Out of this list of Best Pictures I have seen the following for sure: On the Waterfront; Ben-Hur; The Sound of Music; The Godfather; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Rocky; Platoon; Rain Man; Dances with Wolves; The Silence of the Lambs; Unforgiven; Shcindler’s List. That’s twelve out of sixty-six—way too many!
I am an aspiring minimalist. To own as little as possible with which to get by, and to clutter and vex my mind with no more useless information than necessary: these are two of my minimalist goals. My possessions are down to just a little more than what a small bedroom can contain; and my movie and program intake I have reduced to zero since about ten years ago, save one movie on the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Knowing the Bible, theology, pious biography, and fine literature must be better for the soul than knowing who’s who in the cinema world and what’s what on the television screen! An old friend of mine couldn’t get over the fact that I’d never seen a program called Trailer Park Boys. But would this program do me any good? I once talked to a holy man who had been in his prime during the pinup reign of Marilyn Munroe. She was the only star out of a large list of entertainers that he recognized the name of. ‘That Munroe girl,’ he called her. O, to be that innocent concerning evil! Wouldn’t that be nice?
Most Christians think they have a divine right to choke their minds with the smog of Theatre, Hollywood, and Television. Hank Hanegraaff even promotes a movie-watching scheme as a ‘springboard’ to speaking to non-Christians about the Faith. But the Bible asks, “Let us do evil, that good may come?” (Romans 3.8.) And David says, “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes” (Psalm 101.3.) And Job tells us, “I made a covenant with mine eyes” (Job 31.1.) And the apostle Paul commands, “I would have you…simple concerning evil” (Romans 16.19.) Hank Hanegraaff ‘The Bible Answer Man’ has no good answer to mollify or gainsay these verses. There is no way one can watch a run-of-the-mill movie these days without snubbing biblical counsel, period.
Maybe you wish you could give up all your viewing amusements but you’re hesitating. Why not knock it off bit by bit? And listen, just reason like me. I’ve seen at least one movie of Oscar caliber in each department: be it a romance, a war film, a western, a musical, a gangster flick, a horror movie, a comedy, etc. What need is there to watch even one more, especially since nothing but a fleeting thrill may be gained by the experience? And what a mental liberation to know nothing about the program lineup and who the new actors are! What freedom not to care about the dregs and drivel of playacting! And how much vexation could I have saved myself by not hooking up to the internet? Regardless, it is high time for all sinners and saints to awake out of sleep, out of Make-Believe and into Reality, Truth, and Consequence. If not now, when? Fill your mind with the Academy of Truth, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding before Time and Circumstance find you standing before God with nothing in your mind but mush! How will you answer for your Soul, then? Lay aside evil and take up what is good while time remains! Judgment will come. It must. We have to be ready!
