. . . from a friend, I'm undertaking to begin reviewing movies, television shows, music, and maybe some video games. I don't claim to be an expert in any of these, except that I consume my fair share of them (OK, maybe not video games). I do seem to have a knack for finding some good movies, and I have been very frustrated with trying to find reviews with my values in mind. So, I'll give it a whirl. Hopefully also as I catagorize, it'll make it easy for you guys out there in blog-land to find movies that are good for your family, your boys, your Thursday night girl-friends' group, etc. My main goals are to help you as parents or viewers to make wise and educated decisions, to aid you in avoiding stuff that looked good, but has proven not to be so, and to encourage you to think critically and biblically about what you are putting in your head.
I guess one of the first things to do is to lay all my biases out on the table. I was a journalism major in college for a couple semesters, and it drove me to distraction to hear them tote their impartiality and unbiased approach because . . . well . . . it wasn't. I don't believe it's possible to present anything completely objectively, since every one of us has some sort of worldview that we filter information through. I find it more helpful to know what I'm dealing with in terms of bias, so I can add that into my consideration of what is said. So here's mine:
My worldview is first Christian. Not Christian by birth, or by citizenship in the U.S., but Christian by what I understand the Holy Bible to teach. Now I'm not a seminary graduate, and I don't have extensive training or such, but I have sat under some pretty great teaching, and I have a good general grasp of what is taught in the Bible. I also am blessed to have some great friends who love God's Word and work to understand and think about it, so I have lots of feedback. My worldview is also conservative reformed. I'm not ashamed of that. It doesn't bother me to believe that God's way is narrow, or that He is completely soveriegn any more than it bothers me to believe that you can't drink poison and get away with it for long. When I indulge in more recent media, I often look for post-modern influences, and although I can often spot it, sometimes I still get a little too dazzled by something I kind of like at first, then later begin to put my finger on things that bother me.
Some of my "hot buttons" (everybody has 'em) are overly sensual or explicitly se*ual stuff, irreverence of God, and extra-marital relationships. I could go into reasons for these, but you'd be bored of reading long before I was done, and I'm not sure I'd ever get any reviews completed. As we go along, hopefully you'll find more of what influences me. When I'm not sure about something, I'll probably say so, and I will likely go back and revise reviews as I have new considerations, so in re-reading you might find new things. Please don't hesitate to leave comments, disagree, make points of your own. I'll consider them and adjust my review as I see new things I didn't catch as I pondered them myself. It would also be helpful for you to ask questions or make suggestions about specific things to look for that I seem to be missing.
So here we go! Let's go to the movies!
