WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.700 Alright, so last time we were together we said three things. 00:00:10.700 --> 00:00:18.679 We said that God created technology and God created humans to be technological. 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:21.519 So that comes right from Genesis 1. 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:26.699 Secondly, we said God is not ever threatened by human innovation. 00:00:26.699 --> 00:00:33.439 So we saw that God, when humans use technology for evil, God topples it when he wants to, 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:39.240 like the Tower of Babel, or he uses it to save the world, like the cross. 00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:43.000 So God is never deterred by sinful uses of technology. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:48.759 And then the third thing we said is that no matter how poorly we do misuse tech, we as 00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:54.960 Christians can be and should be, I think, tech optimists, noctec pessimists, because 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:59.520 God is using human innovation to bring about his purposes. 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:04.519 And God has authorized us to apply our skill and technique to the sciences so that we 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:09.480 do create things so we can ultimately be tech optimists even when we know that there's 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:11.719 all sorts of bad uses of tech. 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:17.079 Alright, that means that last time we did a theology of tech, a look at the Bible, 00:01:17.079 --> 00:01:22.319 what it says in the most broad strokes about God's relationship to technology. 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:24.359 It wasn't so practical. 00:01:24.359 --> 00:01:28.920 It was more of the theory, the theology, if you will, behind it. 00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:31.239 Now we're going to come back to that next time. 00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:35.680 But for this time, I wanted to do an interlude that is entirely practical. 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:42.039 So move from theology in terms of the system across the Bible to practice. 00:01:42.039 --> 00:01:45.079 And then we'll do it in reverse next time. 00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:52.280 And so let's be more practical today by asking, what does God have to do with Netflix? 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:57.120 That most important piece of technology that is extremely central to what it means to be 00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:58.120 a modern person. 00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:00.599 What does God have to do with Netflix? 00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:08.280 So that's really to think tonight about God, film, and TV. 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:14.680 I'm going to try to move quickly because I think there might, I'm going to leave time 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:16.960 hopefully for discussion. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:21.000 If people want to discuss, I think on this topic, people will want to talk about it and 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.360 say something in comment and ask a question. 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:24.360 So we'll leave time for that. 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:27.800 Hopefully, I don't have a watch because my phone just died. 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:31.840 So and that, I don't know if that clocks eight. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:34.639 No, that clock is definitely not right. 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:35.639 Huh? 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:37.800 Okay, it's wrong by now. 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:39.280 So it is, it is 637. 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:40.280 Sorry. 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:41.280 Okay, cool. 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:42.280 Perfect. 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:43.280 All right. 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:44.280 That helps. 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:45.280 Let's read two passages as we get started. 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:49.280 Back to Genesis one, 26 to 28. 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:56.280 This is God's authorization of us to be technological people. 00:02:56.280 --> 00:03:01.280 God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:06.280 the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock and over all the 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:09.280 earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:14.520 So God created man in his image and the image of God, he created him male and female. 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:15.520 He created them. 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:23.240 And God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:27.920 subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens 00:03:27.920 --> 00:03:30.960 and over every living thing that moves on the earth. 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:37.680 And then secondly, Romans chapter six, verses one to four. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:42.560 It says this. 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:45.439 Paul says, what shall we say? 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:51.680 Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:54.759 How can we who died to sin still live in it? 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:59.400 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:00.920 his death? 00:04:00.920 --> 00:04:04.599 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. 00:04:04.599 --> 00:04:08.680 In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:10.960 might walk in newness of life. 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:15.400 All right. 