Question
Gramps,
My husband and I were watching a movie. I could tell the movie had a very good message, and my husband said it was a movie dear to his heart and had a representation of the Savior. However, there was lots of cussing and a few horrific scenes (which he intended to skip). I was enjoying watching it, but had a bad feeling about half an hour in. I told him I couldn’t watch the movie and it made us confused. I don’t think it was wrong of him to watch it, but apparently the Spirit told me not to. Why?
Anonymous
Answer
Anonymous,
When it comes to what is and isn’t acceptable in entertainment, all of us would have a different answer. Even people with the same basic views and values will, at times, almost certainly disagree on what is and isn’t appropriate.
Sadly, some people fall into two camps on this issue. The first camp is to forbid all forms of entertainment. No reading novels, no reading plays, no reading poetry, no watching TV and of course, no watching movies. The other side states that any kind of entertainment is fine for people of any age, no matter what the content might be. Those of us with common sense understand that there is a middle ground, and honestly, you seem to be following it just fine.
You had a bad feeling and you said the Spirit was telling you to turn off the movie, and that’s exactly what you did. You mentioned that “you didn’t think it was wrong of him to watch it”, but since the Spirit told you to do something, you followed that instead of your feelings. Sometimes the Spirit will tell us things that we need to hear rather than what we want to hear, and as long as we follow the spirit, we will be just fine.
Often times, we find what we are looking for when it comes to entertainment. If you are really determined, you could probably find a reason to try to forbid others from reading Shakespeare plays, Charles Dickens novels, and Emily Dickinson poetry, and any work of history about wars that we’ve fought in the past. There is great historical and artistic value in all the works mentioned above, and if we were forbidden from reading those works, then the English and History departments at BYU would look vastly different. Obviously, there is content we should avoid, and you seem to be perfectly capable of walking the line and obeying what the spirit asks of you. Just keep up the great work!
Gramps