Cinematical

It's not having issues with imaginary beings, it's having issues with shoveling personal ideologies on impressionable minds without parents being informed. When you have a populace that is so concerned about the taint of even other members of their Bible Belt communities that they would home school their children, then obviously ratings systems must keep abreast. Balancing the benefits of an ecumenical experience against the desire to protect or guide one's offspring is not an easy call.

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I think the rating may reflect the seriousness of the themes in the movie. It is impossible to create something without a point of view. If God is so imaginary, why would people be concerned about that point of view being presented? If God were truly imaginary, like a Santa Claus, then "The Polar Express" should be PG-13! And as for homeschooling, parents who are willing to take that much time and MONEY investing in their children's education, whether in an attempt to pass on their values or for primarily academic reasons, should be praised not riduculed. I hope the movie does reach a wide range of people. It's themes should be taken seriously. And who knows, maybe it will influence people toward Christianity. And wouldn't it be just terrible to have people loving each other and treating each other right. What an awful outcome from movie influence.

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It's like the COlorado Rockies, doing better now that "they're God's team."

I think it's a little goofy to be PG, but hey, it's only Parental Guidence, I guess they want people to be aware.

And look, now it's free press.

--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com

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There's nothing more dangerous than the human imagination. Most of the horrific conflicts in human history have been based on all sorts of imaginary bases. But the product of our imaginations is also the source of great benefit. We need to be able to make distinctions between these two instead of degenerating into ridiculous straw man arguments. If Christianity were really about loving each other, they wouldn't be so busy persecuting gays, Muslims and non-Judaeo-Christian religions, so don't get me started off-topic.

While I happen to be an atheist, I have friends from a great many denominations. They tend to want to supervise their own children's religious upbringing and I think we as a society have to respect that. It's one thing for a film to have generic underlying moral themes, it's quite another to be instructing people that they are going to burn in hell for not believing in the same things as the filmmaker. Adults are capable of making these distinctions, but children are easily terrified, shamed or just confused. I don't know how preachy this film may be but in the current political climate, I imagine the MPAA may have decided to err on the side of caution, and for that I must commend them.

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I thought Christopher's comment was interesting. It is all other religions that make rules that would be considered "plain good-hearted morals" and expect people to obey the rules. Christian's accept Jesus as their Saviour because they have come to the realization that they cannot be moral without help from God.

And Cath's comments about " persecuting gays, Muslims and non-Judaeo-Christian religions" does not take into account that Christians are instructed to "hate the sin but love the sinner". Too bad Christians are not perfect! But of course if they were perfect it would cause everyone to hate them all the more.

And once again those of differing opinions are happy when the government steps in and supports their opinion, however, the MPAA better watch out if it rates a Muslim film as PG. It does not have to worry about the Christians, its the aethist's who would be crying foul.

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Jo Ellen's comments are further evidence of the wisdom of the MPAA's ruling. As I said, it was a tough call and I would expect them to do the same with any film that actively promotes a particular religious agenda of whatever stripe (and not just the ones that profess an exclusivist belief). The PG rating simply informs parents that their child may be exposed to content that the parent would prefer to supervise, and it is specifically due to the sensitivity of the religious debate in our culture that this ruling makes sense.

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I actually do not mind the PG rating. The rating means that both the parents and the kids will see the movie!

I do not know if I am allowed to ask this question, but since Cath has included it in her comment, I am curious which religions she views as "exclusivist belief".

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