by NikL 23 Replies latest jw friends
When talking about movies in a group at a "get-together" I made it clear that I avoid R-Rated movies. I then said that I generally only watch ones rated PG, PG-13 and X.
It brought a few laughs. But after the next meeting, I ended up in the back library with an elder who said my comments were way out of line and could have stumbled someone.
Oh well.
Rub a Dub
After leaving I got the worst R rated movie a JW could watch. The Exorcist. As I started to watch this Demonized movie I waited for Satan to arrive in my house. Years of hearing stories that Witnesses were tormented or saw demons, heard voices after seeing this movie, and it wouldn't end "I watched it years ago and to this day demons bother me" I waited for my curtains to open and close by themselves. I waited for faces in the mirror..... after the movie was done I laughed my balls off. I was more scared of Blair witch. Still haven't seen faces or heard voices, except for the voices that were already there.
Yes R-rated movies were taboo in the United States. (If was funny when we went on trip to visit the Canadian Bethel branch and some of the congregation went to see a movie that had a lesser rating under that system. When asked they responded by saying, "It's not Rated R here." So anyway that was the mentality.) Many did watch them in the privacy of their own home but this wasn't something you went around talking about. Heck, sometimes even watching an edited version on TV of an R movie would be scrutinized. I also remember when my friend applied for Bethel service there was a question about watching Rated-R movies. He was afraid of being disqualified because he had seen both Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan.
The US rating system is flawed and biased. Sexual content rates harder than violence. Major motion pictures with industry clout can get softer ratings than indie pictures. Even the way profanity is used can rate stricter. For instance if the f-word is used in sexual way it will get an R-rating where if it used as simple expletive it will get a PG-13. Also the standards change from time to time. PG movies of the past often contained more profanity, sexual content, and nudity where as today these same movies would probably receive an R.
Back when I was in, seeing R-rated movies was taboo. While it was constantly harped on to the congregations in general, they could really only 'punish' someone if they were appointed, like a pioneer, MS or elder, though they could hold you from being appointed, if it was known you viewed them. They used Bethel as the measuring stick though for everyone. No R-rated movies were supposedly allowed in Bethel, so if the 'rule' was good enough for them, we should live up to it as well.
I remember a friend of mine, an aspiring MS who was trying hard to get appointed, got called in to see the elders when some of the 'friends' happened to be at his house and one of them went snooping through his video collection. He had two R-rated movies out of dozens. The snoop immediately ran to the elders who then made a federal case out of it because this brother was 'reaching out' and was an example to the rest of the congregation.
