Hans Deventer
7th March 2007, 07:16 AM (07:16)
The idea is to write a review of a movie you have seen. Keep in mind the following:
As title of your post, use the title of the movie. This forum can become a place of reference this way. If needed, add the year the movie was made to avoid confusion.
When writing the review, ask yourself the question, if I didn't know the movie, what would I want to know about it? For what audience would you recommend it?
If people want to add their own review to a movie review that is already there, you're very much welcome to do so! Of course there are (and will be) different opinions, but that only helps the readers.
Perhaps, given the history of the ethical rules of the Church of the Nazarene regarding the theater and movies, it is good to post the current statement here.
34.We hold specifically that the following practices should
be avoided:
34.1. Entertainments that are subversive of the
Christian ethic. Our people, both as Christian individuals
and in Christian family units, should govern themselves by
three principles. One is the Christian stewardship of leisure
time. A second principle is the recognition of the Christian
obligation to apply the highest moral standards of Christian
living. Because we are living in a day of great moral confusion
in which we face the potential encroachment of the
evils of the day into the sacred precincts of our homes
through various avenues such as current literature, radio,
television, personal computers, and the Internet, it is essential
that the most rigid safeguards be observed to keep our
homes from becoming secularized and worldly. However, we
hold that entertainment that endorses and encourages holy
living and affirms scriptural values should be affirmed and
encouraged. We especially encourage our young people to use
their gifts in media and the arts to influence positively
this pervasive part of culture. The third principle is the obligation
to witness against whatever trivializes or blasphemes
God, as well as such social evils as violence, sensuality,
pornography, profanity, and the occult, as portrayed by and
through the commercial entertainment industry in its many
forms and to endeavor to bring about the demise of enterprises
known to be the purveyors of this kind of entertainment.
This would include the avoidance of all types of entertainment
ventures and media productions that produce,
promote, or feature the violent, the sensual, the pornographic,
the profane, or the occultic, or which feature or glamorize
the world’s philosophy of secularism, sensualism, and materialism
and undermine God’s standard of holiness of heart
and life.
This necessitates the teaching and preaching of these
moral standards of Christian living, and that our people be
taught to use prayerful discernment in continually choosing
the “high road” of holy living. We therefore call upon our
leaders and pastors to give strong emphasis in our periodicals
and from our pulpits to such fundamental truths as will
develop the principle of discrimination between the evil and
good to be found in these media.
We suggest that the standard given to John Wesley by his
mother, namely, “whatever weakens your reason, impairs
the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of
God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, whatever increases
the authority of your body over mind, that thing for
you is sin,” form the basis for this teaching of discrimination.
(33.2-33.4, 903.12-3.14)
(Romans 14:7-13; 1 Corinthians 10:31-33; Ephesians 5:1-18; Philippians
4:8-9; 1 Peter 1:13-17; 2 Peter 1:3-11)
It is exactly to help one another in developing discernment that this forum can play a role.
As title of your post, use the title of the movie. This forum can become a place of reference this way. If needed, add the year the movie was made to avoid confusion.
When writing the review, ask yourself the question, if I didn't know the movie, what would I want to know about it? For what audience would you recommend it?
If people want to add their own review to a movie review that is already there, you're very much welcome to do so! Of course there are (and will be) different opinions, but that only helps the readers.
Perhaps, given the history of the ethical rules of the Church of the Nazarene regarding the theater and movies, it is good to post the current statement here.
34.We hold specifically that the following practices should
be avoided:
34.1. Entertainments that are subversive of the
Christian ethic. Our people, both as Christian individuals
and in Christian family units, should govern themselves by
three principles. One is the Christian stewardship of leisure
time. A second principle is the recognition of the Christian
obligation to apply the highest moral standards of Christian
living. Because we are living in a day of great moral confusion
in which we face the potential encroachment of the
evils of the day into the sacred precincts of our homes
through various avenues such as current literature, radio,
television, personal computers, and the Internet, it is essential
that the most rigid safeguards be observed to keep our
homes from becoming secularized and worldly. However, we
hold that entertainment that endorses and encourages holy
living and affirms scriptural values should be affirmed and
encouraged. We especially encourage our young people to use
their gifts in media and the arts to influence positively
this pervasive part of culture. The third principle is the obligation
to witness against whatever trivializes or blasphemes
God, as well as such social evils as violence, sensuality,
pornography, profanity, and the occult, as portrayed by and
through the commercial entertainment industry in its many
forms and to endeavor to bring about the demise of enterprises
known to be the purveyors of this kind of entertainment.
This would include the avoidance of all types of entertainment
ventures and media productions that produce,
promote, or feature the violent, the sensual, the pornographic,
the profane, or the occultic, or which feature or glamorize
the world’s philosophy of secularism, sensualism, and materialism
and undermine God’s standard of holiness of heart
and life.
This necessitates the teaching and preaching of these
moral standards of Christian living, and that our people be
taught to use prayerful discernment in continually choosing
the “high road” of holy living. We therefore call upon our
leaders and pastors to give strong emphasis in our periodicals
and from our pulpits to such fundamental truths as will
develop the principle of discrimination between the evil and
good to be found in these media.
We suggest that the standard given to John Wesley by his
mother, namely, “whatever weakens your reason, impairs
the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of
God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, whatever increases
the authority of your body over mind, that thing for
you is sin,” form the basis for this teaching of discrimination.
(33.2-33.4, 903.12-3.14)
(Romans 14:7-13; 1 Corinthians 10:31-33; Ephesians 5:1-18; Philippians
4:8-9; 1 Peter 1:13-17; 2 Peter 1:3-11)
It is exactly to help one another in developing discernment that this forum can play a role.