- "We counsel you, young men, not to pollute your minds with such degrading matter, for the mind through which this filth passes is never the same afterwards. Don't see R-rated movies or vulgar videos or participate in any entertainment that is immoral, suggestive, or pornographic." (Ensign, May 1986, p 43)
I've heard many people for the last 5-10 years state that "PG-13" is the new "R." The church has answered this concern with updated council in For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. (Refer to page 17)
We are no longer instructed to avoid R-rated movies, but to basically do your homework, before watching a movie:
- Offensive material is often found in web sites, concerts, movies, music, videocassettes, DVDs, books, magazines, pictures, and other media. Satan uses such entertainment to deceive you by making what is wrong and evil look normal and exciting. It can mislead you into thinking that everyone is doing things that are wrong.
Do not attend, view, or participate in entertainment that is vulgar, immoral, violent, or pornographic in any way. Do not participate in entertainment that in any way presents immorality or violent behavior as acceptable.
The ratings alone cannot be the sole means of deciding if one should go to a movie. Hopefully we all have people close by that hold our value's or at least understand our standards as LDS church members, and provide a fair and balanced review\report on the content of the latest and greatest movie.
Hopefully we have all been following the council in the For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet already, regardless of the fact that the pamphlet is directed at the youth, it can still be a guideline for us as adults.
This past weekend I purchased the ClearPlay DVD player, which filters out nudity, violence, gore, language etc. As long as the content is not vital to the story, so as to not disrupt the continuity of the viewing experience, not cutting out vital parts of the movie so that the story stays intact, the ClearPlay DVD player will filter it.
I decided to test out how well ClearPlay filters an R-rated movie. Yes, I know, I'm going against council. However logic says that if the content that caused the MPAA to give the movie an R is no longer viewable it's not an R anymore.
After watching 3 R-rated movies (mainly rated R for violence) this weekend I walked away feeling that even though the restricted content was not seen the general tone of the movie was not altered. I still got a very violent undertone.
Thus my conclusion is: the restricted content may be skipped while watching on a ClearPlay DVD player, you'll still have a spiritually dampening experience. Just follow the prophet, instead of finding out the hard way and don't use ClearPlay to justify watching an R.
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