Morality at the movies
So it’s Friday and you’re thinking about catching a movie this weekend.
You’re trying to find a family friendly movie. Read on:
Screenwriter Teri Haux says she grew up loving movies so much she knew she wanted to write them.
Haux has written a new book “Movie Viewer Extraordinaire: Discerning the Influences of Movies on Your Freedom, Family and Happiness.”
She offers the following tips for families looking for movies that match their morals:
1. Choose the morals and standards you want to live by. Examine the ideas and concepts that are important to you, and that you want to pass on to your children. Before you understand what you don’t want in a movie, you really need to come to terms with the things that you DO want. Make your choices your standards, and use them as the guidelines to navigate your family’s movie wish list.
2. Regulate ALL media that you and your family experience. For all the people who want to ban certain films and television shows, the truth is that it is far easier to simply choose and guide what your own family watches. Movies that feature more sex or violence than we would like will always be around. We simply don’t have to watch them. The natural extension of that is being a vigilant parent who knows not only what your kids are doing, but also what they are watching.
3. Reinforce positive influences and minimize the negative. Short of editing the movies yourselves, you likely won’t 
eliminate all vestiges of the negative elements of modern movies. Talk to your kids about some of the things that they see, and ensure they understand the context of the actions. Silence in the presence of harmful examples is an implied endorsement.
4. Trust your feelings. Movies do more than entertain. They touch our emotions, so if we are previewing a movie, and it feels wrong (or right), chances are it is. These are individual choices, and we need to trust our guts sometimes.
5. Use movies to complement dreams, interests and talents. Since we already know that children emulate what they see on film and television, why not expose them to a diet of movies that actually inspires them and speaks to interests and talents they may already exhibit. One of the most valuable things movies do for us is that they take us to new places and show us things we might never see on our own, allowing us to live our dreams vicariously through the cinematic experience. When we choose movies that connect to our aspirations, the potential for inspiration is limitless.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
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