Question:
Why should it be wrong to see movies if it does not influence you–or make you do what the actors do?

Answer:
In seeking to answer this, let us use the movie TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY to help us. Although I have not seen the movie, I am told it is filled with violence, illicit sex, and cursing. Now it is reasonable to assume that one may possibly walk away from the movie without being driven to acts of violence, illicit sex, or cursing, but could we really say that it would have no influence on us?

In the last issue of IN TOUCH I tried to answer the question of what music the Christian should listen to and we looked at three verses which could be used as guidelines as to this. I believe these same Scriptures could be used in this case, but I want to especially consider Philippians 4:8 to see whether or not we are influenced by bad things that we watch. It reads, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are TRUE…HONEST…JUST… PURE…LOVELY…OF GOOD REPORT; if there be any VIRTUE; if there be any PRAISE, THINK ON THESE THINGS.” Now we notice that all of the “things” mentioned here are “good” things. Never are we told in Scripture to think about violence, illicit sex, etc. Why is this? Is it not because our all-knowing God knows that these “things” are not healthy for our emotional and spiritual well-being?
Even though we may not commit the bad things we observe in a movie, it is a known fact that the mind records everything we hear and see. Like a computer, it is put in our memory, and it may come to mind at times when we wish it wouldn’t. Some people have had bad thoughts (from a movie or TV program they had seen) during a remembrance meeting and they wished they could erase them, but they can’t. The “bad” thoughts then interfere with the “good” thoughts that we want to have about our Lord Jesus.
Another thing that can happen is we may become insensitive to sin. In Ephesians 4:17-19 we read about unsaved people who become so hardened in their hearts as to sin that they are spoken of as being “past feeling” (verse 19). That is, they become “numb” as to what sin really is. Instead of their consciences accusing them of wrong, they have no discernment about what is right and what is wrong. Statistics have shown that the average person, by the time he/she is 16 years old, has watched thousands upon thousands of gruesome murders on television or in movies, and it is alarming how insensitive to violence they become. We fool ourselves if we think it can’t happen to us. When our Lord Jesus walked on earth He was a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3) because of all the misery He saw which was caused by sin. He would have us to be sensitive to sin too, and not to be entertained by it.
One last thought concerning this would be how our watching bad movies might influence others. In 1 Thessalonians 5:22 we are told, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” If someone sees us go into a theater where TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY is playing, what will they think? Let’s say it is an unsaved friend who we have been trying to win to Christ. Will they be receiving a true picture of what a Christian is really like? Or will they be “stumbled” by our actions, thinking in their heart that there is really no difference between the Christian and the unbeliever? We must think of our testimony to others in everything we do.