1. Galadriel says:

    Interesting. Some of the stuff I watch I wouldn’t share with my youngest brother, but would be fine for my other brother. Or would be, if he liked the stuff I do.

  2. Kessie says:

    Thinking back over the books we read aloud as a family over the years, “family-friendly” usually meant “wholesome”.
     
    Books like Little House on the Prairie or the Little Britches books by Ralph Moody. Freckles and Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter, or the Melendy books by Elizabeth Enright, or Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. (The latter being a ‘girl’s book’ that my brothers wouldn’t go anywhere near.)
     
    The books are wholesome in that they show upright people (mostly) who meet and solve problems, sometimes heartbreaking problems. Nothing is whitewashed or glossed over. When Ralph’s father dies in Little Britches, we are not spared the anguish. In Girl of the Limberlost, we ache as she is made fun of, and as her mother mistreats her.
     
    But the characters come through these things through faith in God and strength of character, something not often taught these days. I remember watching Freckles’s profound effect on my brothers and marveling at it. That book challenged them to become men.

    • Kessie, I think “wholesome” is a good term to explain family friendly. Generally the story has values which most people agree with: honesty is the best policy, be kind to the less fortunate, and so forth. Even The Lion King has some values that would fall within that spectrum.

      It’s the “faith in God” part that is missing in most “family friendly” movies today.

       

      Becky

  3. But what about ideas? Are anti-God ideas family friendly? How about idol worship? Or humanism? Who exactly is to say what ideas are family friendly and which are not?

    That’s such a good point.

    Courageous was rated PG13, btw. There was drug dealing and a shootout.

    I thought it was family friendly because it was coming from a biblical worldview.  Better than The Lion King. I’m with you on that one—not family friendly at all. I bought it for the kids when they were little but we had long talks about the witch doctor, the circle of life, and the responsibility shirking lion singing Hakuna Matata.

    • Kessie says:

      I’m with you on the Lion King. I watched it again as an adult, and the abject paganism horrified me. (And also the irony of singing about the circle of life, yet only having one offspring. As the law of Darwin goes, Simba’s family fails.)

      • Christian says:

        The Lion King is set in Africa, of course it’s going to involve African spirtualism. That doesn’t mean it’s out-of-bounds for kids, just that (like Sally mentioned) there should be quality family discussion about the troubling moments following the viewing of the movie.

      • Kessie says:

        The Lion King is set in Africa, of course it’s going to involve African spirtualism. That doesn’t mean it’s out-of-bounds for kids, just that (like Sally mentioned) there should be quality family discussion about the troubling moments following the viewing of the movie.
         

        That’s the trouble, it’s not African spiritualism. It’s  home-baked American neo-paganism. With shreds of other fun stuff from The White Lion, the Japanese series that Lion King was supposed to adapt but they never got the rights to it.
         
        You know what’s really weird, is to watch Bambi and Lion King and see how we’ve gone from “Love is the song that never ends” to “the Circle of Life”.

      • Christian says:

        Sorry, Kessie. You’re right. I see The Lion King as being more spiritually Hindu or Buddhist. Not sure exactly what you mean by “home-baked American neo-paganism”. I’m guessing something along the lines of borrowing from the above religions but watering them down for Western audiences so only the ‘feel good’ parts remain. Am I correct? As for Kimba: The White Lion, that was a Japanese creation and contained Buddhist spiritualism. Interestingly, The Lion King is basically Hamlet with lions and a huge dose of the story of Moses from Exodus. I look back on cartoons I watched in the early 90’s, one in particular – Captain Planet, and the New Age themes are everywhere in that series (goes with the whole respect Mother Earth series theme). I didn’t notice them all as a child but even back then I remember during the theme song always shouting out “the power is God’s!” instead of “the power is yours!”

        Disney movies have gone from humanism and more recently exhipit New Age themes. Not all, just some.

      • Kessie says:

        Christian: If you don’t believe me about Lion King being an adapt of Kimba, then read this little comparison:
        http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm
         
        It’s pretty convincing. 🙂

      • ACK. And Kimba was my favorite cartoon when I was little. I loved, loved, loved that lion. Oh man, don’t anyone tell me Astro-boy was about reaching a higher astral plane, now. That would be too much for one day. He and Kimba were my all-time favorites. 

    • Sally, I didn’t realize Courageous was PG-13. That seems much more like an adult movie than one typically referred to as “family friendly.” I suppose some might use the term because the movie is promoting families.

      Becky

      • Christian says:

        ‘Family friendly’ is such a broad term. You can have children who are 13 years and older and they could watch it with their family and have some quality discussion and not be scarred in any way. I think PG-13 is an appropriate rating.

  4. […] been thinking about a lot of different things today. I posted over at Spec Faith about “family friendly” fiction, I’ve interacted with others there about Stephen Burnett’s Thursday post on the […]

  5. Maria Tatham says:

    It’s so important to define and make distinctions between family friendly and Christian. Thank you! In doing this, you’ve also discussed the value of both kinds of books and movies. 

    Yes, the most dangerous thing is ideas, worldviews. Ideas make books or movies safe or unsafe. Yes, it’s disturbing that some people with enormous influence either don’t see, or can’t make, or won’t make, distinctions.

