Movies have come a long way since the 1940s. Where there used to be small screens, playing black-and-white pictures with no sound, there are now massive screens, playing high-definition images with quality surround-sound, all for the enjoyment of the average Joe.
Looking past the outward changes, we’ve also seen a lot of differences within the movie-making industry. In several ways, the industry has seemed to devolve, allowing itself to be controlled by the culture around it. In other ways, we have seen major improvements, namely in the Christian movement industry. But what changes do we see in secular movies?
Secular movies can be defined, in this case, as all movies that are not Christian-focused. Marvel’s blockbuster movie Avengers: Endgame was secular since it wasn’t inherently Christian. Of course, this stopped neither me nor my friends from watching it multiple times. A lack of Christianity does not necessarily mean a bad movie. It is, after all, impossible to fully incorporate Christianity into everyday life. With that, we would run the risk of marketing Christianity, as many foolish people have done before.
Many don’t realize that Christianity has been distanced from the movie industry far more than thought. Where many didn’t mind a Christian influence, it is now extremely rare to even find references to Christianity. The only movie to come to mind, within this scenario, is Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Which, coincidentally, I wrote a blog post on that can be found here.
The movie was good, but it was filled with references to Christ, Christianity, and God. This surprised me; it wasn’t often we heard the name “Jesus” used outside of a swear word. Then, my surprise surprised me. How terrible it is that we are now surprised by even a mention of our God, the very creator of movies in the first place!
The scary truth about the movie industry is that it has completely removed Christianity from its productions. No more do families gather to pray around a table; now, we see clips of the children stuffing themselves. No more do we hear a movie character eloquently proclaim his Faith; now, we hear movie characters taking the name of the Lord in vain by the minute. Instead of stuffing a movie full of truth, we stuff it with swear words and sex, claiming “it’s to appease what the people want.” Do they?
Thirty years ago, there were only two ways to watch movies: buying from Blockbuster or seeing the movie in theatres. Neither would sell R-rated movies to kids under the age of 18 and since both Blockbuster and the movie theatres were run by adults who could physically see their customers, the system worked. Kids under the age of 18 found it near impossible to watch movies inappropriate for their level. Now, it’s almost too easy to watch something inappropriate, whether it be on Netflix, YouTube, or even a pornographic website. Men, especially, are falling to the ease of access to these terrible films. Statistics, sadly, show the numbers are even worse than I say.
“Around 12% of all webpages are pornographic. As the internet grows exponentially, the amount of porn on the internet swells as well. However, the amount of pornography available may not be as much of a problem as its ease of access. This ease of access means that intentional or inadvertent exposure to porn is increasing among minors.
Exposure to porn as a child or teenager can lead to unhealthy ideas about sexual relationships. The internet is not the only source of pornography on the market. A study conducted in 2006 found that about 84% of people between the ages of 18 and 49 had watched pornographic films, either rented or on television. Another 82% had viewed pornographic magazines.”
The Recovery Village
84% of people between the ages of 18 and 49 have watched pornographic films. If you took 100 of the most average, basic Americans, you would find around 84 that had watched a pornographic film. And that’s just the film industry! Statistics are even worse when we look at the implications of watching movies or sex-filled videos on the internet.
25% of search engine requests are related to sex
35% of downloads from the internet are pornographic
40 million Americans say they regularly visit porn sites
70% of men aged 18 to 24 visit a porn site at least once per month
The largest consumer group of online porn is men between the ages of 35 and 49
One-third of all internet porn users are women
Sunday is the most popular day of the week for viewing porn
The Recovery Village
These statistics are not just surprising- they’re staggering. Not only are pornographic movies and shows easy to access, the literally hunt our young men and women, trying to get them hooked from a young age.
This is, quite frankly, terrifying. Our young people are being hunted, and there’s very little we can do about it. We, as Christians, should be not only advocating for a better movie-ranking system but a legal crackdown on pornographic websites and movies. Parents should also talk with their children, keeping them accountable through both word and tracking. And, finally, the word of God must be sought. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.”
Let’s rise and fight this terrible movement! Keeping each other in our prayers is one of the best ways to do this, but it is something we often forget to do. Pray, ask God for wisdom, and above all, fight. Fight Satan and the war he wages against our hearts and minds. And if you, like me, have been exposed to this at one point or another, remember- there is no sin too great for God to forgive. Take the hope and grace God gives you, combine it with your regret and sadness, and suddenly you have a weapon against Satan. God loves you!
Take the hope and grace God gives you, combine it with your regret and sadness, and suddenly you have a weapon against Satan. God loves you!
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Alright, that’s all for today. Thanks a ton for reading! I hope you were encouraged. If you were, make sure to click that Follow button below (or to the side). That way, you’ll be notified when I release a new post like this one. Thanks again, and I hope you have a wonderful day!
All scriptural quotations taken from the English Standard Version.
Hull, Megan. “Pornography Facts and Statistics.” The Recovery Village, 27 January 2020, https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/process-addiction/porn-addiction/related/pornography-statistics/#gref
Shoutout to Frank Platt for requesting this post. Frank is my manager and helps take care of my Instagram account, so if you see him on Insta, make sure to tell him good job! He’s done a fantastic job and I really appreciate him. Thanks, Frank!
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Elisha McFarland 
What surprises me about the prevalence of porn in our society now are all the unlikely places it shows up. For example, I really love history. I started watching a documentary on Netflix recently about the Romanov family. I did not pay attention to the rating when I selected it, because it did not even occur to me that something that holds itself out to the public as a documentary could be anything but a general audiences film. Good grief, the thing was pornographic. They had academic historians carrying on about some aspect of Russian culture, and then went straight to some raunchy sex scene. How has the film industry gotten to the point where they say, “Hey, most people find historical documentaries boring. So let’s create a pornographic documentary genre.” It’s downright insane. And it’s not like the story of the Romanov family needs to be embellished either. It already has a woman who was taken over by the occult, a bloody political revolution, and mass murder.
I have read so many articles about how younger generations are addicted to porn, but I did not really believe it until I saw that. It’s like everything has to have a sexual element. I’d even suggest that this is why we have so much obsession over gender identity politics now. Budgets and deficits and wars are boring, so let’s get senators to talk about “slut-shaming” who has what private parts. There’s no aspect of life they aren’t trying to pollute with this stuff now.
It’s not only a lack of mentioning Christianity in culture. They want to trash anything that seems like Christian values (chastity, loyalty, the Christian work ethic, and so on). Then they complain about the loneliness of younger generations and “boomerang” households. Good values and good habits are essential components of happiness and human flourishing. There are real consequences for turning your back on the wisdom of millennia, not the least of which is a generally lower quality of life.
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Absolutely, you speak entire truth. Thank you so much for saying this. They have completely destroyed the culture through movies, making money off of disgusting acts. Thanks a TON for reading!
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gj platt 🙌Really well written post, Elisha. It’s so devastating how widespread sexual corruption is, especially when it comes to films and internet abuse. I’m excited about a christian movie produced by some friends of mine that will have a chance to premier in front of a lot of people-the movie industry and internet films are definitely opportunities that we need to take advantage of for the good of the kingdom more often.
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Thank you so much, and Amen!
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