My 2 cents worth ... with maybe a quarter's worth or rambling. :)

movies may not affect you, but certain movies will affect me and give me major problems. To just say movies have no effect on anyone, really i don't think can be held to be true.

Haha, if movies didn't affect me in some way, I simply wouldn't watch them any more!! I WANT to see different ideas and relationships in ways I hadn't considered before. I WANT to see things from other perspectives so that I can understand how others view it, and even consider if possibly I may have been stuck in a rut of my own perception. Then again, there are many things I simply don't care to be stimulated by. I'm an avid movie watcher (and critic, haha), but I'm rather tired of those endless flicks that seem to have no worthwhile reason for having been made except for $ or for promoting wacko ideas just for the reason of being different.

In the same sense, if we didn't have some kind of an affect upon each other in this group it would simply cease to be anything worthwhile. Now, the distinction between Affect and Effect has always been confusing for me, and I think for others as well. There are similarities as well as distinctions.

Effect = Cause to happen or occur
Affect = Have an emotional or cognitive impact upon (or Have an effect upon)

The long-standing argument that movies are bad for you (because they will Effect you) makes the demand that people will go out and do whatever it is that the movie projects. Though I'm sure this can and has happened, it is more the exception than the rule. The truth of the matter is that many of us have watched movies in the same way we have attended school or church when we have been looking to someone else to tell us what to do or how to think. In this case, many are looking for an alternative way to think or act because the present way seems to lack satisfaction. In other words, the grass is greener on the other side mentality - a not-surprising side-effect of the vain imaginations of the empty life we had in Adam (and many still are caught in that darkness). I think many are Affected in many complex ways by watching movies or hearing stories or interacting with others simply because there is the presentation of different ways of understanding ourselves and the world around us. In the empty mindset this may seem to be better or worse or even an equal trade-off, and may, in fact, encourage those involved to proceed in their emptiness in a radically different manner than before.

Ah, but a new thing has happened to those who are now in Christ. Do we need to consider a multitude of new views? No, and I'm glad it's not a requirement for true freedom to have to APPEAR to be as free as another by doing the free things they do. :) If I view movies or do not view movies is not important, but instead it is the new creation that is important. I have times when I simply don't need any more bombardment of new ideas, but there are other times where I find myself confronted with a new thing (to me, that is) that has shaken me out of a rut.

I think we're all affected in more ways than we can even imagine, whether watching movies or discussing things on this group. Are movies evil things that will cause me to go out and do what the characters do? No, I don't think so. But then again, if not evil, are they good things? Well, that puts us right back with the good vs. evil mentality when we think like that. If we simply consider if something is worthwhile for us at any given place or time we will be considering life! We may find that doing a particular thing is a complete waste of time and energy at one moment but then find that it is just what the doctor ordered at another!! There is great peace knowing that Christ in me is totally trustworthy in the very real issues that cause the world to go into hyperventilation!! :)

Love, Jim