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 Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:47 am
This is a topic I do in just about every guild I'm in because I think it's so interesting to hear people's thoughts on it. If this topic is misplaced, I'll trust one of the crew member to move it to the appropriate subforum.
So...censorship. The way I see it, there are two main kinds of censorship: legal censorship, where it has been made illegal to read, view, or listen to a book, film, piece of music etc., and then there's what I call personal censorship, where you may simply choose not to read, view, or listen to certain materials for any number of reasons. If foul language offends you, then you probably will avoid exposing yourself to material that features foul language. Personally, I am severely disturbed by watching relatively graphic rape scenes in film and television. I won't completely avoid material that has those sorts of scenes in them, but I will leave the room while they're playing out, or fast-forward through them if I'm watching alone. That's what I call personal censorship: someone making a decision for themselves and only thenselves that they do not wish to be exposed to certain things.
So, how do you feel about censorship? Do you feel that your government should have the right to ban certain materials? If so, what should be the criteria for getting something banned?
Does you church try to enforce any kind of censorship on its members? Have you been told or asked by your religious congregation to boycott certain films, books, or musical artists? If you still live with your parents, do they censor the sorts of materials you're exposed to?
And finally, what sort of censorship do you place on yourself? Are there certain things that you will not read/view/listen to? If so, what are the reason(s) for these choices?
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:41 pm
I have done this to a point and sometimes even take "Internet vacations" to completely block out such things.
I used to watch a lot of Youtubers. But after debating with myself with some who I found funny but could be......uhhhh. And some who seemed clean but every so often I would watch a video and it was....uhhh. I decided to go ahead and delete them off of my subscriptions completely, even if the 'jokes' and bad language were rare. Because those do infect my mind.
I have found that I "soak up" things up easily. And then they will randomly repeat themselves at me later on. I do NOT want those certain things because they are just nasty, evil, and wrong. : ( I want my brain to be a clean and beautiful thing in the site of the Lord. So yes, I think personal censorship is very good especially for anyone who may be like me and have that "soaking in" problem. : (
As for the government, they have been taking more and more power every minute; they don't need anymore.
My church has never talked about censorship...I haven't been there for a while though. : ( But of the ten years I've been there, no.
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:36 am
It's good that you're aware of how absorbing certain kinds of material affects you, and that you adjust your actions accordingly.
Personally, I've never felt that affected by things I know are fictional. I also have a sick fascination with the macabre, so I don't do much self-censorship. I find that my actions, language, and general mannerisms are heavily influenced by the people around me moreso than what I watch or read.
My knee-jerk reaction to government censorship is that no government should ban anything. As a musician married to a writer, I'm all about freedom of expression. But upon thinking about it a moment longer, I realise that I actually do support some pretty basic government censorship. The best example I can come up with right now is child porn. I do not think child porn should be legal, and I think any and all governments should be able to punish anyone they find making it. The reasons for my feelings on this should be fairly obvious: I do not support the legal sexual exploitation of children. I think I can safely say that I think most people would agree.
However, if someone were to, say, draw some kiddie porn, from their own imagination, with no actual children harmed or involved, I do not think that the government should have the right to make that illegal. I don't care that it's depraved, perverse, and disgusting. Nobody was harmed in making it. The mere fact that it exists harms no one. And who knows, maybe some ****** will find it online and decide to fap to that instead of real child porn, or instead of harming a real child, in which case, the existence of this hand-drawn kiddie porn actually has an overall positive effect on the world in some small way.
So barring censorship for the purpose of protecting someone's safety, I don't think the government should ban things. It should be up to us as individuals to decide what we do or do not want to be exposed to.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 7:37 pm
If the government makes a law that has censorship, we must submit because of Romans 13. Now, one thing I would like to add is that censorship does not save a man from sin if it were to do something like block pornography.
And another thing, if there are scenes of rape, etc then why watch it? 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, so whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God. Is adultery/fornication good or bad? What's the point of it? The book of Ecclesiastes says all is vanity. There is no satisfaction in wanting to be satisfied! Romans 2:23-24 says You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Is the way you are living, honorable among the Gentiles/Unbelievers? Does your life show Christlikeness? Or are you just part of the lukewarm Christian crowd and of the world?
Psalm 101:3
I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.
