“Partial Nudity” Is Not Okay
I was very disappointed in a recent popular movie, a sequel to a film that has attracted people of all ages. I don’t know why I was so dumb as to think “partial nudity” meant something else except “partial nudity”.
During what was supposed to be a light sex scene you can clearly see her left breast. In the water there is a lot more skin then I ever thought there was going to be. Before buying tickets, I researched different parent reviews, hoping to find out if there was anything in the movie that I wasn’t going to approve of. None of the 6 different sites I looked at ever discussed what the partial nudity was. I considered walking out of the theater when I saw that, but stayed. The rest of the movie was pretty good. There’s just that one part…
Sometimes in situations like these I think, “why am I making such a big deal about it? Everybody else thinks its o.k., even most LDS people. Why am I the only one who makes a big deal out of it?” Then I look at my beautiful daughters and remember why I make such a big deal over one scene of “partial” nudity. I hope that more people will take a stand against “partially” harmless t.v. shows, movies, magazines, and other entertainment. Not only to stay away from it but to speak out against it. I don’t want them to believe that if they ever became actresses that it would be o.k. if they showed *only *“*partial*” nudity. I don’t want them to believe that as long as they aren’t the ones showing their body that its o.k. to watch it, just so long as it’s *only* “*partial*” nudity. And, I don’t want their future daughters or sons to think it’s okay to watch nudity, partial or not and be okay with it.
Thomas Monson has said: “Some persons struggle to differentiate between what they term ‘soft-core’ and ‘hard-core’ pornography. Actually, one leads to another. How applicable is Alexander Pope’s classic “Essay on Man”:
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
“An ominous warning was voiced by Laurence M. Gould, former president of Carleton College: “I do not believe the greatest threat to our future is from bombs or guided missiles. I don’t think our civilization will die that way. I think it will die when we no longer care. Arnold Toynbee has pointed out that 19 of 21 civilizations have died from within and not by conquest from without. There were no bands playing and flags waving when these civilizations decayed. It happened slowly, in the quiet and the dark when no one was aware.”
I remember reading a review of a new movie. The leading actress told the reporter that she objected initially to the script and the part she was to play. The role portrayed her as the sexual companion of a 14-year-old boy. She commented: “At first I said, ‘No way will I agree to such a scene.’ Then I was given the assurance that the boy’s mother would be present during all intimate scenes, so I agreed.”
I ask: Would a mother stand by watching were her son embraced by a cobra? Would she subject him to the taste of arsenic or strychnine? Mothers, would you? Fathers, would we?
Let us join in the fervent declaration of Joshua: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve; … but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Let our hearts be pure. Let our lives be clean. Let our voices be heard. Let our actions be felt.”
I hope that more people will take a stand against “partially” harmless t.v. shows, movies, magazines, and other entertainment. Not only to stay away from it but to speak out against it.
Regina, A Voice for Virtue
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Warning, warning! Behaviors that bite us all!
Sin effects us every day. It has far reaching consequences. Read about King Davids’ life and his life long consequences.
The bible tells it like it is. The bible said that because David did this, that “the sword will never leave your
house”. Read about what happened to his children.
Pretty scary thought. David was a believer and he made a choice to commit adultery and then murder. The difference between a believer and a non-believer in this mess is that the believer will repent and turn from it. God will always provide an “intervention” of sorts. The interventionist for King David was Nathan the Prophet.
David took the path of escape and listened to Nathan, but not without the consequences that followed him throughout the rest of his life. God had mercy on David when he chose to let God keep his path straight. Proverbs 3:5-6. It took King David about a year to come to terms with his own sin. He writes about it in Psalm 51:1-10.
The non-believer will try and justify it and live a defeated life and the causalities are like that of a war. He will not listen to the “Interventionist”. He may even die in his sin. He will die spiritually, emotionally, and ultimately a physical death from making the choice not to take “the way of escape”. Even in a believer’s life, after repentance, there are still far reaching consequences.
Many people become wounded and even lose their lives, esp. if there are children involved…..young or old.
Adultery including porn is one of the ultimate selfish behaviors known to man. Feeding our flesh with these things is deadly to ourselves and others.
