Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch. And this summer, we're doing something a little unique as I do a little traveling. I'm having some of my friends guest host episodes that I have produced.

I could not be more excited for you to hear what they have to say, and today's episode is no exception. You're gonna love it. Hey, everyone. My name is Ken Prabucki, and I am, guest hosting today's episode of Wake Up, Look Up. And today, we're gonna talk about violence and vomiting.

When does entertainment become sin? Now I gotta tell you, I love movies. I love watching them. Love reading movie reviews. And recently, I read a review about a movie that came out a few months ago called Terrifier three.

As the name might suggest, it's a horror movie, and, it's the third in an installment of movies, all low budget, all wildly successful. In fact, Terrifier three, its opening weekend, grossed $18,000,000 and then went on to gross $90,000,000 worldwide, making it the highest grossing unrated film of all time. Here's the thing about Terrifier three. It's incredibly depraved and gory. Now I didn't watch it.

I wanna tell you that. But in reading these reviews, test audiences watching these preview screenings, many of them got up and walked out just too much. And in fact, in at least one case, somebody threw up. Imagine a movie so violent, so gory, that you throw up. Now, when the director was asked about this, he laughed it off, saying, Well, I guess we've done our job.

Now, we can decry that. We can lament that. We can ask ourselves, why in the world would you make a movie like this? But let me ask you this question. How does a movie like this become so wildly successful?

Let's start here. The reality of the human condition is is that our genre, so to speak, of human existence is more akin to a horror show than other genres, much of the time anyway. We do awful things, and you don't have to be a horror movie fan to know this. You simply need to read the headlines every morning. But it's it's more than that.

We we don't just do awful things. We seek out awful things. Jeremiah seventeen nine says this, the heart is deceitful above all else and wicked, desperately wicked and sick. We are desperately sick people seeking out desperately sick things, and the entertainment industry doesn't exist to create that desire in us. It actually exists to meet it.

But here's the other thing. It's not just about horror. You're not off the hook if you're not a horror fan. This exists in other genres as well. A rom com that celebrates infidelity in the name of personal fulfillment and happiness, a comedy that depicts and celebrates violent payback, a drama that is celebrating someone terminating a pregnancy in the name of self autonomy.

Make no mistake, these themes are all anti gospel. They're celebrating something that is the opposite of the hope of Jesus. Brokenness, depravity, self autonomy, self choice, sometimes just all out mayhem. But that's not that's not the gospel message. That's not the message and the hope of Jesus.

The gospel is a message of hope, of restoration, of redemption. So when we are faced with media, coming from all sides, right, entertainment that we have to wade through and discern and navigate to know what can we watch, what can we not watch, how do we do it? Well, here's a question that we should all be asking ourselves. What's the trajectory? What's the trajectory?

Here's what I mean. When you're watching a movie or a show, what is the show or movie pointing you toward? What is it landing on? Is it depicting brokenness or is it celebrating it? Does the bad guy win at the end?

Do you want the bad guy to win at the end? Is it pointing toward depravity, the sort of wickedness that Jeremiah talks about, or does it point toward hope, restoration, commitment, sacrifice? And, again, this is a question across all genres, and it's not just tied to a movie rating. The reality is you could have rated r movies or adult themed shows that do a really good job of depicting brokenness without celebrating it. Breaking bad is a great example of this.

A protagonist in that series over several seasons, he is in a downward spiral pulling lots of people along with him because of the choices that he makes. Self rationalizing, self justifying the things that he's doing. It's not celebrated, and that that show ends in a really dark place. Let me give you a better example, nonfiction example, the book of Judges. If if you were to take the book of Judges and make it a series, it would be TV MA.

There are some incredibly violent and depraved themes and stories in that book, and yet it exists in the Word of God. Why? Well, in part because it's telling the story of people who have untethered from God, who've chosen to be unfaithful to Him, and in so doing have done some really awful things. Again, depicting brokenness. And what happens when we aren't looking to God, when we aren't embracing the gospel message?

The reality is that a show that's PG can can be more anti gospel than a show that's rated r. Ask yourself this if you're a parent. This is sobering for me. It should be sobering for you. Just because it doesn't have violence or language, is it celebrating lifestyles that are anti gospel, for instance?

We have to be discerning on these things. Alright. So as we think through this, what's the trajectory? Is it hope? Is it restoration?

Is it all things new? Or is it something else? And as Christians, our patterns, our routines, and, yes, our viewing habits ought to reinforce that theme of restoration, not contradict it. Thanks for listening. Hey.

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