R rated movies


LilyBelle00
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I'm a little irritated right now...

I grew up LDS. We were not allowed to watch R rated movies in our house. As a teenager I snuck a few in with friends but now that I'm older and have a family of my own, I stick strongly by that.

My husband did not grow up LDS. Not at all. As a young child he rarely watched children's movies and instead his family watched R rated movies with him. His favorite movies were all R rated.

After he was baptized and we were married, I asked him to stop watching R rated movies and he (grudging) did for awhile. After we became inactive he started watching them again occasionally but it was always a little sore point between us because he knew I didn't agree with it. He would watch them while I was at work or after I went to bed.

So fast forward to now.... We are active again, sealed in the temple, he's "moving on up" in the church, and things are great. He stopped watching R rated movies.

He goes out with the missionaries quite a bit. At least once a week. There is one missionary that I'm not really fond of. I feel awful saying that because I still have this naive ingrained thought that missionaries should be above reproach. This guy just gives me a bad feeling. Not that he's really a bad guy...just that he's not really "into" it. He talks bad about other people in the church, including some members of the branch presidency. It can be really uncomfortable for my husband and I and I'm always warning my husband not to get sucked into what this guy is saying or telling him. My husband just tries to change the subject.

Anyway, they were at an investigator's house and got to talking about movies. The missionary was talking about different movies that he liked and all of them were R rated. Not just R rated but some of them were pretty bad horror or raunchy comedy movies. He kept asking my husband if he had seen them and my husband just kept saying no. The missionary pressured him some more and told him that he really needed to see this particular one and the investigator offered to let him borrow it. My husband declined and the missionary asked him why so finally my husband said that we weren't supposed to be watching R rated movies.

The missionary laughed at him. He said "That's bull. Show me in the scriptures where it says that." My husband, whose not well versed yet in all these things, just said that he thought it was something that a prophet might have said years back and the missionary just laughed and said "R rated movies are just like caffeine, you got some Mormons who say we can't have it but the church doesn't care."

All of this was said in front of the investigator. I don't know what the other missionary was doing or saying but he's younger and hasn't been out very long, so he seems to just follow the lead of whoever he's with.

Am I right to be upset by this? My husband was a little embarrassed by the whole exchange. He asked me about it but said that he trusted me. I searched "r rated" on LDS.org and showed him all the talks and such telling us to avoid movies like that.

What do you think? Do you watch them?

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You know we watch one now and then again, just about every time I regret renting the movie and we end up just shutting it off. I usually regret watching many pg-13 movies as well...

I will admittedly watch some R rated films, an example might be "The Patriot", war violence just doesn't earn that "R" rating in the rating system of my head. There are other movies I would make an exception for, it depends on what got them the rating. It seems like the only comedy I can watch these days are family films, everything else chases the spirit all the way back to the temple.

You didn't ask this, but I think that missionary could use a talking to from the mission president.

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I watch them all the times. I think it is foolish to make a blanket rule of "no watching R-rated movies". I believe that every movie should be judged on its own merits. There are movies rated R that ought to be seen by all adults (like Schindler's List) and there are movies rated PG or PG-13 that shouldn't be seen by anyone.

Edited by Swiper
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Interestingly enough the US has a harsher rating then Canada does, so whenever one bought a VHS tape I remember seeing the US rating printed on the box and the Canadian rating sticker, always lower, stuck on the box later.

But I don't have any rules when it comes to watching movies, I have other things I want to deal with first before deciding if I should be watching an anime where people's heads explode or anything with Adam Sandler (that one is just an example, I hate Adam Sandler-seems the older I get the less funny he becomes)

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I've thought about speaking to the mission president several times about him. I don't want to tattle but at the same time I really do not think that he's acting appropriately. The mission president and his wife are two of the people that I've heard him speak cruelly of!

It's gotten to the point where I almost want to ask my husband to stop going out with them because I feel like they (really just the one) is a bad influence.

The sad thing is that this guy replaced a missionary who was really great. I find myself counting the days until this one leaves.

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Think of it this way. If he is speaking to you two like this, what must he be doing to other investigators as well? I think you should contact the Mission President.

What if the Mission President had received another complaint but thought maybe it was just a random complaint?

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Think of it this way. If he is speaking to you two like this, what must he be doing to other investigators as well? I think you should contact the Mission President.

not all investigators are radical crazies like me... he could be saying some things that... probably might chase away some people

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not all investigators are radical crazies like me... he could be saying some things that... probably might chase away some people

I never said anything about investigators being crazies. I'm saying that this missionary could be saying things that are contrary to what we believe to more than one investigator.

