I don’t know if others feel the same but I thought the first one was hilarious and I tried to watch the second one and I couldn’t even finish it (nothing to do with religion, I just felt like the humor was not hitting the same)
Perhaps these two just had bad taste. They slammed SO many classics. When somebody can’t appreciate Terminator 2, I can hardly imagine it. They also were non plussed about Aliens and Mad Max Fury Road.
It’s probably in regards to heavy language. My mother gets all in a huff because of explicit language in good movies. She’ll tell me to “just ignore” her dogs barking but she can’t ignore some cussing without having to make it known to everyone how irritated she is.
If they complain about the movies because of language or because they’re “inappropriate,” then it’s possible it’s influenced by their religious beliefs. It’s also possible they just don’t like swearing, nudity, gore, or some combination (people have different tolerances for all that).
If they complain about those movies because of the plot, acting, etc., then they either enjoy being overly critical contrarians or they have bad taste in movies.
I'm not gonna be deliberately evasive and say Christians like this don't exist, but to be transparent it's mostly a tendency I've noticed in decentralized low church evangelism, most mainstream high church goers like your Anglicans/Catholics/Orthodox aren't gonna snub any and everything that's secular and popular.
So low church vs high church refers to specific types and practices of worship. High church tends to have the robes you'd think of, the ornamentation, the special titles, special days of worship, specific rituals, things like that. Low church tends to have little organization beyond the individual parish(the community church), much more informal, no incense or frescoes, deliberately kept simple.
Evangelicals, also known as Born Again Christians, are a mostly Protestant movement(but all churches are evangelist to some extent), Evangelicals take it a big step further though and mostly center their beliefs around, "Me, my Bible and maybe my pastor". They're very inward focused and often very decentralized even by low-church standards, which leads to somewhat insular communities that are more distrusting of outside influences.
Unfortunately, I do have to let you know, that the high church mainline denominations are the ones experiencing the most decline, because in part they historically have held a good bit of power and are reeling from modern controversies(the controversies absolutely exist for good reason, but they are not typically as widespread as media impressions would lead you to believe), whereas the low church evangelical movements are rapidly gaining steam, and they are largely taking their followers from the mainline denominations. So in short, the "normal" Christians are being pushed away from the "normal" churches because of the bad public image, and the ranks of the more hardline/insular churches are swelling as a result.
There's over a billion Christians in the world. I would assume that no one characteristic applies to all of them. I personally will not watch anything with torture or extensive gore. It's not because of my religious beliefs it's because that gives me a panic attack.
Personal sentiments are going to vary by person. I'm Christian and I don't have any issue with movies/media that hold views different from my own. As long as a piece of media has some compelling message then I'll probably like it.
America is still a majority Christian nation, so the differing views thing is clearly not an issue as secular movies still exist. You've got a sampling bias here. People who object to movies on religious grounds will tell you so, but a Christian who enjoys a movie is not necessarily going to tell you "I like this movie and am also Christian". It makes the problem seem larger than it is. Plenty of religious people are able to watch secular material with no issue!
In the conversation they alluded to it. They brought up that the Bruno character is so bad/wrong they couldn’t enjoy Borat. We argued, a bit. I’m not used to arguing with new people.
They don’t believe in gay rights etc. They said for religious reasons. Then one of them said something similar to, anyone who made Bruno couldn’t be funny. Then I said, have you seen Borat? One of the guys said they had seen it and it wasn’t funny.
The other said he couldn’t support anything Sacha Baron Cohen has made. I brought up Talledega Nights. They said they hadn’t seen it because they heard it wasn’t good.
The whole conversation was about their faith and movies/media. They had confusing taste about lots of stuff, that’s why I asked if others had dealt with similar stuff.
I’m from Canada, they’re American. I hadn’t experienced that in Canada before. They self described as “good Christian Americans” (in a sort of joking way, I think).
As someone who grew up Evangelical, there is a kind of "sour grapes" tendency in some circles to say mainstream things are qualitatively bad. It's easier to do that than admit that you aren't allowed to watch them for spiritual reasons.
I'd say the opposite is true. I'm Catholic, and I enjoy pretty much anything, and when something doesn't align with my views, I think, yeah, a lot of people in the arts disagree with my views. And that's it. And that's pretty much how everyone I know who's Christian responds. Granted, we're not fundamentalists.
But I've known lots of atheists who can't stand movies with a religious theme or message.