James 4:4
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Romans 13:1-7
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
And again, I do not want to be rude in any way.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 7:54 pm
I'm not going to bother trying to explain and defend my relationship with Christ to you because a) that is not the purpose of this thread and b) I don't need to; it's deeply personal, and between God and me.
smile
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 8:04 pm
SinfulGuillotine I'm not going to bother trying to explain and defend my relationship with Christ to you because a) that is not the purpose of this thread and b) I don't need to; it's deeply personal, and between God and me. smile So is that an excuse to sin more or what? I'm rebuking you man, you got to turn away from that sin. Proverbs 13:1 A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. And just because I'm not God or I'm not your pastor or parent doesn't mean I can't rebuke you. This is for the benefit of you. God can send men to rebuke and confront them you know. Paul the Apostle was that man when he confronted Peter for preaching the wrong gospel. Romans 2:4-5 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 8:38 pm
Ransom3d SinfulGuillotine I'm not going to bother trying to explain and defend my relationship with Christ to you because a) that is not the purpose of this thread and b) I don't need to; it's deeply personal, and between God and me. smile So is that an excuse to sin more or what? I'm rebuking you man, you got to turn away from that sin. Proverbs 13:1 A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. And just because I'm not God or I'm not your pastor or parent doesn't mean I can't rebuke you. This is for the benefit of you. God can send men to rebuke and confront them you know. Paul the Apostle was that man when he confronted Peter for preaching the wrong gospel. Okay, I'll bite. A little. Why would I choose to expose myself to material that would include something like a rape scene? Because it can have merit beyond just being "that flick with the rape scene." I'll use a specific example: the fim Mysterious Skin. It has a rather horrific rape scene in it. But it's also a beautiful story about two young men coming to terms with a shared childhood trauma. Is the film graphic and sad? Well, yes, but so is life. And justifying my faith to you would take ages and involve delving into personal matters that I don't really discuss on public forums. If you really need my life story and spiritual journey, I guess you can PM me. Suffice to say, as a non-believer in sola scriptura, I'm going to take a shot in the ddark and say that I'm probably not the type of Christian that meets your standards. So I'll just say this: I try to glorify God with the talents He gave me, I'm an honest and loyal friend, brother, son, uncle, romantic partner, and step-father, and I help my fellow man whenever I can. And again, my personal faith and lifestyle are not the topic of this thread, so if you feel the need to continue this line of conversation, I believe PMs would be more appropriate.
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:29 pm
Ransom3d Romans 13:1-7 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. And again, I do not want to be rude in any way. Quoting the bible is all fine and good, but how do you feel about this quote? If people had never resisted authority there would still be black slaves, and women wouldn't have rights. If we didn't constantly resist authority for our rights we would have none. Edit- Besides, in the United States of America the authorities are supposed to be the people. Sorry for editing again- Hitler is a good example of an authority not appoint by God. Though there were people in the bible who resisted authority, but you can argue that they were comanded to do so by God. Thus they didn't resist the ultimate authority. Still, they did resist the eartly authorities.
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:59 pm
 Cool thread, thanks for making it! :] First off I like limited government, I don't like them telling me everything that I can do and everything that I cant. I like to make my own choices and I don't need "big brother" to do it for me. God gave me a brain and free will, I can put that to use myself. I do think that some things do need to be monitored though, I really despise the fact that pornography is legal I fell that it is the same as prostitution, just because its a video doesn't make it any different. But that is an entirely different discussion so I'll stop talking about it before I get on my soap box. My parents never regulated anything that I did or watch, I was allowed to watch rated R movies as a young child. It never really messed with me, horror and gore doesn't bother me a bit. I never had night mares or anything their theory was that if I didn't like it I would learn to avoid it, I was allowed to make my own choices when it came to media. Of course I never saw any porn or anything like that, heck I didn't know a single thing about sex until I went to public school, I was in a private school until I was in third grade. I mainly stuck to the cartoons and child appropriate things anyway even though I had no limits. I'm not really a church goer, my church is studying by myself and the Christian guilds. So yeah... I work weekends schedule doesn't really permit it, and even when I did go to church I never had anyone tell me not to watch something or anything like that. And now that I'm older I do limit my media. I hate anything that publicizes sex, I do not like excessive cursing a few cuss words are fine but not when people make it every other word, I don't like things that glorify Satan or demons, I see demons and when doors get opened I have to deal with them and I do not like seeing them so I have watch that closely especially with horror and gore I try to keep it toned down or ignore it completely. With music, I can listen to anything and it doesn't bother me but I don't like anything with sex, drugs or booze references. Nowadays I stick to DVD's of kid movies like Disney or cartoons from when I was a kid cause I know it's clean and I don't have to block out the smut on TV. The other day I was flipping through channels and I saw a commercial that mentioned pornography and I was floored, then on Regular Show thats a cartoon on Cartoon Network said something that was horrible, that blue bird said "you just pissed me off" how can they get away with that? It just make me upset so I just avoid everything. =,="
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:05 pm
I'm not for government censorship. I appreciate the fact that there are ratings on things to give people a guideline, but let people decide what's good for them.
I can't handle watching embarrassing scenes in movies/shows/real life. I feel the embarrassment with them. I also feel awkward during sex scenes, especially if other people are around. I fast forward through them as much as possible.
I haven't heard or noticed anything as of yet, but I'm still new.
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