This exceedingly solemn statement is issued by the American Motion Picture Research Council, consisting of leading educational authorities in the United States, with no religious bias or connection:
“Seventy-seven million attend each week in the United States. The movie is the feeder of lust, a school of crime, the betrayer of innocence. It glorifies sexual impurity as love, pictures murder as entertainment, exalts nakedness and indecency as beauty. It shows drunkenness, divorce, reveling, gambling, adultery and fornication as proper and legitimate. It debauches the minds of children inflames lust in youth, hardens the hearts of the wicked. A trap for souls, a mocker of God.”
“As a class, movie actors and actresses are immoral-their influence evil and disastrous. The few exceptions who might have a ‘good’ influence use it for an evil purpose by appearing with evil characters, thus becoming bait for many who would not otherwise go. It is tradition among movie makers that marriage is not sacred – and if not, it can be nothing else but prostitution, dress it how you may.”
“The female stars are promiscuous women; they are embraced by many men, fondled and kissed by many men with no reserve or modesty in the matter of sex. They submit to this for the money they get-what more can be said of the ordinary prostitute? No man can associate with such women and be worth calling a man; real manhood must be pure and moral, outside of this there are only degenerates. To attend pictures means to be influenced by the lowest moral and spiritual strata of society, with immoral and godless standards. That is why it is unsafe to attend even selected pictures.” (Pentecostal Evangel)
Note: when men who look at the movies from a standpoint of law enforcement and morality only, find these astonishing figures, and lift up their voices in solemn warning, declaring that the movies are unsafe, it looks to me as if children of God would blush with shame to think of lending their influence, presence, and giving their money to help build up this monster of crime! Brethren, think, and talk on these things!
Published in the January 1, 1944 issue of the OPA.
Editorial Comment:
Sadly, we’ve become hardened to the effects of sinful practices. Time has worn down our senses. It is not uncommon for brethren to view things openly that would have made even the world blush just a few years ago. Do you suppose God has relaxed His standards for His people? Has “Hollywood” grown more modest, more innocent and more discrete? Brethren, we know the answers to these questions. We know what is right. Unfortunately, we too often choose to ignore it and do what we want – or what our children have pressured us into allowing. Television, movie rentals, magazines, books and the Internet should all be policed by every Christian home. The scriptures teach us to think on things that are pure and good. How is that possible if we’re viewing or reading the filth of the world? – Randy Cantrell