I'm in a real stick here.
I just produced a film about a preacher's kid who struggles with porn. In the film contains rather explicit elements that demonstrate his problems to the audience.
1) A dream where there are a few shots of a beautiful woman in pink bikini lingerie doing a sensual dance (about seven seconds worth of shots total).
2) You see the dad pick up a tube of lubricant jelly off the table.
3) The parents talk about using a "sex toy"
There's no nipples, private parts seen, and the shot of the girl is sort of dark.
I brought this to the ICVM conference last week and showed it to several pastors. It got a mixed response. A couple of devout filmmakers expressed their concern that my film's content would distract from the film's purpose, which is to help a person confront their porn addiction. They gave me pretty convincing Biblical truth that I wouldn't want anything in my film that would cause people to stumble. Another pastor gave me a thought exercise that made me consider whether a guy might touch by watching that scene in my "okay to watch" Christian film by going through my pans slow mo.
I couldn't deny his excellent and relevant use of scripture, but I couldn't help but think...would it really cause someone to stumble? I mean, our culture is so used to seeing sexually suggestive material...there were worse visual scenes in LOTR with Arwen and Aragorn than in mine (you could actually see her nipples). So it's okay if a secular film does it but if I try to glorify Christ with it, it's no longer glorifying Christ? I know it's going to open up a can of worms, but wouldn't it be better to watch this kind of film with your children so that you can discuss these issues them in a controlled environment rather than at school where their probably looking at porn with their friends? I treat the parents (especially since their pastors) in the film as comedy relief, they're so lovably goofy...but that tends to shock Christians that a pastor would have a totally screwed up, raunchy secret life.
I can't help but think: if I guy wants to get off on a naked girl, there's far better (free) resources than to watch my $10 video that would probably make him feel guilty for doing it.
It's a rather psychologically violent film and makes a lot of people really uncomfortable to watch it because it certainly faces up what most Christians think is going on in their children's lives. Everyone acts "nice and Christlike" but everything behind the scenes is dark and dirty. It could be that this is what triggered the pastor's response. It could be because I developed it so that rather than being concerned for the characters you end up rolling in your chair with chuckles. You laugh at their naivety and inability to control themselves before realizing that you are so much like them.
I really don't know what to do. I tried editing those parts for content, and after watching the re-edited versions, it killed some of the effectiveness of the movie. Please pray for me to know what to do...
Do you think that showing a scene with a dancing semi-nude would cause you or any other guy struggling with porn to stumble further?
I just produced a film about a preacher's kid who struggles with porn. In the film contains rather explicit elements that demonstrate his problems to the audience.
1) A dream where there are a few shots of a beautiful woman in pink bikini lingerie doing a sensual dance (about seven seconds worth of shots total).
2) You see the dad pick up a tube of lubricant jelly off the table.
3) The parents talk about using a "sex toy"
There's no nipples, private parts seen, and the shot of the girl is sort of dark.
I brought this to the ICVM conference last week and showed it to several pastors. It got a mixed response. A couple of devout filmmakers expressed their concern that my film's content would distract from the film's purpose, which is to help a person confront their porn addiction. They gave me pretty convincing Biblical truth that I wouldn't want anything in my film that would cause people to stumble. Another pastor gave me a thought exercise that made me consider whether a guy might touch by watching that scene in my "okay to watch" Christian film by going through my pans slow mo.
I couldn't deny his excellent and relevant use of scripture, but I couldn't help but think...would it really cause someone to stumble? I mean, our culture is so used to seeing sexually suggestive material...there were worse visual scenes in LOTR with Arwen and Aragorn than in mine (you could actually see her nipples). So it's okay if a secular film does it but if I try to glorify Christ with it, it's no longer glorifying Christ? I know it's going to open up a can of worms, but wouldn't it be better to watch this kind of film with your children so that you can discuss these issues them in a controlled environment rather than at school where their probably looking at porn with their friends? I treat the parents (especially since their pastors) in the film as comedy relief, they're so lovably goofy...but that tends to shock Christians that a pastor would have a totally screwed up, raunchy secret life.
I can't help but think: if I guy wants to get off on a naked girl, there's far better (free) resources than to watch my $10 video that would probably make him feel guilty for doing it.
It's a rather psychologically violent film and makes a lot of people really uncomfortable to watch it because it certainly faces up what most Christians think is going on in their children's lives. Everyone acts "nice and Christlike" but everything behind the scenes is dark and dirty. It could be that this is what triggered the pastor's response. It could be because I developed it so that rather than being concerned for the characters you end up rolling in your chair with chuckles. You laugh at their naivety and inability to control themselves before realizing that you are so much like them.
I really don't know what to do. I tried editing those parts for content, and after watching the re-edited versions, it killed some of the effectiveness of the movie. Please pray for me to know what to do...
Do you think that showing a scene with a dancing semi-nude would cause you or any other guy struggling with porn to stumble further?