    You’ve wondered whether we’ve forgotten the importance of preparing the soil before sowing. A crucial thing! Could it be that we’ve worked the soil thinking we’re sowing the seed? Equipping the saints with sound teaching is the answer; then like you they’ll be able to see the need for both ministries.

  6. Becky, I’m glad you’ve chosen to re-address this issue! I believe that if most Christian parents applied their beliefs about Truth and the Gospel, they’d see through the flawed, even anti-Christian stuff that gets a pass because it’s “safe” or “family friendly.” We all would not happily lower our discernment/enjoyment shields, and would instead “test all things,” especially Things marketed as Christian, as Scripture says we should do. And then we’d also have better, more-realistic “family friendly” stuff, in addition to better stories in other (more enjoyable?) genres such as visionary fiction.

    Looks like most people are discussing this part of the column, as I also hope to do:

    I just read, for example, a review of The Lion King at Focus on the Family’s Plugged In Online movie review site. While I consider this film a gateway into New Age thought or neo-Hinduism, Focus found “insightful spiritual components.” In addition, the review gave no warning that there might be ideas in the movie — apart from those that are rejected or defeated — that contradict Biblical truth.

    The review said, “There is also a hybrid of tribal spiritualism represented by the baboon shaman Rafiki.” Then, after describing Rafiki’s shaman-like acts: “Rafiki tells Simba, ‘I know your father. He’s alive and I’ll show him to you. … You see, he lives in you.'”

    However, I agree that this may not be enough to caution parents that they may, like Sally said she had to do, need to do some talking later with their children about the pagan beliefs in a movie — or the story elements, such as shirking responsibility (the “Hakuna Matata” parts) which even the story itself may later prove wrong.

    Does anyone remember the first Christian reactions to The Lion King, in 1994?

    If not, then you can guess what many of them were! Why do you think I actually saw the film for the very first time, either in 3D or non-3D, only just a few weeks ago? 😀

    What we seem to have here is the “principle” of Sanctification by Age.

    In other words: “If it’s new, it’s Suspect. If it’s Old, it must be somehow Okay.”

    Not a Biblical standard, that. First, if a Thing was truly wrong before, why do we assume it suddenly became okay a few decades later? Either it was wrong and we’ve simply compromised, or we were wrong to misjudge it before — there’s no middle ground.

    Second, experience proves that old Stuff can be disgusting; new Stuff can be good. In fact, many new action films today are cleaner, sexual-content-speaking, than old films.

    (For example, while Raiders of the Lost Ark is a much better-made story than the most recent attempt at at Indiana Jones movie, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, guess which movie has more Bad Words and — not mentioned in most reviews! — a topless woman shown from behind? That would be the older movie, actually. My guess is that special effects make it easier now for action movies to be “daring” without showing nude people, which can be found any day for free on the internet and has therefore led to jadedness.)

    But more likely, movies are a mixture. The Lion King does accidentally echo Christian themes, only because it’s based on classic motifs and stories — such as Shakespearean archetypes — that are timeless and founded in the Judeo-Christian tradition. That, however, doesn’t mean it’s evil or harmless. (Sings) “Donnn’t stop / Di-scerrr-ning!”

    However, just because it’s rated “G” doesn’t make it “family-friendly.” Even if The Lion King had no paganism, it does have fairly frightening stuff, especially for small children.

    Yet I suggest an even more annoying problem is at play here. “Family-friendly” is being used as a cover for abject moralism. And “Christian movie” serves only as a synonym for “family friendly” or “clean” or “moral” films. A prime example, I suggest, would be the movie Soul Surfer. Skipping past the whole strutting-around-in-skimpy-attire angle (I would simply ask why many Christians suddenly decided that we had never even been having a discussion about Lust and Modesty?!), we still have basically a sports/inspirational movie that had, as its theme, You can do it if you believe in Jesus. How, exactly, is this much different from You can do it if you believe in yourself?

    Hey, I’m not saying: I hate all movies like that, and Christians should avoid them.

    Instead, I ask: Why are we calling such a film “Christian,” or encouraging Support for it more than support for any other sports/inspirational movie, or acting as if this kind of story is the epitome of Christ-glorifying storytelling and “safe,” “family-friendly” fare?

    If anything, it’s a “common grace” story, a “ground-preparation” story as Becky said.

    And yet I would question whether a movie that reassures audiences of the goodness within themselves — as opposed to showing, or even telling, Sherwood-Pictures-style, who we really are compared with God — counts as Biblical soil preparation.

    That’s now how Jesus told stories. His parables did not give “inspirational” content to any listener, to motivate to them to follow Him. Instead His stories showed Himself, and His Kingdom’s worth, and human nature for what it was and what it should be in His Kingdom, leading to conviction.

    Ultimately “family friendly” can be — though it isn’t always — the same as that old-time American religion: “moralistic, therapeutic deism.” E.g.: Christ isn’t the savior of spiritually dead human rebels. He’s the kind, inspirational voice behind a TV ad for The Home Depot — “You can do it. He can help.” — or Radio Shack — “You’ve got questions. He’s got answers.” Yes, those themes are close to some subplots of the Bible’s Epic Story, for those who are already redeemed. But it’s not the Plot. So let’s not treat it as such.

    • Maria Tatham says:

      Stephen, everyone, very helpful comments! Let’s pray that those who watch over our souls as those who will give an account to Jesus, will use Biblical discernment in everything and teach us to use it too.

What do you think?