Solomon, King Davids son by Bathsheba, (Uriah’s wife) was considered the wisest man on earth, yet he ended up with “many foreign wives”. There were four slow “erosions” in Solomon’s life. You can read about how it happened on your own, it is all there for us to learn what not to do.
God told him not to do this because they would turn his heart toward idol worship. Idol worship can mean drug addiction or porn or in the context of Solomon’s day it was the foreign gods. In Solomons day porn was called an “image”. They would carve porn images from stone. Yes, they had “Playboy” too. Solomon had a wonderful relationship with his God until, he mingled with the world. It does not happen overnight. It happens over time. Sometimes slowly sometimes faster. But it will happen. Whatever you feed your flesh will live and get stronger.
Can you imagine having 300 wives and 400 concubines?
THIS WAS ONE FRAGMENTED MAN!
How in the world could you have a relationship with your husband if his life was cut into a multitude of pieces? Wives and children everywhere!
God warned him. I guess history repeats itself. Like father like son. I think he lost his wisdom. It happened ever so slowly, until he looked up and realized that God was no longer his God anymore.
But then he wrote Ecclesiastes. Read Ecclesiastes and you will learn that Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun”. That means that people will always continue this behavior even in the midst of KNOWING it is wrong. The sad thing is it is not taken seriously. David’s family was broken. The result of his actions are devastatingly far reaching!
Solomon learned. Some of God’s greatest wisdom came from Solomon and David in the books of Proverbs and Psalms. Psalms 119:9-11. God will always get to the heart of the matter if we will let him. Sadly, most people do not let him. Proverbs 2:1-5.
He learned from all of his sin. He repented. But the consequences were grim.
Today we are given the same warnings with the same consequences. Does anyone care to be wise? You would think that we would take the consequences from these lives and be wise. NOT!!! It is really an open book test. Why won’t we listen? Silly sheep.
I guess the closest thing to Solomon’s life in the here and now is multiple marriages, and fragmented lives. But it is worse because we have technology to not only carve our images but with the push of a button we can view images. Men and women meet at work and decide to erode their lives everyday. And so the story of sin goes. Men and women will do anything for pleasure of self. Porn is the same thing: a fantasy, and addiction, abhorrent behavior.
But, Wisdom can be found, it is just a matter of humbling ourselves and asking God to show us ourselves. Paying close attention to the warnings. Wisdom is better than riches. Proverbs 2:1-5 It really is! If we do not have wisdom God says to ask Him for it and He will give it to us liberally.
Sometimes I think men and women are the stupidest when they make choices like the above. Sin keeps us longer than we want to stay, makes us pay more than we want to pay in all areas. I am not judging. I have made stupid choices too. But, I cry out for wisdom to know if my actions will hurt others or myself. I have hurt others by my actions and others have hurt me. I cry out for wisdom on a daily basis. It works. But, you have to be wise and vigilant about keeping it. My life is far from perfect and I am paying consequences for my sin too. I desire to finish well. I will if I stay in close contact on a daily basis with my God. I will if I make choices based on wisdom.
It seems, these days more people are justifying divorce, tearing whole families apart, bit by bit. With a society like that, there is no defense. I believe that is how Rome fell. It fell from within.
It affects all of our freedoms and eventually we are bound to a life we never wanted. Yes, we thought it was going to be a “bed of roses” and we said, “the kids are resilient, they’ll get over it”. This is a lie. I believe this is why we have so many rebellious teens in the first place. Their behavior is only reflecting a pain that they do not even understand. Their behavior is a language all of it’s own. How can a woman trust a man anymore? How can a man trust a woman? The bible says, “By wisdom a house is built”. There is NO wisdom in this behavior.
“Sin is fun for a season” and then you eat rocks for the rest of your life.
I don’t want to eat rocks, smoke rocks, or have a rock in my shoe. I want to stand on The Rock and get wisdom, even if it means no one will be with me. I know the end of the story. His-story!
Remember this:
Thanks for your comment Joanie. The biblical story of Kind David is a great reminder that even the elect can fall and just how consequential even our daily decisions, actions and thoughts are!
