Ask Pastor Mike Live

Mike Fabarez: Jose asks a question about watching scary movies. Is it okay as a Christian to watch scary movies? And he lists one. I don't know what it is, so I'm not even going to mention it cuz I couldn't answer it cuz I don't know the movie and it could be horrific. It could be mild. I don't know. Yeah, here's what I will say and you know, you could disagree with me on this, but raising kids in my house Yeah, we didn't We didn't watch scary movies in part because I don't want to hassle with the I did not want to hassle with the effects of of scary movies in my home, which I thought were were going to be nightmares.

I remember as a kid stumbling onto you know, walking through you know, some movie that was on that probably wasn't even that bad, but watching going through the den as I came in late, you know, maybe whatever, getting a snack or going to the bathroom or whatever as a little kid and and seeing something I maybe shouldn't have seen or I was upset sick and you know, mom let me stay up or whatever and yeah, I I had a nightmare and I didn't I don't want my kids to have that. So yeah, I I guess I was pretty I sheltered my kids a lot with not saying No, you're not going to watch scary movies.

So I prohibited that in part, I guess, because of Philippians chapter 4 that says my focus should be as a Christian on things that are lovely and of good repute and honorable and all the rest that list there starting in in I think it's verse 8 is a very helpful guide for me to say I'd rather watch things that if they're going if there's going to be some violence or something that's negative, it has a purpose, right? I mean, the Bible has plenty of of violence in it and negative things, but there's always a purpose to it.

The the the scary movies usually is for the sake of horror, for the sake of gratuitous violence. It the purpose is to entertain with the violence. The Bible's violence is is to is to show some purpose. Even in the book of Judges, which is the worst of the violence, I would think in in Scripture, I would know it is and and it it's it's giving us a purpose with two reprises of the theme, which there is no king there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That's how the book ends and that was a reprise of something that was said in the middle of the book because this is the problem of people doing their own thing without recognizing the king who was God himself.

So yeah, I'm not a big fan of scary movies. I don't watch scary movies. I didn't let my kids watch scary movies. Some scary movies are just glorifying things that we're not supposed to glorify. So I'm sure you'd have a lot of pastors that would say different, but my entertainment choices I just would not want to desensitize myself. A lot of the stuff that's out there glorifies the demonic. I don't want to do that. But I would be careful of being too hardcore about those things, especially when it comes to fantasy or you know, there are certain things I'm I'm not going to be dogmatic about from the pulpit because there are purposeful reasons, I think, for some of the stuff that's done in in movies and I might be able to say, okay, whatever.

I I might defer to 1 Corinthians 10 or Romans chapter 14 that's a liberty issue for you, go ahead, but yeah, I pretty much fall on a pretty conservative side of that one for my kids, my family, for myself. Me and my wife, we just don't We don't do that. So that's my answer on that one.