2009 August | Religion & Values

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Ministry asks for new movie ratings guidelines

Posted by religion

on August 17, 2009 at 11:13 am

MovieGuide is circulating a petition asking Americans to urge the Motion Picture Association of America to drop its rating system in favor of a new “Code of Decency.” moviepopcorn

MovieGuide is an online movie guide to films with moral and family friendly content. It is a ministry of the Christian Film & Television Commission ministry.

Ted Baehr, the ministry’s chairman, said the Motion Picture Association of America’s current ratings system has failed.

“The MPAA’s rating system never worked really well, but it has gotten much worse since it added the ambiguous PG-13 rating,” Baehr said in a news release today.

“Parents, especially mothers, can no longer trust the ratings for movies, especialy in light of the PG-13 ratings for movies like ‘The Love Guru’ and ‘Land of the Lost,’ and the R ratings for pornographic movies like ’Bruno.’”

Baehr said the trouble with the MPAA ratings is that they are not based on standards.

He said he plans to send the signed petitions to the Federal Trade Commission.

“This is not true of the Code of Decency so it is clear that the entertainment industry must return to the kind of system it had during the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ and the ‘Golden Age of Television’ when it was a wonderful life in America because Mr. Smith went to Washington, Ricky still loved Lucy and the Bells of St. Mary’s rang across the land.”

Readers, what do you think of the current movie rating system? Does it work for you?

Do you think Ted Baehr is right and we need a system based on a “Code of Decency.”

Interested in the MovieGuide petition? Find out more about it by going to www.movieguide.org.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

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