Today's Culture & Your Family

Cornel Warren

TV. Radio. Movies. Magazines. They send constant messages to us and to our families. They aim to define for us how we should look, what we should wear, who we should worship, how we should live almost every aspect of our lives. Whether we like it or not, we are bombarded from all angles with messages that don't honor God or people. How can we censor ourselves? 

At risk of sounding like a Debbie-Downer, I will transition quickly to the silver lining, the glimmer of hope. Here are some excellent resources to help you guard your family.

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​1. Plugged In is a great place to start. Brought to you by the cultural experts at Focus on the Family, Plugged In offers reviews that evaluate books, movies, tv shows, music and even video games from a Biblical perspective. As conscientious moms, we evaluate the media we and our kids consume using the basic standards like MPAA ratings, opting for G, PG or PG 13 only, but even then the standards have become intolerably loose.
Plugged In's reviews take a structures approach starting with positive elements, spiritual content and sexual content. After briefly summarizing a movie's stance/content that speak to those three areas, reviews move on to discuss violent content, language, drug/alcohol content and conclude with a summary of other negative elements. 
Plugged In also summarizes the level of caution with an easy-to-read guide broken down for Kids, Teens & Adults. 

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Plugged In is a phenomenal resource to get an honest, in depth preview of movies, music and other media before committing to watching/listening to it.  They also do a great job of keeping up with current releases, including movies that are still in theaters. 

Check Plugged In before your next visit to the theatre:

www.pluggedin.com
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​2. VidAngel is the answer for women who wish "they would just leave out the bad stuff!" Using VidAngel, you can literally choose exactly which questionable elements you want to watch and which elements you want to have removed from your movies. Many companies have tried (and failed) to wriggle movies out of the tight grip of the major productions companies so they could edit out the offensive content, but VidAngel has managed. 
These companies are so powerful that they have actually succeeded in making it illegal to edit movies before selling them, and even before displaying them. That's why VidAngel is so clever! They sell you the movie before it gets edited, and they technically allow you to do the editing yourself. After you finished watching it, you can sell it back for 90% of the purchase price, so it works out the same as if you rented it.  
Whether you want to edit out slightly scary elements before allowing your little ones to watch a rated G movie, or you want to avoid being bombarded with offensive language during PG-13 or R-rated movies, you can finally take control with VidAngel. 

www.VidAngel.com

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