Violence: Is There a Line to Draw?

Marvel movies and Netflix series and video games. Frog, meet your frying pan.

I love me a good action movie. Most people do. The box office continues to smash (Hulk-smash, even?) with action movie after action movie. I'm not so much a fan of video games, but am not ignorant to the pre-order stats that continue to skyrocket with the release of every new system or game.

No one can deny, however, the upward trend of depicted violence. The hoops of the PG-13 rating have been jumped every which way, a long ways away from the outrage over Temple of Doom that led to its creation. This first struck me as a high school senior upon the release of the bloated Battle of the Five Armies, its extended edition, and gratuitous R rating. It struck me again scrolling through previews of new Netflix super hero series, full of gun fire and cleavage.

And how fast we are to draw the line at the latter but not the former.


Most Christians will balk at sexual content in entertainment. It is clear that watching that sort of thing and absorbing it is problematic for the spiritual mind. The obvious go-to verse for anyone with such a conviction would be Galatians 5:19-21, where Paul condemns the works of the flesh, naming both sexual immorality, sensuality, impurity, and orgies. And in this flesh-minded (rather, crazed) world we live in, it makes sense to separate oneself from such things in entertainment. Those (including myself) who refuse to even consider watching something like Game of Thrones will point to the gratuitous sensual content as their reason. But the question struck me.


Where do we draw the line on violence? Shouldn't gratuitous violence, perhaps its own sort of porn in the way it affects minds, also be a reason to avoid something like Game of Thrones?

We live in a violent world. School shootings, which could potentially have ties to shooter games and media, happen almost monthly in the states, as do terrorist attacks via vehicle hit and runs or bombings. Violence is hardly entertaining. It's one thing to cheer for the good guy kicking the bad guy's butt through daring-do, wit, and bravery. Or even for historical reenactment. It's another to sit for two hours in a dark room and watch throats slashed, bodies impaled, heads exploded, and fake blood pouring in very life-like, Oscar-winning effects for kicks and thrills (Logan, anyone?).

How is this entertaining? How is it good to watch the gratuitous shredding, exploding, hacking, bullet-filling, what have you, of the image of God? If we are so careful about keeping the 7th commandment in what media we consume, shouldn't we be somewhat consistent and consider the parameters of what keeping the 6th looks like in what we watch?

I'm hardly here to be holier than thou or to suggest an answer. Where one draws the line in the sand, I'm not sure. Is it a Christian liberty issue? Or is it a matter of having an accepted line in the sand?

But there's definitely a problem, and just as promiscuity grows more and more acceptable in entertainment and Christians seek to address it, I would beg us, in a dark world of dark times, to address the growing looseness in how much fake violence fills entertainment and thus our minds.

Psalm 11:5