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dennis1soil
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Posted: Tue Jan 15th, 2008 12:35 am |
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I have always felt a certain type of repulsion to horror movies in general, and even more so to what I think may be referred to as a "slasher" type. Really I don't think I have ever watched anything that would be located in the horror section of a video store - but I have seen some of the "trailers" (preview of coming attractions), and that is enough to sicken me so much I want to stay away. The type of scene depicted in such is for instance a woman taking a shower and an attacker about to do violence to her.
I know why I don't watch this kind of horror movie. It sickens me to think that people produce and consume this as "entertainment". It doesn't seem to me to take much imagination to see how a male with raging hormones could get physically confused when the feelings inside his body are being fueled (at almost the same moments) by sexual imagery quickly pumped up by danger's "fight or flight" type hormonal reactions.
So ... I don't watch horror movies ... because I think there is a line across which I will not go as a way to get a "thrill" or a pumped-up feeling in my body.
......
Now, it would seem that I would also draw the line at any kind of pornography ... since the feelings invoked in my body can make for confusion, leading me to think sexual feelings don't need to be associated with self-giving love in a personal relationship.
I suppose I have never really seen the separation of sexual feelings from an interpersonal relationship to be as disgusting as the violence portrayed in horror films ... or at least not enough to have allowed this type of disgust to keep me as successfully away from porn.
I have read some of WV's posts about the need to have a genuine hatred for sin - and it seems like I do have this kind of hatred for the type of sin that I see behind the horror movies. However, I just have not been able to feel this kind of hatred when it comes to seeing what appears to be tastefully done photographs of a willing model (nude or not).
Sometimes I have felt that if I would have allowed myself to experience a harder type of pornography then I would have an easier time hating what I had done (kind of a sick thought isn't it?).
The closest I have come to the kind of hatred of this sin which I probably do need to experience on my way to freedom - is when I have read some of the testimonies of former porn models who have come to Christ and have left that "business". What they have said about their lives during the times they were in such "demand" usually shows a lot of manipulation by men who most certainly didn't have their best interests at heart. (I don't like it when a man takes advantage of a woman --- but haven't I "taken advantage", or at least caused anguish, to the woman I love most, my wife?).
It has not been easy for me to make the connection between the form I see in the photograph and the real person who has been effected by the experience of having been photographed. It has been even harder for me to connect my experience of viewing that photograph with either the damage done to the model - or the damage done to my relationship with my wife - or the damage done to myself - or the damage done to my relationship with God.
Sorry if I've been only rambling .... I guess I don't know if this train of thought will be of help to anyone else ... however, if you think you can communicate something that will help me hate my sin more vehemently, feel free to "share" !
-Dennis
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Lilly
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 10:02 am |
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Hey denis, i can relate to your realisation. I too had this penny drop into my lil mind quite a few years ago...in relation to horror films/shows and others.
I found that as i stopped exposing myself to these things, i became much more sensitive to the Holy Spirits promptings to avoid various genre, including a greater sensativity in general.
This allowed me to be open to His impartation of why exactly it isnt healthy spiritually to expose myself to these things, rather than just thinking its 'wrong' or 'non-christian' behaviour.
It would be one of the best and crucial things that has happened to me in terms of development in my christian walk.
Thanx for sharing
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guitarist63
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 02:01 pm |
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I have never liked this genre. It's hateful. How can anyone like this stuff?
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dennis1soil
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 03:31 pm |
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Lilly wrote: ...
This allowed me to be open to His impartation of why exactly it isnt healthy spiritually to expose myself to these things, rather than just thinking its 'wrong' or 'non-christian' behaviour.
...
Thanks for your comments Lilly,
I have been wanting the Holy Spirit to impart to me more of the "why" some of what I have done is unhealthy spiritually, however (though I seem to have a very delicate conscious in many areas), there are other areas where, even if I have stopped doing these sins for extended periods of time, I still just don't feel very guilty about them??? -- Especially when I don't feel I see SPECIFIC scriptural commands which forbid either the Spirit of, or the Letter of what I think I have done.
To tell you the truth, there have been times when I felt God does not love me at all since His Holy Spirit doesn't seem to convict me of the things almost every other Christian whom I respect says are clearly Sins. (I wonder what makes them so special that God would tell them more than what is in the Bible and not tell me?)
I think that is why I need to open a thread where I lay out as clearly (and maybe even as bluntly) as I feel is appropriate here ... to express some of my reasons for wondering just what the scripture really does (and does not) say about some of the main topics for discussion here.