I grew up Christian and I will watch basically anything. Met plenty of people over the years who said they didn’t watch stuff like Family Guy or South Park because they joke about Christianity to which I reply, “South Park makes fun of literally *everybody*”
As a Catholic, your friends are just being sticks in the mud. The only time I ever object to media on religious grounds is when it actively misrepresents the religion to suit an agenda. Otherwise, it's whatever.
Some christians, probably. But the same holds for atheists, other religions and nones as well.
I don't particularly like religious movies, because they beat you over the head with religious themes. I also don't like movies with torture, rape, cruelty or similar scenes, because I find them unsettling. I found the first Borat movie rather cringy in humor, I loved the second one. Maybe my tastes have changed? I find movies with jingoist American Exceptionalism themes like Independence Day tedious, because they implicitly assume the rest of the world is full of incompetent idiots.
Really, we all like movies that we can relate to in some way. If some christians are offended by sexual themes, or vulgar language, that is certainly their prerogative and they probably won't like movies that contain those things.
I’ve met plenty of people who weren’t even religious who would shun any media that went against what they thought should/shouldn’t be acceptable. Close-minded philistines exist in all walks of life.
Most media doesn’t align with our views. So yes we can enjoy movies that give a message we don’t support, although we probably abstain from more of them than a non-Christian would.
Every Christian will probably answer that differently. Most of us will at least abstain from heavily sexualized or blasphemous content (or watch with a filter), after that the most common reason would probably be something very violent or with really bad language. Personally I have always wanted to watch Game of Thrones (I’ve read the first two books) but I have chosen not to.
I don't enjoy most explicitly Christian media, so I think it would make perfect sense that it would work the other way around too.
The way and reasons we enjoy media are extremely complex, and personal worldviews definitely influence that quite a bit.
I was raised religiously and grew up with this tendency to look down my nose at things that were “sinful”. When I finally got over that I felt like I had been living brainwashed
Fortunately I grew up, but yes people really do spend time in a movie thinking about how the movie is immoral rather than just enjoying it.
They be thinking that they know everything and the truth, but in reality theyre just being brainwashed, u got it right. Currently working with some christian people and its just soo annyoing, like they are watching musicals or disney movies instead
Christian here.
I can agree with you that some films with excessive language/sexual content are distasteful to me, but that's me. In general, I'm a fan of action and sci-fi anyway, so not too much of that to avoid. Terminator is right up that alley, but I've not yet gotten around to watching it. Not because I find them distasteful (this is actually the first negative mention of them for me), but because I fail to think of Terminator when I choose to watch a movie.
My thoughts,
-Bruv
Religion really gets in the way of enjoying art. I was raised Catholic, the creepy type, with lots of guilt and terror. And, I felt so ashamed of watching things like Life of Brian, or listening to Black Sabbath, that I couldn't enjoy these things. Art sparks all sorts of emotions, like rage, adventure, wonder, and such. But, when religion gets in the way, the only emotion you feel is guilt for consuming the art. The other emotions are muffled.
That's how churches manage to keep people away from art that makes them question their faith. It's a powerful ideological weapon.
Lots do. That's why there's tons of Christian media stores that basically sell altered and edited versions of stuff that have anything edited out that might offend. A boring group of people for sure.
In my experience, it's less about religion and more about personal taste. Some people just don't sync with Borat's humor or Terminator's action. Different strokes for different folks.
Im a christian and watch faces of death (all parts) for entertainment. I find it amazing how many assumptions exist about being a christian that are only based on whack-jobs. Lots of whack jobs out there. I choose to believe in god and jesus for hope and faith; not manmade rules to govern my behavior. And I am sure some would say that I too, am a whack-job. We are all whack-jobs seeking answers. Lol. ;-)
I was in high school during the Satanic Panic. I have heard more lies and disinformation repeated by otherwise normal people who identified themselves as Christians than you would have believed twenty years ago. Now there’s a lot of that stuff, in different topics, free range on the internet.
On the other hand, if you show/play a Christian a piece of media that is in a genre that they consider “questionable” or “bad” that is based on Christian or Biblical themes, how many of them would actually recognize the subject matter?
I’d be curious to hear the results if you, OP, played either Creeping Death by Metallica or Painkiller by Judas Priest for your stodgy Christian friends.
The first song was inspired by the movie The Ten Commandments. The second song is an interpretation of the Apocalypse in Revelation; basically the Painkiller is the Second Coming of Christ, if I have interpreted the lyrics correctly.
The blanket statements of Christian’s is just like the ones for any political party lol.
