Movies and convictions

I've just finished listening to a fantastic podcast from the folks over at Christ and Pop Culture. They discuss the recent controversy over the Sex and the City review posted at Christianity Today, but it's a great listen even for those who aren't interested in or haven't followed this particular maelstrom. As I've said before, it's not so much SatC but the attitudes of Christians towards culture (not that any of us can ever escape from our cultural context) which interests me and this podcast is particularly thoughtful on that front.

What they do so well is to show where both sides of the debate have got it right, and wrong. Along the way, they helpfully address the important contextual questions of audience and reception and what to expect from a movie review. This takes up about 2/3s of the podcast, and the remaining 1/3 is dedicated to helping us think through whether or not we should see a particular movie. More than that, I thought that they showed a keen awareness of the Pauline distinction between Scriptural areas of command and personal areas of conviction and applied it very well. This is a big theme in Paul's writings and touches not only on films but on many other parts of life so it's good that it was at the very least implicit throughout their discussion. Definitely worth a listen. (45 mins)