What happens when Christian teens watch R-rated movies? That’s a question that Phil Davignon, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Baylor University, sought to answer in a new analysis recently published in the Review of Religious Research.
Davignon evaluated data collected from more than 2,000 adolescents throughout the last decade for the National Study of Youth and Religion. Of those 13-17-year-olds surveyed who characterized their faith as “extremely important,” just 13.2% said that they avoided R-rated movies altogether. Meanwhile, nearly 21% of those who described their spiritual convictions as “extremely important” said that most of the movies they watched carried that restrictive MPAA rating.
The ubiquity of R-rated movie-viewing among teens who, theoretically, are restricted from watching them prompted Davignon to note, “Watching R-rated movies is prevalent among religious and non-religious young people. Nearly everyone watches them.”
As for the influence of those films on young people’s faith, Davignon discovered that watching R-rated fare correlated with decreased church attendance and a diminished sense of faith’s importance among Christian teens. On the other hand, watching R-rated movies didn’t seem to influence the substance of their faith. In other words, watching these films didn’t correlate with increased spiritual doubts or the embrace of a “pick and choose” mindset when it comes to Christianity’s tenets.
That said, however, Davignon’s summary of his findings should give pause to anyone who suggests that watching R-rated fare doesn’t influence young viewers:
Adolescents and young adults base their movie choices on their personal preferences, but R-rated movies seem to influence them beyond their initial attitudes towards religion. Viewing R-rated movies was damaging to religious faith even after accounting for the importance of religion in one’s family, peer influence and parental monitoring of media, among other factors.
Davignon’s observations dovetail, I think, with something I heard a pastor say years ago. He said, “Worldliness is anything that makes sin look normal.” He wasn’t talking about R-rated movies, per se. But I think his statement applies particularly well here. In the context of this study, it seems reasonable to assume that repeated exposure to R-rated levels of violence, sexuality, profanity and drug/alcohol use might have a numbing influence. Instead of being shocked, such ongoing exposure quietly communicates that these sorts of things are just the way things are. No big deal.
But it can be a big deal, Davignon’s research counters. Because—and I’m connecting the correlative dots here—when we get too used to consuming media (like R-rated movies) where sin is depicted as “normal,” it’s not hard to see how it might dulls our appetite for the things of God. And I suspect that correlation could be as true for adults as it is for impressionable adolescents.
I think the Apostle Paul may have had something like that in mind when he wrote the Ephesian church, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Eph. 5:15-17). In other words, as Christians we’re called to pay careful attention to what’s happening around us as we walk through the world, lest we be pulled toward the world’s ways of thinking and living without even realizing it.
It’s tempting, whether we’re an adolescent or an adult, to believe that we can uncritically consume entertainment media that may be counter to our convictions without having it affect the outworking of our faith. Davignon’s research suggests that’s just not the case—not matter how much we might want to believe otherwise.
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