How Can I Teach My Children Not to Watch Pg-13 Rated Movies?
Dear Gramps,
I am having a hard time teaching my children that PG-13 movies aren’t appropriate material for them just because everyone else goes to see them. When is the Mormon Church going to take a stand on this? I really feel we are letting Satan in our back door by seeing these kinds of films that have bad language and no moral values. Please help. Thank you,
Colette, from San Bernardino, California
Dear Collette,
If you think that you are letting Satan in the back door by seeing PG-13 movies, don’t let your kids see them! Do you need the Mormon Church to tell you to have your kids brush their teeth in the morning? If you know what is right and what is wrong, it is your responsibility to teach that to your children.
As a matter of fact, the Church has taken a stand on PG-13 rated movies, and on every other unwholesome and unclean thing. Here are some references of the Church’s stand on issues of morality and purity of thought and action:
Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD (Isaiah 52:11).
And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing (Moroni 10:30).
For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence (Alma 12:14).
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things (Articles of Faith:13).
There are many, many more counsels, both in the scriptures and by the Brethren, that warn us to avoid unwholesome, unclean and impure actions, words and thoughts. It is not really necessary for the Church to make a list of all the things that we should not say, think or do. This was the path taken by the Jews in amplifying on the Ten Commandments, and it led them away from the spiritual aspects of the gospel.
The church is not responsible for keeping your children from seeing bad movies, you are. Of course it is appropriate and valuable to refer to the scriptures and the words of the prophets in counseling our children, but the Church doesn’t put out a rule book of do’s and don’t’s. That is the parents’ responsibility.
Gramps