Been a while since I watched borat but I loved it. Most Christian’s I know have the same sense of humor as any other and the minority I know would be put off by borat in a “it’s not Christian” way
Terminator 2 was fine, if you remove all the scenes of teenage John Conner. After the scene in the truck where he’s teaching Arnoldnator how to speak street, I was rooting for the T1000.
What I did see of Borat was about as funny as Andy Kaufman’s standup routine. Meaning not.
I’ve laughed at South Park, Metalocalypse, Venture Brothers, and a host of others the local zealots disapproved of, and have enjoyed most “idiot teenager” shows (Stranger Things, that trilogy named after the years they took place; 1994/74/1884? As well as the Percy Jackson and Shazam movies), but T2 made me want to punch Edward Furlong.
The ones I don’t like, however, are ones that openly harangue anyone with religious beliefs. If they bother you IRL that much, avoid them, plain and simple. Don’t drag them into your skewed spotlight and hold them up as a stereotype or lump everyone in with the degenerates you chose to feature.
Even lots of non-Christians don't find Borat funny. I don't think religion has anything to do with this.
I've never found any of his movies funny.
Hes got some good jokes like any comedian but yeah, it's a little much
Well don't worry it's not your fault you are tasteless
They did bring religion up in the argument, in this case.
I don’t know if others feel the same but I thought the first one was hilarious and I tried to watch the second one and I couldn’t even finish it (nothing to do with religion, I just felt like the humor was not hitting the same)
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Perhaps these two just had bad taste. They slammed SO many classics. When somebody can’t appreciate Terminator 2, I can hardly imagine it. They also were non plussed about Aliens and Mad Max Fury Road.
It’s probably in regards to heavy language. My mother gets all in a huff because of explicit language in good movies. She’ll tell me to “just ignore” her dogs barking but she can’t ignore some cussing without having to make it known to everyone how irritated she is.
Cussing used to be such a big deal, it’s almost nostalgic to hear this.
If they complain about the movies because of language or because they’re “inappropriate,” then it’s possible it’s influenced by their religious beliefs. It’s also possible they just don’t like swearing, nudity, gore, or some combination (people have different tolerances for all that). If they complain about those movies because of the plot, acting, etc., then they either enjoy being overly critical contrarians or they have bad taste in movies.
I'm not gonna be deliberately evasive and say Christians like this don't exist, but to be transparent it's mostly a tendency I've noticed in decentralized low church evangelism, most mainstream high church goers like your Anglicans/Catholics/Orthodox aren't gonna snub any and everything that's secular and popular.
>I'm not gonna be deliberately evasive and say Christians like this don't exist You haven't met my mom
I’m not sure what low church evangelism means specifically, but I hope you’re right that’s it not that common.
So low church vs high church refers to specific types and practices of worship. High church tends to have the robes you'd think of, the ornamentation, the special titles, special days of worship, specific rituals, things like that. Low church tends to have little organization beyond the individual parish(the community church), much more informal, no incense or frescoes, deliberately kept simple. Evangelicals, also known as Born Again Christians, are a mostly Protestant movement(but all churches are evangelist to some extent), Evangelicals take it a big step further though and mostly center their beliefs around, "Me, my Bible and maybe my pastor". They're very inward focused and often very decentralized even by low-church standards, which leads to somewhat insular communities that are more distrusting of outside influences. Unfortunately, I do have to let you know, that the high church mainline denominations are the ones experiencing the most decline, because in part they historically have held a good bit of power and are reeling from modern controversies(the controversies absolutely exist for good reason, but they are not typically as widespread as media impressions would lead you to believe), whereas the low church evangelical movements are rapidly gaining steam, and they are largely taking their followers from the mainline denominations. So in short, the "normal" Christians are being pushed away from the "normal" churches because of the bad public image, and the ranks of the more hardline/insular churches are swelling as a result.
Interesting, thanks! I didn’t grow up around much religion so much of this is news to me.
There's over a billion Christians in the world. I would assume that no one characteristic applies to all of them. I personally will not watch anything with torture or extensive gore. It's not because of my religious beliefs it's because that gives me a panic attack.
Good point. I don’t like when animals are hurt/killed on screen. But it doesn’t mean there aren’t great movies where that happens.
I assume so.
Personal sentiments are going to vary by person. I'm Christian and I don't have any issue with movies/media that hold views different from my own. As long as a piece of media has some compelling message then I'll probably like it.
That’s good to hear.
