When did "going to the theater" become wrong?

FSSL

FSSL

Well-known member
Staff member
Administrator
Doctor
Joined
Jan 31, 2012
Messages
7,694
Reaction score
535
Points
113
Location
Gulf Shores, Alabama
As a child, we went to movies. Drive in theaters, especially.

Then, all of a sudden, in 1977, we stopped. Petes Dragon was the last movie I watched because our pastor said that movie attendance was wrong.

When did your church start prohibiting movies?
 
What do you mean?  "Church-goers" go to the theater every Sunday. 
 
4-500 years ago or so. In the medieval period, theatre was almost exclusively religious (passion plays, and the like). The early Protestants  opposed the theatre because of its connection to Roman Catholicism.

In 1572, the city of London banned plays under the claim that large public gatherings at the theatre promoted the spread of the plague. It could very well be this was a pretext to ban theatre for supposed moral reasons. The theatre was considered vulgar; William Shakespeare and his contemporaries did not have the high regard they do today.

Under Oliver Cromwell, the Puritans banned plays outright, as they were overtly hostile to what they deemed frivolous entertainment. With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the theatres were opened again.
 
IFB X-Files said:
I believe it was the same year that "going to the strip club" became wrong.
Click to expand...

That's wrong too? I never heard that from my pastor.
 
My parents friend and mine John Rice had a great deal to do with the opposition to as he would say "Worldly Amusements", including but not limited to Hollywood Movies.

Since the 1930s the Sword carried sermons directed against Worldliness. Sword circulation during this time reached to 100,000 copies going into all parts of Christendom.

He is only one of many.
 
Here is a quote from Andrew Himes book on Fundamentalism.

"From the point of view of John R. Rice and most other fundamentalist leaders, the problem was that America itself was in need of salvation. To their eyes, the social convulsions associated with World War II had led to a cascade of immorality, lewdness, corruption, and sin unparalleled in American history. Hollywood movies depicted corrupt yet attractive lifestyles driven by lust and greed and untouched by Christian values or the message of salvation. Young people were being seduced by sex-drenched dancing and music. Skirts were hiking higher and higher, revealing ever more female flesh. Women were seeking power and independence equal to that of men, and divorce was becoming commonplace. The Devil was roaming the earth, ?seeking whom he may devour.?

Himes, Andrew (2010-11-12). The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family (p. 226). Chiara Press. Kindle Edition.
 
I thought this issue had come full circle and now IFB's could attend movies.
Our local legalistic Christian school lifted the ban on movies a few years ago and I notice on FB some of my friends who are IFB pastors attend movies.

Am I just around exceptions to the no movies rule?
 
How many of you have been to the latest Star Wars movie?
 
Tarheel Baptist said:
I thought this issue had come full circle and now IFB's could attend movies.
Our local legalistic Christian school lifted the ban on movies a few years ago and I notice on FB some of my friends who are IFB pastors attend movies.
Am I just around exceptions to the no movies rule?
Click to expand...

There are plenty of holdouts among the IFBs. When I was an Associate all the way until the year 2003, I was not allowed to let the church know that I went. I was allowed to go only when I was out of town.
 
bgwilkinson said:
How many of you have been to the latest Star Wars movie?
Click to expand...

Saw it this past Thursday. Very good movie. Reminiscent of Episode 4, and light years beyond Episodes 1-3.

:D
 
FSSL said:
As a child, we went to movies. Drive in theaters, especially.

Then, all of a sudden, in 1977, we stopped. Petes Dragon was the last movie I watched because our pastor said that movie attendance was wrong.

When did your church start prohibiting movies?
Click to expand...

It may have been when some of the preachers demanded that the congregation close their Bibles during the sermon and to only look and listen to them.

I guess the preachers must have realized that if the Bible was truthfully depicted into a movie then the rating would most certainly have been an R rating or worse.
 
Matthew1323 said:
FSSL said:
As a child, we went to movies. Drive in theaters, especially.

Then, all of a sudden, in 1977, we stopped. Petes Dragon was the last movie I watched because our pastor said that movie attendance was wrong.

When did your church start prohibiting movies?
Click to expand...

It may have been when some of the preachers demanded that the congregation close their Bibles during the sermon and to only look and listen to them.

I guess the preachers must have realized that if the Bible was truthfully depicted into a movie then the rating would most certainly have been an R rating or worse.
Click to expand...

Yep, what kind of rating would you give to the movie of Lot's Daughters date raping Lot so they could preserve the seed of their father. Yuk.
 
How many of you watch Hollywood movies on the giant screen in your living room, with the blinds wide open, or do you close them to preserve your testimony?

Do the neighbors really care?
 
When they released, "PeeWee's Big Adventure"!  :eek:
 
Or the rapture would happen and Jesus would look at you in disgust if He caught you flying through the roof of Cinema 8
 
bgwilkinson said:
How many of you watch Hollywood movies on the giant screen in your living room, with the blinds wide open, or do you close them to preserve your testimony?

Do the neighbors really care?
Click to expand...

We only close the blinds when we're watching Gilligan's Island reruns.  We don't want anyone to know we have such bad taste.

 
I frequently went to movies growing up and almost weekly throughout high school.  When I went to a non-denom Bible college we were not allowed to go to movies during the semester.  It took one year away from movies to show me how affected I had become by what I had seen.  I never went again and don't buy/rent movies because they don't interest me. 

To answer the OP,  "going to the theater" became wrong for me when I decided to replace the negative influence with more positive pursuits. 

 
JrChurch said:
I frequently went to movies growing up and almost weekly throughout high school.  When I went to a non-denom Bible college we were not allowed to go to movies during the semester.  It took one year away from movies to show me how affected I had become by what I had seen.  I never went again and don't buy/rent movies because they don't interest me. 

To answer the OP,  "going to the theater" became wrong for me when I decided to replace the negative influence with more positive pursuits.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Stories of courage, patience and overcoming adversity have nothing positive to give anyone....

I imagine you'd rather read your fiction than see it?

 
praise_yeshua said:
Yeah. Stories of courage, patience and overcoming adversity have nothing positive to give anyone....

I imagine you'd rather read your fiction than see it?
Click to expand...
Imagine what you will,  however I haven't read fiction (other than the FFF) in many years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top