My family and I try to find decent older movies for the kids to watch on the weekends. We chose Rocky for this past weekend. I’ve found that it’s funny how our memories selectively remember things. There have been several movies that I thought were so hilarious and fun, only to start the movie and be completely horrified about how incredibly inappropriate it was.

50 First Dates (ugh)

For example, we started watching “50 First Dates” a few years ago, since as far as I could remember, it was hysterical. However, my kids kept yelling “MOM! This is SO BAD!” (as in inappropriate) every few minutes, until there were just too many instances. We eventually had to shut off the movie. Granted, I watched this movie before I became a Believer, but still. The sexual innuendos and vulgarity was pretty thick throughout the film.

Rocky

I thought Rocky would be fairly harmless, but unfortunately, here too, harmful ideology was being snuck in. And this movie released in the late 70’s! Rocky’s love interest, Adrian, goes into his apartment early in the movie. It was a sweet moment when he tells her how pretty she was, but then it quickly moves into a scene where it was obvious what was about to happen.

There was another scene with Adrian laying in bed with Rocky as he tells her how scared he is to fight Apollo Creed. Thankfully everyone was fully clothed and Adrian had what looks like an official moo moo on for pj’s. But that was the extent of the modesty. I was certain they were married, but my kids quickly corrected me. I was convinced that Rocky married Adrian in that first movie, but I had my timeline screwed up. That doesn’t happen until Rocky II.

Cultural Drift

My point in telling you all this is that the cultural drift has been happening for decades. It may feel as if all of this leftist ideology just all of a sudden landed into the middle of our culture in the past few years. But we’d be wrong. Satan hates what God created. What He created was good and beautiful. But Satan is obsessed with defiling it.

God created sex for marriage between a man and a woman alone. Unfortunately, movies have normalized sex outside of marriage to the point that often, we’re cheering on the couple that is fornicating. We barely bat an eye. No one should be surprised that once sex was taken out of marriage, the devolution would only continue to spiral out of control. If you don’t have to be married to have sex, then why should it be limited to opposite sex partners? Why not same sex? Or multiple partners? Why have any limits at all?

So subtle

It may seem like a small thing, but these subtle insertions of rebellion against God’s created order are nothing new. Yes, there are great things about Rocky. Who can’t love the spirit of Rocky, his hard work and indefatigable spirit? But rather than ONLY looking away and fast forwarding through the sketchy parts of the movie, we need to talk through what is being communicated to our children.

To clarify any misconceptions, I still believe there are some irredeemable movies that would not be good to see with our children (please refer to 50 First Dates example above – ahem). However, there are some films that have a good overall message, with a few scenes that are inappropriate. But in general, it can be talked through. We have that advantage in a movie since we’re all seeing it together.

Not so much with books.

Solo

The norm is for books to be read alone. Of course, there are wonderful family read-alouds. But for the most part, we must be much more cautious with books since there won’t be anyone there to talk through potential ideologies that are undermining our Christian convictions. A lot may go right over our children’s heads, but there is also a lot that slowly deteriorates boundaries and normalizes what we know should never be normalized.

I remember thinking everyone had sex before marriage when I was a kid. That’s the example set by many of the movies and TV shows in the 80’s/90’s. If you didn’t have sex before marriage, the ideology taught us that we were clearly not in the norm. The kids growing up now are indoctrinated to believe that sex/gender is on a spectrum, and that marriage can be between any consenting adult(s) as long as they “love” each other.

It’s just sin, then and now

Same same but different. Whether it’s back then or now, the world points us away from the LORD and towards sin. BUT GOD! In His mercy, He gives us life and life to the full (John 10:10). He redeems us and extends grace to anyone who will receive it. Praise the LORD, although we don’t deserve it, He is truly unbelievably good.

Great books for you and yours!

Thankfully, we have some great books to talk about a lot of these difficult topics. These books (click on the link!) all talk about God’s design for marriage in one way or another, across all age groups. We also have a wonderful BOOK BUNDLE for youngers that address God’s design for marriage as well as when life begins (Raising Kids Who Love Life).

Check these out! There are so many voices in our culture who are vying for our children’s attention and affection. I pray our voices are loud and full of God’s truth, and that we may be firm, consistent, and abounding in God’s love.