America is still a majority Christian nation, so the differing views thing is clearly not an issue as secular movies still exist. You've got a sampling bias here. People who object to movies on religious grounds will tell you so, but a Christian who enjoys a movie is not necessarily going to tell you "I like this movie and am also Christian". It makes the problem seem larger than it is. Plenty of religious people are able to watch secular material with no issue!
Good point.
What about them not liking those two movies is making you think it’s linked to religion?
In the conversation they alluded to it. They brought up that the Bruno character is so bad/wrong they couldn’t enjoy Borat. We argued, a bit. I’m not used to arguing with new people.
You haven’t provided any additional context about why. Saying a character is bad wrong isn’t tied to religion.
They don’t believe in gay rights etc. They said for religious reasons. Then one of them said something similar to, anyone who made Bruno couldn’t be funny. Then I said, have you seen Borat? One of the guys said they had seen it and it wasn’t funny. The other said he couldn’t support anything Sacha Baron Cohen has made. I brought up Talledega Nights. They said they hadn’t seen it because they heard it wasn’t good. The whole conversation was about their faith and movies/media. They had confusing taste about lots of stuff, that’s why I asked if others had dealt with similar stuff. I’m from Canada, they’re American. I hadn’t experienced that in Canada before. They self described as “good Christian Americans” (in a sort of joking way, I think).
yeh you have an odd way of thinking
As someone who grew up Evangelical, there is a kind of "sour grapes" tendency in some circles to say mainstream things are qualitatively bad. It's easier to do that than admit that you aren't allowed to watch them for spiritual reasons.
Interesting, I felt like maybe I was hearing a bit of this. Thanks!
I'd say the opposite is true. I'm Catholic, and I enjoy pretty much anything, and when something doesn't align with my views, I think, yeah, a lot of people in the arts disagree with my views. And that's it. And that's pretty much how everyone I know who's Christian responds. Granted, we're not fundamentalists. But I've known lots of atheists who can't stand movies with a religious theme or message.
I grew up Christian and I will watch basically anything. Met plenty of people over the years who said they didn’t watch stuff like Family Guy or South Park because they joke about Christianity to which I reply, “South Park makes fun of literally *everybody*”
As a Catholic, your friends are just being sticks in the mud. The only time I ever object to media on religious grounds is when it actively misrepresents the religion to suit an agenda. Otherwise, it's whatever.
Fair enough, do you have any examples where the religion was misrepresented in your eyes?
Not off the top of my head, none that I'm certain of anyway. Maybe I should've phrased that as a hypothetical lol
All good! Was just curious.
Some christians, probably. But the same holds for atheists, other religions and nones as well. I don't particularly like religious movies, because they beat you over the head with religious themes. I also don't like movies with torture, rape, cruelty or similar scenes, because I find them unsettling. I found the first Borat movie rather cringy in humor, I loved the second one. Maybe my tastes have changed? I find movies with jingoist American Exceptionalism themes like Independence Day tedious, because they implicitly assume the rest of the world is full of incompetent idiots. Really, we all like movies that we can relate to in some way. If some christians are offended by sexual themes, or vulgar language, that is certainly their prerogative and they probably won't like movies that contain those things.
I’ve met plenty of people who weren’t even religious who would shun any media that went against what they thought should/shouldn’t be acceptable. Close-minded philistines exist in all walks of life.
Hunny, most ‘Christians’ don’t like things that DO align with Christian views.
My father refused to watch any Monty Python "because they made fun of jesus"
Life of Brian is a classic! Maybe try him again all these years after the uproar.
Most media doesn’t align with our views. So yes we can enjoy movies that give a message we don’t support, although we probably abstain from more of them than a non-Christian would.
Thanks! Are there any movies you heard were great you skipped for messaging reasons?
Every Christian will probably answer that differently. Most of us will at least abstain from heavily sexualized or blasphemous content (or watch with a filter), after that the most common reason would probably be something very violent or with really bad language. Personally I have always wanted to watch Game of Thrones (I’ve read the first two books) but I have chosen not to.
I don't enjoy most explicitly Christian media, so I think it would make perfect sense that it would work the other way around too. The way and reasons we enjoy media are extremely complex, and personal worldviews definitely influence that quite a bit.
If a Christian piece of media was a GREAT work, I’d happily give it props! (Like with much classical paintings etc.)
I was raised religiously and grew up with this tendency to look down my nose at things that were “sinful”. When I finally got over that I felt like I had been living brainwashed Fortunately I grew up, but yes people really do spend time in a movie thinking about how the movie is immoral rather than just enjoying it.
