censorship and ignorance
So here is another Mormon practice: they avoid any movies that are rated R. Even the adults. Why? Well, its easy to imagine why they think rated R movies are bad. The same reason the FCC bleeps and blurres out things on TV. Rated R movies usually have sexual content or obscene language, and the Mormons think its good to avoid bad influence.
But seriously, who are we kidding here? What sort of bad influence? Are mormons so weak and impressonable that listening to curse words leads one to use them more often? PLEASE. If anything, the resolve to be “virtuous” or whatever should make them less likely to be affected by bad movies. And they ought to give more credit to human resolve. And who cares if you use some taboo words? It is only an artificial social construction. If anything, the religious should transcend past such bullshit.
Last week, everyone our research group was getting together to watch Borat, which of course is a rated R movie. And my roommate, who is a mormon, declined to participating. I was disappointed.
Why do I care if Mormons want to censor themselves? Because it leads to ignorance. There is something to be said for being open-minded and experiencing as many things as you can. If you grow up never having scene someone serious go on a cursing rampage, and if you have never seen some nasty sex on film, what is going to happen to you? You’re being unrealistic. We live in a society that’s nasty, obscene, and absurd (by the religious view anyways. I happen to think these “obscene” things are part of human nature and we should celebrate them.) So lets get realistic and see the world for what it is.
It just gets me mad that religious people spend so much energy on something so unimportant. Let’s be more concerned about the REAL issues, like ignorance and the pain and suffering that results from it.
June 25th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
one of your roomates last year refused to watch Borat, too. remember? lol
check your spellings and grammar before you post. dont let an atheist looked down upon by mormons cos you can’t even write a sentence correct.
September 11th, 2007 at 5:13 am
I have no problem with people having their own views, provided they do not try and impose their views and values on others, or make us look like lesser beings because we do not agree.
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Still, the Mormons have spooked America since the church’ s creation. Joseph Smith was called a fraud when he founded the church in 1830, and despite its best efforts to inject itself into the American cultural mainstream, the church is still viewed with suspicion in some quarters. Polls show that a substantial number of Americans would not vote for a Mormon for president. Catholic and Protestant denominations alike have challenged the inclusion of the church in historic Christianity.