Insight on the News

Film Foolishness

● Recently a disillusioned reader wrote to the conservative American Protestant journal “Christian Century” about its reviews of some current motion pictures. He noted that the magazine’s editor, James M. Wall, “wrote a piece praising ‘Luna’ as a major work of cinematic art and insisted that it should be seen twice!” The film featured an incestuous relationship between mother and son, causing the disillusioned reader to ask: “But what about the full-page ads for the film promising ‘the most provocative scene of our time’?”

He then commented on another “Christian Century” article titled “Movies for Middle-aged Men,” wherein two films rated “R” by film officials were reviewed. The “R” rating means that they contain scenes so sexual or violent that youths under 17 are denied admittance unless accompanied by their parents. Yet “Gerald Forshey’s review suggests that every man of middle age or older ought to make a point of seeing these films and others like them,” writes the reader. “I myself doubt both the wisdom and the righteousness of this counsel.”

This reader’s observations are in agreement with the Scriptural advice: “Let fornication and uncleanness of every sort or greediness not even be mentioned among you, just as it befits holy [clean] people; neither shameful conduct nor foolish talking nor obscene jesting,” most of which are featured in such films. Evidently viewing these things is considered sophisticated by some of today’s foremost religious leaders.​—Eph. 5:3, 4.

Whose Decision Is It?

● At a recent conference, two professors of legal medicine from Boston University School of Medicine posed the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses to illustrate one of their points. They asserted that courts have ordered blood transfusions for adult Witnesses only when the patient or family members indicated that the patient would not resist the court order​—in effect, leaving the responsibility in the hands of the court. Then the professors cited a case where the patient said that he would resist any court-ordered transfusion. The judge did not issue the order.

Strong resistance where violation of God’s laws may be involved shows that one has taken the apostolic stand: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” Especially is this true since the Bible links abstinence from blood with such things as abstinence from fornication. Hence, since Christians would resist rape​—a defiling sexual assault—​so they would resist court-ordered blood transfusions​—also a form of assault on the body.​—Acts 5:29; 15:20, 29.

Rather than allowing the courts to assume responsibility in this matter, “Jehovah’s Witnesses are not looking for anyone else, whether a doctor, a hospital administrator or a judge, to make these moral decisions for them. They do not want someone else to try to shoulder their responsibility to God, for in reality no other person can do that.”​—“Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Question of Blood.”

Most Important Education

● What should be the most important factor in educating today’s youth? Noted anthropologist Ashley Montagu recently wrote in the American teachers’ magazine, “Today’s Education,” that learning to love “is what we should be teaching in our schools.” Based on his studies, he stated: “We understand for the first time in the history of our species that the most important of all human basic psychological needs is the need for love. It stands at the center of all human needs just as our sun stands at the center of our solar system.”

Montagu also observed: “The child who has not been loved is biochemically, physiologically, and psychologically very different from the one who has been loved. The former even grows differently from the latter. What we now know is that the human being is born to live as if to live and love were one. This is not, of course, new. This is a validation of the Sermon on the Mount.”

Are these the observations of a sentimental religionist? The scientist answers: “I who am not a Christian and who am not a member of any religious affiliation say this.” Hence, an objective study verifies what the Creator of man has revealed.​—1 Cor. 13:13.