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:21.600 The screen, the screen is the probably the most dominant piece of technology in the current 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:27.079 era in terms of the time that we spend in relationship to it. 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:35.800 And on the screen, the thing we do most probably is watch TV and movies. 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:39.639 And so it's incredibly important for the church actually for Christians to be corporately 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:45.800 talking about this subject because it consumes so much of our time. 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:51.919 And let me give you a few reasons in particular, very detailed why it's so important to talk 00:04:51.919 --> 00:04:52.919 about this. 00:04:52.919 --> 00:04:58.319 The first is that there are movies and there are TV shows today that are much more powerful 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:04.879 at creating cultural cohesion and informing our cultural concepts than any other force 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:07.159 in all of society. 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:17.320 So an example in 2014, the top 500 names for girls, baby girls worldwide. 00:05:17.320 --> 00:05:25.240 There was one name that jumped 248 spots within 30 days to reach the top 50 and eventually 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:27.040 the top five. 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.560 And that name was Elsa. 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:34.000 And that's because frozen came out on December 6, 2013. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.920 And by the end of January 2014, Elsa was one of the most common names worldwide for all 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.839 the baby girls. 00:05:40.839 --> 00:05:46.639 Now whatever you think about that, it's just a simple cheeky illustration to say that film 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:47.920 is incredibly powerful. 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:49.759 TV is incredibly powerful. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:55.439 And Jody Foster, who's a famous American actress, taxi driver at the beginning of her career 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:01.000 contact, probably her most famous movie, she says this, she says movie character ideals 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:02.759 become our ideals. 00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:06.680 Their thoughts become the standards of popular thinking and language. 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:11.480 Their style of dress, their movement are seen on the streets of our nation and their moments 00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:15.560 of triumph and defeat become our successes and failures. 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:16.959 And that's very true, I think. 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:19.560 The second reason is time. 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:23.399 How many of you watch, let's see if we can get anybody to raise their hand. 00:06:23.399 --> 00:06:29.639 How many of you watch at least one TV show or movie per week? 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:31.839 Surely nearly everyone. 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:34.239 How many of you, let's see if anybody will do this. 00:06:34.239 --> 00:06:39.839 How many of you watch at least one TV show or movie per day? 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:45.000 Yeah, at least half of us. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:51.479 The 2021 stats on TV viewing, that is streaming content, live television or recorded TV. 00:06:51.479 --> 00:06:58.199 In the UK, 2021, average is 179 minutes a day. 00:06:58.199 --> 00:06:59.359 That was the 2021 average. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:04.240 So that's one minute less than three hours as the average consumption of film and TV 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:09.400 per day for the average person in the United Kingdom in 2021. 00:07:09.400 --> 00:07:13.240 Anybody know who the highest, what age group, what two age groups had the highest level 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:16.879 of TV viewing in 2021? 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:20.759 Broad strokes. 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:28.879 Youngest in the oldest, 16 to 24, 16 to 24 and 75 plus. 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:33.000 So that means that 99% of all people in the Western world and really probably the whole 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.719 world spend much more time watching than reading. 00:07:36.719 --> 00:07:40.959 So we're much more shaped by film and TV than books now. 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:42.759 And that doesn't need a defense at all. 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:43.759 Everybody knows that's true. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:45.439 That's common knowledge. 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:48.920 So movies, film was invented 125 years ago. 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:50.560 It's very young. 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:52.000 Books are much older. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:57.560 And yet it's by far and away the most powerful art form in the modern world. 00:07:57.560 --> 00:07:58.879 So that's another reason for thinking about it. 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:07.319 The third and final reason is what I might call digestion or personal formation. 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:13.040 So much personal formation happens through the medium of television film. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:20.360 The story on the screen can often without us knowing it be the most powerful force in 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:23.120 the formation of our own identity. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:24.519 And we might not even be aware of it. 00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:28.839 How do you know if a film, TV show, movie experience has been incredibly powerful for 00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:30.839 you? 