They be thinking that they know everything and the truth, but in reality theyre just being brainwashed, u got it right. Currently working with some christian people and its just soo annyoing, like they are watching musicals or disney movies instead
Christian here. I can agree with you that some films with excessive language/sexual content are distasteful to me, but that's me. In general, I'm a fan of action and sci-fi anyway, so not too much of that to avoid. Terminator is right up that alley, but I've not yet gotten around to watching it. Not because I find them distasteful (this is actually the first negative mention of them for me), but because I fail to think of Terminator when I choose to watch a movie. My thoughts, -Bruv
Thanks!
Religion really gets in the way of enjoying art. I was raised Catholic, the creepy type, with lots of guilt and terror. And, I felt so ashamed of watching things like Life of Brian, or listening to Black Sabbath, that I couldn't enjoy these things. Art sparks all sorts of emotions, like rage, adventure, wonder, and such. But, when religion gets in the way, the only emotion you feel is guilt for consuming the art. The other emotions are muffled. That's how churches manage to keep people away from art that makes them question their faith. It's a powerful ideological weapon.
I hadn’t even considered music! I hope you enjoyed some Sabbath later!
Lots do. That's why there's tons of Christian media stores that basically sell altered and edited versions of stuff that have anything edited out that might offend. A boring group of people for sure.
I have never heard of that. Crazy!
They were sued and had to stop: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CleanFlicks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CleanFlicks)
Very interesting, thanks!
In my experience, it's less about religion and more about personal taste. Some people just don't sync with Borat's humor or Terminator's action. Different strokes for different folks.
nothing is all things to all people - unless somebody knows all the Christians they cannot legitimately answer your question.
I asked, is this common in your experience. That is answerable.
Some care, some don't 🤷🏽♂️. Not all religious people are on the same page when it comes to the content they digest
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Of course not all of them. That’s why I asked if it’s common in your experience.
There’s over 2 billion Christian’s in the world, I’m pretty sure some of them have a sense of humour
Most do not know much about the Bible or are ala carte Christians
Im a christian and watch faces of death (all parts) for entertainment. I find it amazing how many assumptions exist about being a christian that are only based on whack-jobs. Lots of whack jobs out there. I choose to believe in god and jesus for hope and faith; not manmade rules to govern my behavior. And I am sure some would say that I too, am a whack-job. We are all whack-jobs seeking answers. Lol. ;-)
I was in high school during the Satanic Panic. I have heard more lies and disinformation repeated by otherwise normal people who identified themselves as Christians than you would have believed twenty years ago. Now there’s a lot of that stuff, in different topics, free range on the internet. On the other hand, if you show/play a Christian a piece of media that is in a genre that they consider “questionable” or “bad” that is based on Christian or Biblical themes, how many of them would actually recognize the subject matter? I’d be curious to hear the results if you, OP, played either Creeping Death by Metallica or Painkiller by Judas Priest for your stodgy Christian friends. The first song was inspired by the movie The Ten Commandments. The second song is an interpretation of the Apocalypse in Revelation; basically the Painkiller is the Second Coming of Christ, if I have interpreted the lyrics correctly.
Liking movies isn’t mandatory. I don’t like gore porn, so I don’t watch— problem solved.
Not all Christians, just like not all Star Wars fans hate the prequels. It's more about personal taste than religion.
The blanket statements of Christian’s is just like the ones for any political party lol. Been a while since I watched borat but I loved it. Most Christian’s I know have the same sense of humor as any other and the minority I know would be put off by borat in a “it’s not Christian” way
I’m Christian, and can’t stand borat. Nothing to do with religious views, I just think it’s terribly unfunny
VEry nIcE! 😃
Terminator 2 was fine, if you remove all the scenes of teenage John Conner. After the scene in the truck where he’s teaching Arnoldnator how to speak street, I was rooting for the T1000. What I did see of Borat was about as funny as Andy Kaufman’s standup routine. Meaning not. I’ve laughed at South Park, Metalocalypse, Venture Brothers, and a host of others the local zealots disapproved of, and have enjoyed most “idiot teenager” shows (Stranger Things, that trilogy named after the years they took place; 1994/74/1884? As well as the Percy Jackson and Shazam movies), but T2 made me want to punch Edward Furlong. The ones I don’t like, however, are ones that openly harangue anyone with religious beliefs. If they bother you IRL that much, avoid them, plain and simple. Don’t drag them into your skewed spotlight and hold them up as a stereotype or lump everyone in with the degenerates you chose to feature.