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I watch them all the times. I think it is foolish to make a blanket rule of "no watching R-rated movies". I believe that every movie should be judged on its own merits. There are movies rated R that ought to be seen by all adults (like Schindler's List) and there are movies rated PG or PG-13 that shouldn't be seen by anyone.

That doesn't quiet work though. Lets say after much thought and consideration I decide I do not want to be exposed to X (Fill in what ever you what for X).

Now certain movies and shows have X... Other people like X so shows and movies can have X in them this is just the way it is. Now according to you I should judge a film on its own merits which means I either have to watch the show and get exposed to X if it is there or I have to have some kind of trusted system of judging/previewing (or Say Rating) such movies and shows. Given that the first one doesn't work for me to hold to my standards (what ever I choose them to be). That leaves some kind of judgement/previewing as my only real option

The problem isn't with saying no to an R-rated movie... The problem is the wildly different ways that the R rating is assigned and what it means.. Same with PG and PG 13.

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I think more and more general authorities are getting away from saying R rated movies. Ratings have changed so drastically over the years. What used to be XXX is now R...R is now PG-13. You get the picture. I've noticed more and more are mentioning staying away from the kinds of movies that take away the spirit. Visual images stay with you much longer than other medium.

But then what do I know? It's been said by someone that frequented this site that I don't have a clue.

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I never said anything about investigators being crazies. I'm saying that this missionary could be saying things that are contrary to what we believe to more than one investigator.

oh that's even worse, I mean having a strange angle to the gospel is neat to see but if its someone who is in the purely wrong mindset then yeah, sending them door to door is a bad idea no matter how you slice it

the missionaries were my first real exposure to the church and I am glad they were informative and didn't say things that I later quoted to their credit, that were wrong and thus making me look foolish

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Well one thing that is nice about the rating system is that it does give a brief overview of possibly offensive content, if you look it up they will give the reason for the rating.

W

Ie, sensuality, brief rear nudity, drug usage, etc... Etc..., I think they give a good enough warning of content.

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Well one thing that is nice about the rating system is that it does give a brief overview of possibly offensive content, if you look it up they will give the reason for the rating.

W

Ie, sensuality, brief rear nudity, drug usage, etc... Etc..., I think they give a good enough warning of content.

It does now... It is rather new development. It is rather interesting that when all we had was a rating the council was don't watch R rated. But as that showed itself to be insufficient both the Church council and the rating systems adjusted to try to do the things they were meant to do from the beginning

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President Benson gave a talk in 1986 and he did say that we shouldnt watch rated R movies. That is more letter of the law.

The Spirit of the law takes the bad material, which contributes to making it R, and avoid or minimize the exposure to the degrading material. That encompasses all movies regardless of rating.

Here is the talk.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1986/05/to-the-youth-of-the-noble-birthright.p22

this is general conference edition

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President Benson gave a talk in 1986 and he did say that we shouldnt watch rated R movies. That is more letter of the law.

The Spirit of the law takes the bad material, which contributes to making it R, and avoid or minimize the exposure to the degrading material. That encompasses all movies regardless of rating.

Here is the talk.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1986/05/to-the-youth-of-the-noble-birthright.p22

this is general conference edition

27 years ago you did hear them mention R-rated. I haven't heard any mention that in more current general conference talks etc. Again, I just hear talks about staying away from movies, tv and music that drive the spirit away.

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President Benson gave a talk in 1986 and he did say that we shouldnt watch rated R movies. That is more letter of the law.

The Spirit of the law takes the bad material, which contributes to making it R, and avoid or minimize the exposure to the degrading material. That encompasses all movies regardless of rating.

Here is the talk.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1986/05/to-the-youth-of-the-noble-birthright.p22

this is general conference edition

I still think Adam Sandler movies, regardless of rating should never be viewed by mortal men... :lol:

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Hey now. You have your dolls, I have Adam Sandler. Well I'm not as excited about him as you are about your dolls, but I like him and his movies. Especially Wedding Singer.

if this were any other forum I'd think you were making a sex joke...

the dolls are one of my grandest collections, I have many-I invent so much of my time in them because humanity lets me down so...

Yeah Wedding Singer wasn't bad, and as a kid I laughed at him destroying a mechanical clown or murdering an alligator in Happy Gilmore... (or getting beaten by Bob Barker) but I digress...

Defend Billy Madison to me, or That's My Boy

you can't! those are like mind disease, they murder my ideas!!

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