Revision of Philippians

WARNING: This is not a post about the Star Wars movie. Star Wars is the discussion generator, that's all. So here's the revision of Philippians:

"Whatever is not going to hurt the kid, whatever won't bother him, if anything is being done by all of his friends; if it didn't bother YOU when YOU were a kid, or you saw/did it and YOU turned out OK, let his mind dwell on these things."

That's pretty much the discussion I hear regarding whether to take children to see the latest Star Wars movie. I have sat in numerous groups of women (mostly) recently--some are Christian, some are not. Some are very child-protective in many ways that I am not; others are less so. What has struck me is that the discussion focuses on "we'll be OK if we do it" MUCH more than "Is this a *good* way to spend our time, money and brains?" (Good meaning like "God is good".) "Will our lives be richer?" "Will we be enlightened--or even entertained--by this movie?"

I cannot say that I have been faithful to approaching my decisions regarding my own or BoyBob's activities in this way. But surely these verses give us a good, concrete set of criteria for making this very type of decision, and yet I have not once heard the criteria discussed in these groups.

One other irony I have noted in the discussions: a few people based their decision on whether or not there would be "skin" (YOU know...) between two of the leads. Well, there wasn't, but there WAS a distinctly violent act by one against the other. This bothers me more than "skin" would have...because "skin" is part of the normal design for marriage--but choking? How can THAT be a good thing for a child to see? And less important in the decision-tree than "skin"? But this point has been pooh-poohed at every turn.

I don't know. It just seems that there has to be more to making decisions than "it won't hurt".

Anyone who has been in our home or read many of my posts knows that we have done our share to make George Lucas rich. BoyBob's generation plays Star Wars like we played Cowboys and Indians. I point this out so that it is clear I'm not writing from a "holier than thou" or anti-Star Wars position. Many great discussions about truth, good and evil, God, superstition, human dignity, freedom, and modern "knighthood" have sprung from this series. That being said, it was BoyBob himself who opted out of the movie, 6 months ago. "Nothing good and everything bad is going to happen in that movie, and some of it is going to be gross. Why would I want to see THAT?" He then made a set of predictions as to what would happen in the movie, based on the fact that Lucas has to get from Episode 2 to Episode 4. He was right on every count...and I got one he didn't think of--and he doubted me, but I was right.