I expect to see this on every christian blog in the next week but I will post it anyway.
There is a small budget movie out called “Facing the Giants” that was produced by a couple guys who head up the media department of a Baptist church. After reviewing the movie the Motion Picture Association of America gave it a PG rating. Are those cursing, sex driven Baptists you ask? No.
The scene that caught the MPAA’s attention may have been the chat between football coach Grant Taylor — played by Alex Kendrick — and a rich brat named Matt Prader. The coach says that he needs to stop bad-mouthing his bossy father and get right with God.
The boy replies: “You really believe in all that honoring God and following Jesus stuff? … Well, I ain’t trying to be disrespectful, but not everybody believes in that.”
The coach says: “Matt, nobody’s forcing anything on you. Following Jesus Christ is the decision that you’re going to have to make for yourself. You may not want to accept it, because it’ll change your life. You’ll never be the same.”
So there you have it. If you want to bring your kids to a G rated movie, you better love magic because that’s all there is. Appearantly witchcraft ok, Christianity, not so ok.
UPDATE: I bootlegged a copy of the trailer. Here it is.
In my book, if you take your kids to watch this, you are giving parental guidance.
ht:GetReligion
Popularity: 15% [?]
Well said, especially witchcraft vs. Christianity. Also, this morning Rep. Roy Blunt was on Good Morning America to discuss the movie. I thought he made some very good points. If you’re curious you can see the video online here.
Hello, I\’m trying to locate a Carl Rushing that was a mechanic and student minister with the 505th Signal Construcrtion Company, Alaska Communication System in Anchorage Alaska.
If you are Carl Rushingl, or know of him, we are holding our 37th Annual ACS Reunion in Seatle July 10 thu July 14th, 2006
Sincerely,
Jim Hensley,
ACS Reunion News
cell; 808–XXX-0517
Hm: 805-XXX-7659
Sorry, I am not he. But I will leave this message up. You never know if he will see it.
Carl, if you leave a comment here it will get the the guy in the message above.
I blocked out the phone numbers. There are just to many crazies on the internet for me to leave the phone numbers up in good conciounce.
If you dig into the facts here, you’ll find that the producers of Facing the Giants expected to get the PG rating. That was no surprise to them. They even wanted a PG for the very reason brought out in interviews, many people ignore a G rated film. But the film does deal with some mature themes, infertility, drepression, adults plotting against others, loyalties strained, etc.
The thing that supposedly surprised the producers was a communication from the MPAA that gave one of the reasons for the rating as strong Christian themes, with the word ‘proselytizing’ attached to that communication. This is the true story here. I’ve been in communication with the producers and they are not unhappy with the rating. It’s what they expected and what they desired. Most “Christian” films receive a PG rating since most deal with mature issues like drug abuse, spousal abuse, extreme depression, etc. So they expected to get the PG. They just didn’t think that a Christian film with Christian themes would be included in the reasons behind it.
It’s really been the media and others who have blown this way out of proportion and the film makers and Sony/Provident Films will use it as much as they can! I say, go for it!
Rob - You are right. The film makers knew they would get the PG rating. There have been many articles about this. My only point of contention is that film that I would not allow my kids to watch get a G rating.
I would never allow my kids to watch movies with witchcraft but somehow this is G rated material. Escape to Withc Mountain G rated? I don’t get it.
Carl,
I totally agree. The MPAA is very schizophrenic when it comes to how they rate different things. I would think that witchcraft should be an automatic PG or PG-13 for content. I’ve seen PG movies that had a huge amount of nudity and rough language in them, when some PG-13 and R films have little, only violence. I object more to the nudity and language than the violence, except where it’s gratuitous or meaningless.
I don’t get it either. I think my contention with this whole thing is the media reported that the producers were shocked, surprised, or outraged at the rating. They weren’t. Just surprised that the message had anything to do with it.