(I have taken today off work because I am sick - actually in more ways that just physically - so I'll probably start that dreaded thread today.)
-Dennis
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dennis1soil
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 03:50 pm |
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guitarist63 wrote: I have never liked this genre. It's hateful. How can anyone like this stuff?
Guitarman,
My guess is that the viewers of that genre must be seeking what I referred to as a "pumped-up" shot of adrenaline in their bodies.
I assume they think it is "worth it" that they can experience a separation from their normal (perhaps mundane) everyday life, and feel something so forceful inside their bodies that perhaps they are able to feel like they are more alive. Sometimes I think maybe a person wants to just feel something so badly that it doesn't stop them just to know that is not condusive to a better human race, or even a better self -- they just want to FEEL something. ????
(Maybe I am trying to extrapolate some of my experiences with porn - and try to apply my feelings to the horror-movie "user"? I'm not saying I really believe that is where I have been -- but I am certainly willing to consider the possibiity/probability?)
To me, the fact that people are imagining the terrible things enacted on the screen for purposes such as making financial profit (by the producers and actors) and being "entertained" through an escape of reality and an experience of powerful feelings inside their bodies (by the consumers) .... well, er, uh ... this fact just really annoys me !
(I wish I could think of better words to express my distaste, but at this point I can't).
-Dennis
Last edited on Wed Jan 16th, 2008 03:58 pm by dennis1soil
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junkyardboy
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 04:11 pm |
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you state that your asking the Holy Spirit to show you "why" and then you end with...
you are off work for being "more than physically sick".
you have answered yourself!
____________________
have we been abandoned by God?
http://www.apprising.org/archives/2006/11/dr_john_macarth.html
http://www.valleybible.net/position_papers.php
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guitarist63
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 04:41 pm |
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Thanks Dennis for your considered reply.
Of course, it's much worse to look at pornography (I am talking about photographs or film media) than it is to look at horror films, where the material does not exploit real people but it is evil, in my opinion, because it excites evil desires and responses. There is even some evidence that it can make some people commit murder or other violence.
I don't excuse myself for what I have done in the past. I thank God that He has taken away the desire to seek it out.
Last edited on Wed Jan 16th, 2008 04:46 pm by guitarist63
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Lilly
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 10:23 pm |
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Heyyy Denis, i just wanted to encourage you that the Lord loves you the same as He loves others. Sometimes its hard to fathom the greatness of God, as His ways are not our ways; but the Lord doesnt descriminate nor does He have 'favorites'.
He knew you before you were born, and formed you in the womb, His thoughts toward you personally and all people, are more than the grains of sand on the entire earth.
Jerimiah 29:11
'for I know the thoughts that i think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."
To not get the same revelation about something as another, doesnt mean they are more special and you are not. Revelation is personal and that is where lays its power. There are infinate ways for the Lord to reveal things to you, and other people is only one of them.
Keeping a sensitive concience is like having a compass that works, and all of us have areas in where we are less sensitive, in my own experience, it has been about bridging those....learning from the correction in some areas and applying it to others.
As God always sees our potential beyond our limitations, He is always encouraging us in different areas, for all our lives....this is such a blessing and encouragement.
Also we are living in a fallen world, where we battle between the spirit man and the flesh man; God knows this predicament, and has sent His son and spirit to assist us.
Scripture can be confusing even with comparison of translations, sometimes it doesnt match our expectations and is honestly difficult to accept, prayer helps with this just as it does in unveiling the Lords meaning in it.
There is a time for everything, and sometimes heart felt seeking prayer before reading scripture can be verry helpfull, it may not happen over night, but it will happen 
In scripture we find our destiny in God, we find who we really are. Its like a mirror, we can see our failings and our sucesses, gaining encouragement and correction with both.
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Lilly
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Posted: Wed Jan 16th, 2008 10:33 pm |
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guitarist63 wrote: Thanks Dennis for your considered reply.
Of course, it's much worse to look at pornography (I am talking about photographs or film media) than it is to look at horror films, where the material does not exploit real people but it is evil, in my opinion, because it excites evil desires and responses. There is even some evidence that it can make some people commit murder or other violence.
I don't excuse myself for what I have done in the past. I thank God that He has taken away the desire to seek it out.
Hey guitarist,thanx for sharing your experience.
I agree with you in relation to the spiritual pollution from exposing ourselves to these things, i disagree in relation to the levels of which is worse and which isnt.
I believe they are as bad as each other, as its a negative spiritual influence, regardless of the form we are exposed.
For me, horror and psychic tv shows had an odd attraction. i now realise that attraction is within me, but is destined for the Lords ways, and not conterfiet spirituality.