Thank you for some great food for thought and the boldness to say it. I totally agree.
Thanks for your thought Ann!
I read the article on partial nudity and I totally agree. A little goes a long way. I’ve been searching for a better way to review movies and I think I found a pretty good site. kidsinmind.com is a pretty good site to do parental reviews. It has a completely different rating system that I feel is tells more than the traditional G, PG, PG-13, and R ratings. Those ratings seem to allow more and more each decade. kidsinmind.com rates the movie on a scale of 1-10 in three areas, sex & nudity, violence & gore, & Profanity. Click on the movie you want to review and it gives in good detail what is in the movie. I’ve avoided many unpleasant experiences by reading their reviews and paying attention to their rating scale. Enjoy!
Jeron P.
Thanks so much for the website information Jeron. It is great to hear that this site is a resource for getting specifics on movie content. Hopefully the system they use will safe guard others from being exposed to the things they are purposefully trying stay away from.
Wonderful thought! So many people “justify” watching shows or movies because they are “entertaining.” Yet these shows contain lots of unrighteous behavior. I have been guilty myself, but am working harder at following Boyd K. Packer’s counsel:
Years ago I put up some signs in my mind. They are very clearly printed and simply read: “No trespassing.” “No dumping allowed.” On occasions it has been necessary to show them very plainly to others.
I do not want anything coming into my mind that does not have some useful purpose or some value that makes it worth keeping. I have enough trouble keeping the weeds down that sprout there on their own without permitting someone else to clutter my mind with things that do not edify.
I think “No trespassing” is excellent advice!!
What honesty! You are not alone in this as we are guilty of justifying “unrighteous behavior” that diminishes our light. I love that visual of no trespassing! Thanks for sharing.
Plugged In offers great, detailed reviews that analyze all the good and bad parts of new movies and TV shows — they even count the swear words. I always check those reviews before watching anything. http://www.pluggedin.com
Thanks for another website that can be used to check specifics of a movie Nicole.
There is one part of your article about how partial nudity is not okay that I would like to speak about. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whose members many people know as being “LDS” or “Mormon.” In your article, you wrote concerning partial nudity, that “…Everybody else thinks its o.k., even most LDS people.” I personally understood this statement as labeling most LDS people as being okay with partial nudity, which then reflects on the religion as a whole as being okay with partial nudity. While I do not think that this was your intended message, I would like to clarify the church’s position and my own, amongst many others, by saying this: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is NOT okay with partial nudity. One of the most important standards in my church which I and millions of others in my religion strive to follow every day is called the Law of Chastity, which is God’s law stating that man and woman shall not have sexual relations with eachother outside of legal, lawful marriage. This statement about “Sexual relations” includes any and all forms of pornographic material, whether hardcore or not, and even extends so far as to include masturbation. No sexual activity outside of those between a legally wedded man and woman is okay. Sexual relations between man and woman are very sacred things, meant for the bringing of life into this world, and are meant to be used and expressed solely between man and wife in marriage. They are not to be abused. That is my church’s stance on anything relating to human sexuality. We stand very strongly against pornographic material, whether softcore, hardcore, or lesser or greater. I wholeheartedly support your argument against partial nudity, as I am sure that Thomas S. Monson, the current President of my church and a Prophet of God, would support you as well. I have had the same thoughts concerning scenes in movies like what you are mentioning. I have even wondered why I have, at times, seemed to be the only one that was bothered by images and movies of that nature, even amongst other members of the church that I knew well. It is here that I speak my issue: it is regrettable that there are members of the church who have forgotten or disobeyed the Lord’s Law concerning these matters, and it is regrettable that there are so many Latter-Day Saints who set terrible examples of what our church believes by living against the standards set by God through His prophets. But I believe I make myself perfectly clear when I say that the mistakes of these and other children of God do not reflect the beliefs or standards of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That I wish to clarify at this time. I would gladly speak with you more about this subject if you like.
Gavin…I may wrong here, but by the content of this post I got the impression that the author is, in fact, LDS.
every thing that we watch in a television today tells some bad report (immorality)…in a news,entertainment,movies…& sometime we do not notice that we are manipulated…