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:32.960 Maybe you cried during it. 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:34.799 That's one indication. 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:39.399 You think about the story, the character in particular long after it's over with. 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:40.799 It keeps coming back to you. 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:42.799 It keeps, you keep thinking about it. 00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:46.000 You quote it, you find yourself quoting from it regularly. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:50.639 You adopt its language into your speech patterns. 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:54.399 How many people can give me 50 office quotes perhaps right now? 00:08:54.399 --> 00:09:01.159 And you say, the culture does this, of course, may the force be with you. 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:02.919 This is the broadest strokes. 00:09:02.919 --> 00:09:05.319 The entire culture does this regularly. 00:09:05.319 --> 00:09:13.319 Or, and this is very important, you say in some real life experience that you have, you 00:09:13.319 --> 00:09:18.439 find yourself saying something like this looks like a scene from the movies. 00:09:18.439 --> 00:09:21.319 Now when that happens, something really interesting has happened. 00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:26.080 And that's that perhaps it's a landscape in front of you or an event or a beautiful part 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:30.640 of a city or whatever it may be. 00:09:30.640 --> 00:09:36.000 What's happened there is that a fictional story on the screen has become such a reality 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:41.879 shaping force for you that you actually interpret reality by means of the movie. 00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:46.280 So this was regularly commented on after 9-11, the people that actually were present and 00:09:46.280 --> 00:09:49.680 saw the Twin Towers fall on 9-11. 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:51.559 It was a normal quote. 00:09:51.559 --> 00:09:56.000 This was made much of in the literature afterwards where people said watching the Twin Towers 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.239 fall was like a scene in a movie. 00:09:59.239 --> 00:10:05.679 So reality was fictionalized and fiction became reality. 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:10.519 Movies became the interpretive framework for actually viewing what's real. 00:10:10.519 --> 00:10:13.399 And all of those things are happening to us all the time in ways that we don't know. 00:10:13.399 --> 00:10:18.919 Carl Sandberg is an American poet who was a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and he 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:20.439 died in the 60s. 00:10:20.439 --> 00:10:22.799 So he was very early born in the 1890s. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:30.199 So he saw the rise of film and kind of the movement from the first film all the way to 00:10:30.199 --> 00:10:35.399 the birth of the cinema, 10,000 cinemas across the United States by like the 1955 or something 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:36.399 like that. 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:42.279 10,000 in the 1950s, only about 6,000 today, very interesting. 00:10:42.279 --> 00:10:46.879 He said this, I meet people occasionally who think the product of that Hollywood makes 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:51.000 is mere entertainment, that it has nothing to do with education. 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:55.159 That's one of the darknessful fallacies that is current. 00:10:55.159 --> 00:10:59.120 Anything that brings you to tears by way of drama does something to the deepest roots 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:00.679 of the personality. 00:11:00.679 --> 00:11:06.200 All movies, good or bad, are educational and Hollywood is the foremost educational institution 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:08.399 on planet Earth. 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:13.080 A legitimate question to ask is Hollywood more important than Harvard? 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:15.600 The answer, of course, is absolutely it is. 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:20.879 Without question, Hollywood is more important than Harvard in terms of cultural formation, 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:22.440 worldwide cultural formation. 00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:29.480 All right, so are you a film optimist or a film pessimist as a Christian? 00:11:29.480 --> 00:11:31.720 We said, are you tech optimist? 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:33.279 God created us. 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:38.879 We see in Genesis one to be sub creators, that's Tolkien's language, to be technicians, 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:45.040 to be artists and engineers, to be farmers, to be technologists, we might say. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:49.559 In every dimension of creation. 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:52.399 That includes all manner of technology. 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:58.120 God has given us, through common grace in the 20th century, this pinnacle art form, a 00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:00.959 pinnacle art form, which is film. 00:12:00.959 --> 00:12:07.919 He gave us the power, both of narrative, of story creation, which is in the most strict 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:10.319 definition, a form of tech. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:16.320 Also the engineering that we need to be able to make movies and the many sub developments 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:17.600 within that field. 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:21.200 And God, as the author of history, he has done this. 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:27.600 He has gifted this, just like he gifted the Mason to us, Isaiah 5417, that we quoted last 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:28.600 time. 