Christianity And Explicit Content: How should a Christian look at explicit content in entertainment?

Joe was conflicted about his desired choice of entertainment for less than family-appropriate video games like, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) - a game that is centred around fast cars, stealing every drivable vehicle ranging from cars, to city busses to military airplanes. GTA also invites players to participate in gang wars, drug dealing and robbery. However one feature of the GTA series, and more-so with the later instalments of the series such as GTA 4 & 5, is its allowance for players to immerse themselves into the game outside of the storyline and merely be a citizen of the city and virtually do anything they want. Such as participate in senseless vandalism of public property and beat up and kill people, for whatever reason pops in the player's head; and of course the game also allows the players to enjoy more light hearted activities like buy-up property with the money they steal from street mugging, bowling, darts and checking out the strip-clubs.

Joe was a church going Christian; he served as a Sunday school teacher and a youth leader. As a result he felt hypocritical because on one hand he would encourage his youth not to play games like GTA, and GTA specifically; yet he's enjoyed many hours of virtual carnage and virtual car theft, virtual assault and virtual murder.

The relationship between entertainment that adults and children can play have been a point of personal preference with people, parents and single persons alike forever. Many adults don't feel hypocritical when they tell a child or teenager: "Do not watch that movie!" or "Don't play that video game!", but play that game or watch that movie themselves without any concerns; yet there are many people who feel that if a movie or video game is bad for their child or teenager then its just as wrong for themselves (or anyone) to watch it or play it - in sum don't play that game or watch that movie or TV show because its content is ontologically bad - you are glorifying evil - and doing that is itself evil.

It is true that a world where there is no immorality - a world where everyone loves everyone and does no harm to anyone - would be a perfect world; but such a world is fantasy - this real world is filled with evil and so trying to hide ourselves and our children from the world's ills is futile. Now of course a level headed adult should never give as a birthday gift to a 10 year old a game like GTA; however the question is why? Is it because subjecting our children to entertainment that promotes immorality is wrong? In sum is it the "immoral values" that are held by the form of entertainment that is wrong?

Educational Entertainment and a Double Standard:

However virtual violence in entertainment such as movies and video games could be looked at in terms of 'education'. Playing a video game character who is an American WW2 Soldier fighting the Nazis might be looked as educational for the player. The PlayStation 2 video game Medal of Honour: Frontline starts the player off taking the beach at Normandy on that fateful day in 1944 infamously known as D-Dday. One might argue that its interactively educating its players of the reality of what we all learned about in history class.

However is there a point of education in games like GTA? No; but is there a benefit to playing gratuitously violent games like GTA? USA Today journalist, Julia Savacool states that Andrew Przybylski, a researcher from University of Essex teaches that at least part of the attraction towards video games (in general terms - not singling out violent video games) "...is the chance to explore aspects of our "ideal selves" in a make-believe world without consequences."[i] Przybylski states:

Imagine, for instance, someone really wants to be a more extroverted person in their daily life but cannot expand themselves at work or at home, ... Games can provide this person a context to 'try on' a more extroverted self who is more assertive and sociable by running a large team, such as a guild in the game World of Warcraft.[ii]

In sum "[if] your character saves the world from forces of evil, ... you've earned the respect of your community and landed on higher moral ground."[iii] Moreover, Savacool also states that there are studies that suggest "...playing electronic games provides a form of stress relief; other research cites the social aspect of gaming with friends as a major benefit."[iv] So not only it allows someone to be someone who they perceive they are not, gaming is a social activity and a way to blow off steam. So for some people to curl up in bed with a good James Patterson murder mystery and at other times go rock climbing with a friend or two are pass-time activities and for some it is playing the redneck psychopathic killer, Trevor Philips from GTA-5. However is playing the role of a psychopath in a video game really the kind of material one should pass time with? But is there really a difference though between reading about a murderer in a Patterson novel or watching an episode of Criminal Minds and being the serial killer in a video game? In short, no. How many people (Christians and non-Christians alike) speak out against video games like GTA but don't think twice about watching TV shows like Criminal Minds? Isn't TV shows shows like Criminal Minds promoting immorality i.e. murder in the name of entertainment?

The only exception however is, games like GTA-5 are largely not scripted - they are open for the player to determine what kind of day the character will have and what they will do. In sum the one difference is in sandbox games like GTA-5 the player has total autonomy over the character's actions; whereas in a movie the character is a robot of sorts, with every move and line pre-scripted. Therefore games like GTA allows the player to not merely watch virtual evil, but commit it. However it is a moot point because it is a double standard to speak out against entertainment that utilizes evil as a character in one format but be fine with the same evil in another format such as via television shows or movies.

How should Christians look at immoral entertainment?

So how should Joe look at evil content when it is presented in the form of entertainment? ANSWER: Learn to divorce reality from fantasy and keep those worlds separate. Everyone, Christians included need that escape from reality, but given the morals held within the Christian Bible (cf. Philippians 4:8-9) is not such behaviour dwelling on the stark opposite of what is nobel, right, lovely and admirable, but glorifying the spirit of evil (1 Corinthians 13:6) by playing video games like GTA? The answer is - intentions. In a video game or a movie where the fictional character steals from another fictional character and or kills them may be necessary to move the story along; however if someone does the actions of killing a virtual person in a video game or watches a person being murdered in a movie, but in their heart the fictional character is a surrogate for a real person (someone they know or even just a stranger) then for them it isn't merely an escape from reality - fantasy has become a surrogate for reality. To reiterate Savacool teaches that one reason that people play video games is to get"...the chance to explore aspects of [their] "ideal selves"...". If one starts to conform that place in their soul that only they and God knows about and will, ideally, never be shown to another living person - to the ideals of the evil character that they play this is when immorality in entertainment becomes problematic and therefore just as Jesus states:

If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. - Matthew 5:29

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[i] http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2014/03/30/video-games-violence/6437253/ - 
[ii] Ibid., accessed, April 8, 2014
[iii] Ibid., accessed, April 8, 2014
[iv] Ibid., accessed, April 8, 2014