John Piper and Television

June 27, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
4 Comments

piper.jpgJohn Piper seems to be beating himself up about an answer he gave at Advance ’09. While I don’t see the problem, I’m glad he decided to explain his position more clearly.

His post, Why I Don’t Have a Television and Rarely Go to Movies, is a thoughtful explanation of why he is very cautious of trivial entertainment for entertainment’s sake. He tackles the issue I touched on in my recent post, Get Naked for Success. He talks about preachers trying to remain relevant by immersing themselves in popular culture through the latest movies.

There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them.

I’d have to say that I’m not one of them either.

I love Piper’s explanation of why nudity in films is not acceptable.

I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.

I’ll put it bluntly. The only nude female body a guy should ever lay his eyes on is his wife’s. The few exceptions include doctors, morticians, and fathers changing diapers. “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1). What the eyes see really matters. “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Better to gouge your eye than go to hell (verse 29).

Whether we like to admit it or not, John Piper is right.

It’s not just sex and nudity in flims and on TV that bother Piper.

But leave sex aside (as if that were possible for fifteen minutes on TV). It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.

Even if you’re not a Christian, you’d have to admit that a lot of television tends to glorify the trivial and that can’t be good for any of us who want to enlarge our vision of the world and what we’re capable of achieving with the precious life we’ve been given.



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Get naked for success

June 14, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
11 Comments

English actress and now film maker, Rachel Ward, says that young actresses should get their gear off if they want to be successful.

Breasts are sexy. I want to see them and audiences want to see them. I’ve certainly had to do my fair share of it. If you’re going to be an actress or a model, it’s usually part of the package.

She says that men’s private parts are ugly and we don’t want to see them, but that the girls are prudish if they don’t strip off in front of the camera.

Men don’t have to worry about the issue though because, well, their privates don’t make pleasant viewing.

So it would seem that she’s not only happy to see Hollywood’s double standard continue, she thinks that nudity isn’t a big deal. She believes that for the sake of entertainment, and to get backsides on seats at the cinema, young women should be prepared to bare all.

You’re in a movie because you’re appealing and because you represent the aspiration, the fantasy, the ideal. I resisted that but, when you’re in the business, when you’re making a film, one doesn’t have to take it all too seriously. We’re not curing cancer . . . it’s entertainment. We want to get people into theatres.

I’m sorry Rachel, but I’m not buying it.

According to an article at News.com.au, Rachel resisted calls to appear in films completely naked, but now she wishes that she had.

Yes, you’re more likely to get longer queues at the cinema if the latest hot celebrity is on a massive screen naked, but that doesn’t make it the right thing to do. Are we really that shallow that we just do whatever it takes to draw a crowd? Is modesty completely irrelevant?

I don’t care how ‘artistically’ a nude scene is shot, guys aren’t sitting there cheering at a cinematic and artistic triumph; they’re simply getting an eyeful of a naked woman. I won’t go into the full details of what may be going through a guys mind at that point but let’s get serious, it’s not about the beauty of the human form, it’s about sexual fantasy.

Yes Rachel, breasts are sexy and we do want to see them, but that doesn’t mean that it’s right and it doesn’t mean that we should. I purposely avoid watching television and movies that contain nudity and sex scenes, not because I wouldn’t enjoy seeing that kind of stuff, but because it’s not good for me. Does that make me prudish? Fine. I’m happy to wear that badge. I may be old school but I believe that if a film maker is good at their craft they won’t need to throw in a few naked bodies to sell more tickets.

In an over sexualised world I’m trying to keep the vows I made many years ago to “forsake all other women” and remain faithful to my wife. That doesn’t just mean physically and emotionally, it involves my thought life too. I don’t want my thought life to be taken captive by some naked, airbrushed 18 year old. I’m not prepared to throw away the serious promises I made to my wife for the sake of entertainment.

I know that means that I’m marching to the beat of a very different drum to most, but that’s what I will keep trying to do. It’s not always easy and I’m not always successful, but it’s the right thing to do.

The world doesn’t need more naked celebrities and actresses. The world needs more women to stand up and say, “My body is not just a tool to be used by lazy film makers to line their pockets with cash.”



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