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:34.000 He gifted the blacksmith and the Mason, and he has gifted to us the ability in all sorts 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:38.680 of manners to create things all the way to the point of movies and film. 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:44.639 And so at the same time, we can say that he's given us tech, and we recognize Noah's arc 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:51.959 saves the world by tech, the tower of Babel, God squashes evil uses of technology, so that 00:12:51.959 --> 00:12:55.199 God gives it to us, but it can be used for incredible evil. 00:12:55.199 --> 00:12:57.439 And that's very true for film and TV, right? 00:12:57.439 --> 00:13:03.120 God gives us the gift, the common graces to develop this medium, and it can be used for 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:07.079 incredible evil simultaneously, right? 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:13.560 And so the biblical logic, I think, here is not that the church, that Christians, that 00:13:13.560 --> 00:13:19.720 the Bible ever says to us to film, to television, that the answer is stop it. 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:21.360 I don't think we can ever say that. 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:25.759 Instead, I think it's what does faithful viewing look like? 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:27.080 What is it? 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:28.440 What is faithful viewing? 00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:32.800 All right, so we'll think about that for the rest, just a few minutes, the rest of our 00:13:32.800 --> 00:13:33.800 time. 00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:39.240 The Roman Catholic Church, in 1933, this was one way that they tried to deal with this 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:44.439 Christian question, and this was actually supported by many Protestants. 00:13:44.439 --> 00:13:50.959 They created, the Roman Catholic Church created a group of cardinals and laymen that was called 00:13:50.959 --> 00:13:53.599 the Legion of Decency. 00:13:53.599 --> 00:14:00.959 And the Legion of Decency was, quote unquote, called by God for the purification of cinema. 00:14:00.960 --> 00:14:08.879 It was its strap line, and a man named Cardinal Daughtery who led this said to the faithful, 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:12.120 through the Magisterium, stay away from the movies. 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:17.160 To be faithful, Christian, you can't consume TV or movies. 00:14:17.160 --> 00:14:18.400 That was the termination. 00:14:18.400 --> 00:14:24.160 But then the Legion of Decency realized that it wasn't winning, and so that gave way to 00:14:24.160 --> 00:14:27.440 the earliest form of the rating system. 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:29.320 Who developed the rating systems? 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:33.240 The Roman Catholics really were the ones that pushed for a rating system, and then some 00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:36.520 Protestants in America supported that extensively. 00:14:36.520 --> 00:14:44.440 The first rating system, you could get one of two ratings, A or C, approved or condemned 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:47.280 through the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency. 00:14:47.280 --> 00:14:48.640 Now what happened? 00:14:48.640 --> 00:14:49.800 What happened? 00:14:49.800 --> 00:14:55.000 The more movies that got a C, what happened? 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:56.080 People went more. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:57.680 People saw more, not less. 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:02.559 The faithful, the Catholic faithful went more to the C's, not the A's. 00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:08.919 And actually, there's a real Protestant principle in that, and that's that what we do to operate 00:15:08.919 --> 00:15:14.239 with relationship to this is we say we pursue the way of wisdom on this. 00:15:14.239 --> 00:15:19.679 And that means that the Bible does not tell us as a rulebook a way for interacting with 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:24.120 every medium, art form, any cultural artifact in the world. 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:28.399 It doesn't tell you outright how to approach it, how to deal with it, what to consume, 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:32.360 what not to consume in every detailed way. 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:33.360 We don't have a rulebook. 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:35.720 The Bible isn't just not a rulebook in that way. 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:39.159 And so what movies to watch, what TV shows are acceptable, which are not, the way of 00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:45.600 wisdom instead says this conform to the image of Christ. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:53.320 And then use wisdom and your conscience to determine what is good and right. 00:15:53.320 --> 00:15:57.280 And that means that we believe in the freedom of the individual conscience before God as 00:15:57.280 --> 00:16:03.400 that conscience is being shaped by Jesus in relationship to Christ. 00:16:03.400 --> 00:16:10.800 So watching some TV shows is a sin, absolutely. 00:16:10.800 --> 00:16:12.840 But not always. 00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:15.520 And so we've got to ask, what do we do? 00:16:15.520 --> 00:16:16.520 How do we think about this? 00:16:16.520 --> 00:16:22.240 Now, I'd like to come back around later and do a full series on this issue. 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:27.279 And all I'm going to do tonight is give you five, very quickly, five principles I think 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:33.120 are biblically informed wisdom principles on approaching television, Netflix, whatever 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:34.120 it may be. 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:35.120 Okay. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:38.600 And I'm just going to rattle through these so that we can have time if anybody wants 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:39.600 to say anything. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:47.200 Number one, we must understand that content does not equal corruption. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:51.600 Corrupted content cannot, does not necessarily equal corruption. 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:52.600 Now what does that mean? 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:58.360 That means that when we view, when we read, when we see, when we listen to something that 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:07.279 contains evil content, it does not necessitate that we engage in sin. 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:10.360 That those have to be separated, actually. 00:17:10.360 --> 00:17:15.559 You don't merely sin in the act of seeing something evil. 00:17:15.559 --> 00:17:16.559 Not at all. 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:17.559 Or hearing something evil. 00:17:17.559 --> 00:17:20.839 Or reading something that's evil. 00:17:20.839 --> 00:17:24.599 And so one of my friends from the States is a guy named John Parrot and he wrote a book 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:27.439 about film and he says this content does not equal corruption. 00:17:27.439 --> 00:17:28.839 And this is what he means. 00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:34.240 The presence of corrupted content does not make something necessarily bad. 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:35.240 What do we mean? 00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:40.639 A film, a book, a piece of art can be true and helpful even while it contains corrupt 00:17:40.639 --> 00:17:42.839 evil content. 00:17:42.839 --> 00:17:44.319 How so? 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:47.439 Where's the proof? 00:17:47.439 --> 00:17:49.439 Where's the proof? 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:52.600 Really informed wisdom. 00:17:52.600 --> 00:17:54.120 The cross, yeah, what else? 00:17:54.120 --> 00:17:55.200 broader, yeah. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:56.200 The Bible, right? 00:17:56.200 --> 00:17:57.700 The Bible, okay? 00:17:57.700 --> 00:17:59.200 Judges 19 to 21. 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:01.759 Go read Judges 19 to 21 later. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:07.360 And you quickly realize that corruption, evil content does not necessitate a corrupted 00:18:07.360 --> 00:18:09.400 self, right? 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:14.680 Judges 19 to 21 might be the most horrific sequence of events, arguably in human history 00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:19.160 in some way with respect to a particular individual. 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:23.440 The Bible contains many, many, many horrible sins and evils, right? 00:18:23.440 --> 00:18:24.440 Corrupt content. 00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:26.279 But of course it is God's word. 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:29.600 The question is not does it contain evil action? 00:18:29.600 --> 00:18:32.560 The question is what is the meaning? 00:18:32.560 --> 00:18:34.519 What is the meaning of the content? 00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:38.000 That's the more significant question. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:42.640 Now that doesn't mean that we treat all cultural artifacts like we treat the Bible. 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:43.640 No, not at all. 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:44.640 Not saying that. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:50.759 That doesn't mean that we at least have to say that it's not necessarily sinful to see 00:18:50.759 --> 00:18:55.440 or hear or read evil, evil content. 00:18:55.440 --> 00:18:58.640 Okay, so instead, what, where is the line? 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:00.880 What's the question? 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:06.240 I think that the wise question isn't, is there anything corrupt here? 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:07.759 But here's the question. 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:09.320 Does it call second principle? 00:19:09.319 --> 00:19:14.799 Does it cause sinful desire in me? 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:18.759 Does it cause corruption to advance in my heart? 00:19:18.759 --> 00:19:20.480 That's the principle. 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:26.159 So the flip side of that might be that something that does portray evil in some way is actually 00:19:26.159 --> 00:19:30.639 helping me to see corruption in this world more clearly. 00:19:30.639 --> 00:19:31.639 And that can be positive. 00:19:31.639 --> 00:19:34.279 That can be something that is true, right? 00:19:34.279 --> 00:19:37.279 Something that in that light is good for me. 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:43.119 So for example, I remember when I was very young, not very young, but early teenager, 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:48.480 and my dad decided to let me see a couple different war films that were explicit in 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:52.799 all sorts of ways, mainly violence wise. 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:59.399 And I came from a fairly strict home in regards to film and TV and all that. 00:19:59.399 --> 00:20:06.759 But my dad's logic was actually seeing this kind of evil helps you to understand the history 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:12.559 of the 20th century and what people that came before you went through to stop Nazism, for 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:13.559 example. 00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:19.240 And so I saw immense evil, absolute horror, and it helped me to understand the cost of 00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:20.240 justice. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:25.240 So that would be an example, for instance, of how this works. 00:20:25.240 --> 00:20:26.559 We read Romans 6. 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:28.839 We could also think of Matthew 5. 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:30.440 Here's the Matthew 5 principle. 00:20:30.440 --> 00:20:34.960 Jesus says, if it causes you to sin, pluck your eye out. 