You are right, like attracts like.
I guess the genre of my attraction showed the spiritual connection clearly to me through heinsight.
I too thank the Lord for uprooting the desire for such things.
Its a testiment to His glory and power, may He always be lifted high.
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guitarist63
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Posted: Fri Jan 18th, 2008 07:04 pm |
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I have a fault to confess and it is that I have a narrow way of looking at things sometimes. The horror discussed in this thread I was associating with billboard advertisements outside cinemas for hammer house of horror type films - with mummies coming to life and sticking knives into female victims, etc. I realize that I have in fact viewed quite a lot of horror films
The Towering Inferno
The Poseidon Adventure
and their ilk
Or Jaws and the sequels
So in fact I should not have commented as I did. I've watched a stack of horror movies over the past forty or more years. I don't recall any hammer house of horror.
Last edited on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 04:34 pm by guitarist63
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hans45
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Posted: Wed Feb 27th, 2008 02:22 am |
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I've never really understood the fasination some have with the "slasher" type of movies. I"ve seen trailers for movies like the "Saw" movies. How in the world can a person sit through something like that and think it's cool? Those things can affect unstable people. What ever happened to "Frankenstein", "Dracula" and the "Wolfman"?
Dennis
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anotherhumblebrokensearcher
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Posted: Thu Apr 10th, 2008 05:27 am |
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I heard an interesting perspective on the bible the other day. A person said, it might be more helpful to us to stop looking at the bible as an encyclopedia for life and more of a love story for all of us.
You won't be able to look up your exact situation at the back of the book and get a yes or no if there is one thing I have learned in my readings. Try to feel God's heart behind what he says. Like try to feel out what he is getting at by the flee temptation verse.
What I have found is that if you don't try and error on the adventurous hard to follow side of listening to God's nudgings then you will quite quickly stop being moved by the holy spirit.
But it also sounds like you are quite committed to God and are earnestly trying to figure this stuff out. And you said that you have gone long periods of time without feeling guilty about it.
I know what that is like, I had the same feeling with masturbating with my girlfriend believe it or not. The whole not sure what the bible says seems to give you freedom to do what you want as long as you have balance right? Sort of. It's like Paul said paraphrased, you can do anything you want, but it won't neccessarily be good for you.
God isn't going to freak out and yell at you for looking at nude girls. And satan will certainly be quick to point out the little benefits of it. But if want some crazy passion for God and the type of life that is a result of that, things like this are really going to get in your way.
Prayer.
If you want to feel something different in your heart about this you have to really want it and will probably have to cry out to God for more of his holy spirit. God wants to be passionately desired. He doesn't want to be on the shelf, even if you dust it regularly.
I hope this helps.
love ya
Steve
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Wilderness Voice
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Posted: Thu Apr 10th, 2008 12:27 pm |
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No, God will not freak out at you looking at nudes. If you continue to do this, you simply won't be in Heaven with Him. All whoremongers are outside with the liars and the dogs. The Bible is not a syrupy love story. Love is stronger than death and death resides in sin. Love does not allow sin and a loving relationship with God is one where sin is not tolerated. God forgives sin and cleanses from sin those who have come in humble contrition with repentance. Being comfortable with sin is a sure-fire way of ending up in Hell.
Read the whole Bible and this is the picture you will get.
Wilderness Voice
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guitarist63
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Posted: Thu Apr 10th, 2008 08:24 pm |
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You only have to read Acts Chapter 5 verse 1 to 11 - the sin of lying to the Holy Spirit that Ananias and his wife Sapphira committed, in purposefully witholding money obtained from the sale of land, money that was intended to be used for the church in Jerusalem at that time, to know that God's love is not syrup. God Himself struck them both dead for this sin, in the presence of the church in Jerusalem.
Last edited on Tue Jul 1st, 2008 09:40 pm by guitarist63
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Man
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Posted: Sat Apr 19th, 2008 07:53 pm |
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Wilderness Voice wrote: No, God will not freak out at you looking at nudes. If you continue to do this, you simply won't be in Heaven with Him. All whoremongers are outside with the liars and the dogs. The Bible is not a syrupy love story. Love is stronger than death and death resides in sin. Love does not allow sin and a loving relationship with God is one where sin is not tolerated. God forgives sin and cleanses from sin those who have come in humble contrition with repentance. Being comfortable with sin is a sure-fire way of ending up in Hell.
Read the whole Bible and this is the picture you will get.
Wilderness Voice
What is your background Wilderness Voice?
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