too. It just depends (I don't see all of them, and I won't pay to see a movie that I think isn't made well). The producers and everyone look at the statistics, so I do my little part in trying to show them what movies I like and I think are worthwhile.

[jdmays]

I guess I mean that if we know without doubt that a person believes, lives, and promotes ideas contrary to the bible should we support thier projects with our money or time?

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

I guess I mean that if we know without doubt that a person believes, lives, and promotes ideas contrary to the bible should we support thier projects with our money or time?

«Without doubt»...that's going to be difficult. Example: I always thought that the heavy metal singer Alice Cooper was straight from Hell, until I saw him on TV quoting Bible verses from memory and saying that he's a man of faith with a deep relationship with Jesus.

I'm still trying to figure that one out!

FL

[jdmays]

I sort of feel that if an artist is a born again believer his/her work should be evidence of that. Fame and work should not be a liscense to be ungoldly.
I'm not familiar with Alice Cooper's songs but if he is born again his music should reflect that, even if he does quote bible verses in interviews.
Satan quoted bible verses too.

[cslewislover]

I guess I mean that if we know without doubt that a person believes, lives, and promotes ideas contrary to the bible should we support thier projects with our money or time?

It would seem that if the person is really like that, that their work will reflect it and so we would not be attracted to it anyway. If they actively promote ideas contrary to the bible, we'd probably actually be repulsed by their work. You mention Tom Cruise, however, and he's often in films that are purely entertainment and don't have much of a moral theme. So you wouldn't know what he thinks or promotes unless you made an effort to find out. What do you think? Just go by your own conscience or convictions. One example, I guess, of what you're saying, is that guy who, as a kid, played in Home Alone. I read an article (or two) that was partly about him, and he's very anti-Christian. Yes, I therefore would avoid his work, actually, unless there was some compelling reason not to.

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

I sort of feel that if an artist is a born again believer his/her work should be evidence of that. Fame and work should not be a liscense to be ungoldly.
I'm not familiar with Alice Cooper's songs but if he is born again his music should reflect that, even if he does quote bible verses in interviews.
Satan quoted bible verses too.

«Satan quoted Bible verses too.» You have a point there...I hadn't thought of that!

FL

[jdmays]

I guess I'm trying to figure out if secular entertainment is wrong.

I keep thinking of Psalm 1

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful"

Are we sitting in the seat of the scornful when we support ceratin movies and musis?

Your thoughts?

[zoegirl]

I doubt that CHrstendom will even agree about the particulars, other than it is important to always be mindful of what we think about. Philippians addresses this "think on these things". Some of this reflects each person's maturity. I will watch some TV shows like NCIS or Bones even though they may occasionally show scenes of torture or death. But this is inappropriate for my nephews and neices. Even I will swithc the channel if a death/murder scene is shown and I have long given up CSI because they tend to focus on the weirdest plots concerning more perverted deaths. I had to stop watching Law and Order, SVU because I cou;dn't stand to watch story after story concerning children and women.

I still cannot watch horror movies and refused to go see the Golden COmpass, although I don't think it was bad if people did. I stopped watching HOuse because, well, first, they were really not coming up with anythign original, and it was depressing to watch this character who has the most cynical and annoying outlook on life. I doubt I'd watch Twilight, can't get over the idea of a vampire being "noble" and having a realtionship with a woman that he really wants to bite. Seems rather akin to having a realtionship with a axmurdere who really wants to kill you . Shoot, I won't go see "Marley and me" becuase like all books and movies about dogs...well, I should spoil the ending, but it's pretty much waht any book about dogs does at the end....and I just can't watch it, I'd bawl like a sissy. I cou;dn't even make it five minutes into "The Passion" without startin to cry, I made it to the scene in the garden where Christ heals the ear and I started reaching for my box of kleenex (yes, box). I went to see it, and I'm glad I did, but I know that there were a lot of added details and symbold that weren't true to scritpure.

Interestingly, many shows and movies will reveal what "should be", what "ought" to be even though they may be at first glance UnCHristian. Shows like NCIS or even some of the sci-fi shows, even Star-Trek or Stargate, reveal what we wish the world was like. The perfect team working together, no politics or a sense that nit-picking and fighting will bring down the goal, the fight for justice, that there is evil and wrong-doing and that we need to fight it.

How opposite this is compared to what we see: office politics, jealousy, back-stabbing. In many way I'd rather see any of the written TV shows or movies as compared to the reality TV, which tends to reveal and glorify and focus on the depravity of humanity instead of trying to show what we should strive for or reflecting what "ought" to be. Shows like "America's next top model" or "The real world" are examples of some of the ones that I would really avoid watching.

Part of this, I think, revolves around our ability to think critically about what we see and always be able to refelct on what the media says versus what the scritpure says. And any show that starts us thinking about things that we shouldn't or starting to influence what we view as acceptable, especially in light of what the scripture says, is something we should watch out for.

AS to supporting? Well, I suppose that is something we all must make a decision on indivisually. I know some poeple who refuse to support Disney and others who still go to see Disney films. I didn't like the idea of supporting the atheist who flagrantly made the Golden COmpass in order to promote atheism, but some wanted to see it to see what it was like in order to critique it (fair argument). Same with the DaVinci Code. I didn't want to support it, others went to make sure they could argue against it, again, fair argument.

I know this might not provide a hard answer, but those are the thoughts that came to mind ....

[Swamper]

I sort of feel that if an artist is a born again believer his/her work should be evidence of that. Fame and work should not be a liscense to be ungoldly.
I'm not familiar with Alice Cooper's songs but if he is born again his music should reflect that, even if he does quote bible verses in interviews.
Satan quoted bible verses too.

I think a couple of Alice Cooper quotes are in order:

"Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's rebellion."

"When you believe in God, you've got to believe in the all-powerful God. He's not just God, He's the all-powerful God and He has total control over everyone's life. The Devil, on the other hand, is a real character that's trying his hardest to tear your life apart. If you believe that this is just mythology, you're a prime target because you know that's exactly what Satan wants: To be a myth. But he's not a myth, of this I'm totally convinced. More than anything in the world, I'm convinced of that. "

Also an article I just found:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php? ... geId=35806

[Zebulon]

«Without doubt»...that's going to be difficult. Example: I always thought that the heavy metal singer Alice Cooper was straight from Hell, until I saw him on TV quoting Bible verses from memory and saying that he's a man of faith with a deep relationship with Jesus.

I'm still trying to figure that one out!

I guess this was on Tout Le Monde En Parle? I have seen it too and puzzled me also... When he started his career the Name Alice Cooper came apparently from a dream he had about the fact that he lived in another life as a woman named Alice Cooper. But I never heard it from his mouth... Local legend like the chicken I guess...

It was one of my favorite interview ever on that show.

Victor