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:39.519 And so there's the principle for viewing, is it does it cause you to sin, then pluck 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:40.519 your eye out? 00:20:40.519 --> 00:20:42.400 In other words, don't turn it off. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:43.640 Don't watch it, right? 00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:46.400 So where is the line, sin is the line? 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:47.400 That's the answer. 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:51.160 Your conscience tells you as it conforms to Jesus. 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:56.799 So the classic things are of course, sex, violence, and language, the three things that 00:20:56.799 --> 00:20:59.799 the early writing system is looking for. 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:02.400 And that's a fairly good metric. 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:07.759 Although there's much more and there's much more complication in how these things are 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:09.840 portrayed. 00:21:09.840 --> 00:21:15.800 But a helpful question might just be, does this cause me sins of lust, sins of speech? 00:21:15.800 --> 00:21:21.240 So is my, does this force me to develop a more crude personality? 00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:25.560 Like does the humor create crudeness in me? 00:21:25.560 --> 00:21:27.920 Or sins of anger, perhaps? 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:33.400 Does this violence cause me to desire violence, to be harsh, to be, to have a disposition 00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:35.519 towards it? 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:39.400 All right, so here's the way of wisdom. 00:21:39.400 --> 00:21:43.320 The way of wisdom means that actually this, the answer, the line is going to be different 00:21:43.320 --> 00:21:45.200 for different people. 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:47.120 It's actually going to, it's going to be different for different people. 00:21:47.120 --> 00:21:52.160 There's not a clear line in the sand on this. 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:57.039 Last thing I'll say before we move on to number three is that probably, probably for most of 00:21:57.039 --> 00:22:01.680 us, our struggle is not that we avoid too much. 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:05.480 It's that we consume too much. 00:22:05.480 --> 00:22:10.839 So the fundamentalist might be avoiding too much and that person needs to hear that film 00:22:10.839 --> 00:22:12.159 is actually a gift of God. 00:22:12.159 --> 00:22:15.639 But for most of us, that's probably not our problem. 00:22:15.639 --> 00:22:18.119 It's probably that our avoidance rate, our needs to be higher. 00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:22.680 All right, third, never be a mere consumer. 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:27.360 So number three, mere consumption equals mere entertainment. 00:22:27.360 --> 00:22:39.279 Okay, in other words, a, treating film TV in those mediums as objects of mere entertainment 00:22:39.279 --> 00:22:45.880 is when you allow those things to become a liturgy of desire, as we might put it, meaning 00:22:45.880 --> 00:22:49.440 that it almost becomes religious. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:54.440 Usually when there are mere comfort for you, merely entertainment, they are doing work on 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:57.000 you that you don't know. 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:01.120 When you don't have a critical disposition toward it, a dialogue disposition, that it's 00:23:01.120 --> 00:23:04.320 doing work in your heart that you might not be aware of. 00:23:04.320 --> 00:23:11.120 We call this a liturgy of desire in the same way that the way you perform the liturgy of 00:23:11.120 --> 00:23:16.080 pulling your phone out of your pocket all day, every day reshapes your entire emotional 00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:20.839 life and imagination and what you hope and dream and all of it. 00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:25.359 Watching movies to merely be entertained is a liturgy of desire. 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:29.399 It's being conformed in ways that you're not aware of. 00:23:29.399 --> 00:23:35.720 And there's, we could spend an entire time talking about that. 00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:42.799 So let me just say and move on that probably, probably if you are at the level of TV and 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:49.519 movie consumption, that is the average UK three hours a day, probably you're in a state 00:23:49.519 --> 00:23:57.960 of mere consumption, mere entertainment, probably, unless you're like a professional film critic. 00:23:57.960 --> 00:24:01.960 So it's probably not a good place to be that level of consumption. 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:06.599 All right, number four, now let's turn it and get to the positives here. 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:10.000 I said five, I really can just do it in four. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:18.160 Instead, put on this posture with respect to TV and film, the posture of critical dialogue, 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:19.440 critical dialogue. 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:22.000 I think that's the way of wisdom here. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:25.440 Okay, here's what I mean. 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:32.240 Critical dialogue with film and TV asks, what is the meaning of what I'm watching? 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:35.279 So that's kind of a basic way of saying it. 00:24:35.279 --> 00:24:41.920 In other words, it evaluates what you're watching, it discusses the dialogues with whatever 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:44.440 it is that you're watching. 00:24:44.440 --> 00:24:50.079 It thinks about the show, the TV, the film on its own terms and its own context and 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:55.160 ask questions like, what is this trying to communicate within the context that it was 00:24:55.160 --> 00:24:57.680 created? 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:00.559 And then you can enter into all manner of questions. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:07.119 Now, I'm not saying that you write these down and try to jot down answers, but I think 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:12.319 this is more of a posture, a critical posture of having a little bit of a barrier up, but 00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:16.000 also a different type of interest in film and TV. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:20.919 And here's some questions, theological dialogue with film. 00:25:20.919 --> 00:25:26.759 You can appreciate the beauty of the film's aesthetic or judge the film's aesthetic. 00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:33.279 You can assess the characters' responses to the ethical circumstances that they're in 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:34.640 based on their context. 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:39.680 You can ask them what can be learned from them, what must be rejected, what does this 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:42.599 say to me, what does this say about me? 00:25:42.599 --> 00:25:44.839 How does this portray God? 00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:46.559 Does it portray God at all? 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:47.559 Religion? 00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:48.559 Does it affirm? 00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:49.559 Does it reject? 00:25:49.559 --> 00:25:50.559 And why? 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:55.440 After considering the story, you can say, you can have a two-way conversation with it 00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:58.320 and ask other things like, can I learn from this? 00:25:58.320 --> 00:25:59.960 Did it shape me? 00:25:59.960 --> 00:26:01.880 How am I aware? 00:26:01.880 --> 00:26:03.559 Which I ought to be aware of. 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:07.120 What is the vision of the good life that this movie is portraying? 00:26:07.120 --> 00:26:09.080 Is there a Christ figure? 00:26:09.080 --> 00:26:10.640 Is there a Christ figure in this film? 00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:14.200 And if we had a whole series on this, we'd spend an entire time talking about Christ 00:26:14.200 --> 00:26:18.920 figures in movies and how important that actually has been. 00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:20.160 Here's another set of questions. 00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:24.320 What does the film assume about the way the world is? 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:26.240 What does the film assume about the way the world is? 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:30.240 What are the key features of the world that it tries to deal with? 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:31.960 Does it say anything true? 00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:33.759 Does it say anything good? 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:35.839 Is it beautiful? 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:38.399 What vision of the future inspired its creators? 00:26:38.399 --> 00:26:39.519 What does it offer the world? 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:42.919 Was it teach me about the good life and on and on and on and on? 00:26:42.919 --> 00:26:45.240 So this is critical dialogue. 00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:52.279 And critical dialogue protects your heart from biosmosis entering into the story and 00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:57.399 becoming in ways shaped towards it in ways that aren't good and healthy. 00:26:57.399 --> 00:27:01.359 But it also actually opens it up and gives you access to meaning that you might not 00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:04.519 have ever seen. 00:27:04.519 --> 00:27:12.639 And so this posture, critical dialogue, I think is the critical way to assess film and 00:27:12.639 --> 00:27:16.039 be in relationship to it. 00:27:16.039 --> 00:27:17.039 Let me close with this. 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:22.160 There are all sorts of stories I think everybody in this room could tell if they thought 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:27.600 for just a few minutes about a way a TV show, a series or a movie has indeed shaped them 00:27:27.600 --> 00:27:29.840 in an immense way. 00:27:29.840 --> 00:27:31.800 And that can be for good. 00:27:31.800 --> 00:27:33.200 That can be for bad. 00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:36.000 I know that in my own life, it's definitely been both. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:40.920 That there are characters that I still think about in good ways and bad ways that I know 00:27:40.920 --> 00:27:45.040 have bent me in a wrong direction or pushed me towards a good direction. 00:27:45.040 --> 00:27:46.279 That's happening to us all the time. 00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:52.839 And there's a story of an author, a man named Robert K. Johnston who's written three or 00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:55.519 four books about theology and film. 00:27:55.519 --> 00:28:01.599 And he talks about how his wife watched a movie when she was just a teenager, a movie 00:28:01.599 --> 00:28:06.519 about an injustice in East Asia. 00:28:06.519 --> 00:28:11.160 And she says that it was the day that she believes God called her to the mission field 00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:13.639 through the film in the movie theater. 00:28:13.639 --> 00:28:15.599 And God can do that sometimes. 00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:20.199 He can use mediums, all sorts of mediums like that to inspire and move a heart towards 00:28:20.199 --> 00:28:21.199 something. 00:28:21.199 --> 00:28:29.279 And he can also do it, sorry, we can also do it towards an entire lifestyle that is not 00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:31.279 God honoring and not God glorifying. 00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:33.559 It can happen both ways. 00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:39.679 And so critical dialogue helps us protect ourselves but also engage in meaning at the 00:28:39.679 --> 00:28:45.559 same time and look for the true, the good and the beautiful in any medium that we engage 00:28:45.559 --> 00:28:45.879 with.