Rated R for Religious Hypocrisy

Growing up in a church obsessed with Hollywood but blind to hunger

Growing up evangelical I watched my church lose its mind over movie ratings while entire neighborhoods went hungry across town.

I was consistently warned about the spiritual danger of Rated R films. The phrase I grew up hearing was “trash in, trash out.” I would hear sermons on Hollywood’s agenda, and about the slippery slope of “worldly entertainment.” Meanwhile, our church parking lot was full of luxury SUVs, and I can’t remember a single sermon about economic injustice. Not one. We had a culture war to fight, and apparently Jesus was really concerned about whether or not I watched Titanic. Good grief.

I didn’t have language for it then, but I felt the dissonance. We could mobilize a prayer chain over a Supreme Court decision in minutes, but if Mrs. Johnson down the street lost her house to medical debt, we sent a casserole.

The Selective Moral Outrage Problem

Looking back, far too many churches have become experts at thundering. They know how to raise their voices about threats to “tr…