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But even that general rule is not hard and fast. After all, we are always tempted to sin, whether we are in church or in a theater. The point is that we avoid temptation that we are not mature or strong enough to resist. Again, look at Jesus and the hookers. You know he was tempted to have sex with them (Heb. 4:15), and you know they must have offered to give him a freebie. I mean, the man was a god! Plus, he was a virgin. Talk about pent up! Nevertheless, he put himself in the position of being tempted -- but not beyond his ability to resist.

Now, if you can't go to a movie without lusting -- really lusting -- for the people on screen pretending having sex, then you shouldn't go. But if you're just offended, or embarrassed, or even a little interested, that's not evil. Are we to imagine that Jesus never saw an attractive woman and thought, "Wow"? He wasn't devoid of testosterone, after all. It's not recognizing beauty that is a sin; it's what you do with and about the thought that can be trouble.

Ra, are you saying that Jesus was tempted to have sex outside of marriage? I know you are probably right about this, but it is interesting that I instantly want to push the thought of this fact out of my mind. I suspect that I am not alone in the Christian community in wanting to do that. Why is that? You are right that Jesus could not have been tempted to sin in this way if he had not found some woman, whether a hooker or whatever, hot. Once again I am surprised by the profundity of the Gospel -- Jesus lived a perfect life for us, despite being tempted in every way we are. How comforting. (Of course, as I myself have never been tempted in this way, it is comforting in a hypothetical, sanitary, just-in-case, sort of way)

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Let me pull together some of the things said. First, Jesus hung out with hookers. Tax gatherers. Fishermen. I don't remember ever reading of a situation where Jesus went to see hookers, tax gatherers or fishermen. He was in interaction with those people, bringing something to them. Can you say the same thing about going to a movie?


Luke 19 has an interesting story about a tax collector and Jesus that, when I was little, I heard paraphrased this way --

Zaccheus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he,
He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the lord he wanted to see,
And as the savior passed him by he looked up in the tree,
AND HE SAID...
Zaccheus, you come down! for I'm a going to your house today,
I'm a going to your house today...

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Luke 19:11 -- All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "


I agree that you are not interacting with a movie itself when you go, so there is no reason to feel bad about ostracizing the movie. However, it actually is a problem that we don't know any irs agents or strippers or garbage men. It is a problem that we are unable to relate to these people and that we can actually say that they should come to us rather than us go to them. Not that that has anything to do necessarily with the topic of this thread.

BTW, my power animal says that we should all go see "Fight Club".