![\"\"](\"https:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/7991\/933\/1600\/facingthegiants.jpg\")
<\/a>Terry Mattingly<\/a> recently noted \u2014 in a column that was picked up here<\/a>, here<\/a> and probably elsewhere as well \u2014 that the movie Facing the Giants<\/a><\/i> has been rated PG for \u201cthematic elements\u201d, which in this case appears to be a euphemism for the evangelistic content.<\/span><\/p>\n
Some people seem to be upset by this news, but there is actually nothing new about this. As Mattingly himself notes:<\/p>\n
\u201cFacing the Giants\u201d cost $100,000 and resembles a fusion of the Book of Job and a homemade \u201cHoosiers,\u201d or perhaps a small-school \u201cFriday Night Lights\u201d blended with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association movies<\/a> that used to appear in some mainstream theaters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, if you go to the list of Billy Graham movies here<\/a> and enter each title at FilmRatings.com<\/a>, you will find that those movies which received any rating at all were all rated PG for \u201cthematic elements\u201d or \u201cthematic material\u201d, going back to The Ride<\/a><\/i> (1997).<\/p>\n
Prior to that, you have to go all the way back to the PG-13 Caught<\/a><\/i> (1986) to find another Billy Graham film that even received a rating \u2014 and back then, the MPAA did not spell out its reasons, though I remember news reports indicated at the time that the rating had something to do with the main character\u2019s drug use.<\/p>\n
And prior to that, Cry from the Mountain<\/a><\/i> (1985), The Prodigal<\/a><\/i> (1983), No Longer Alone<\/a><\/i> (1978), The Hiding Place<\/a><\/i> (1975), Time to Run<\/a><\/i> (1972) were all rated PG \u2014 though presumably not always for \u201cthematic\u201d elements. The Hiding Place<\/i>, for example, is set partly in a Nazi concentration camp, and depicts the violence there.<\/p>\n
Of all the Billy Graham films that were rated by the MPAA, only Joni<\/a><\/i> (1979) and Two a Penny<\/a><\/i> (1966) were rated G \u2014 which seems especially odd in the latter film\u2019s case, given that it involves a guy trying to sleep with his girlfriend, and a few other things.<\/p>\n
So there\u2019s nothing new in this story. And I can\u2019t say I disagree with the MPAA\u2019s decision to give PG ratings to evangelistic films; if a movie was actively trying to convert my own children, I would think some parental guidance was in order, for sure.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Terry Mattingly recently noted \u2014 in a column that was picked up here, here and probably elsewhere as well \u2014 that the movie Facing the Giants has been rated PG for \u201cthematic elements\u201d, which in this case appears to be a euphemism for the evangelistic content. Some people seem to be upset by this news, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Should "evangelistic" movies be rated PG?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Terry Mattingly recently noted -- in a column that was picked up here, here and probably elsewhere as well -- that the movie Facing the Giants has been\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should "evangelistic" movies be rated PG?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Terry Mattingly recently noted -- in a column that was picked up here, here and probably elsewhere as well -- that the movie Facing the Giants has been\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-06-13T10:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-19T02:51:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/7991\/933\/400\/facingthegiants.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html\",\"name\":\"Should \\\"evangelistic\\\" movies be rated PG?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-06-13T10:41:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-19T02:51:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly recently noted -- in a column that was picked up here, here and probably elsewhere as well -- that the movie Facing the Giants has been\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Should “evangelistic” movies be rated PG?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should \"evangelistic\" movies be rated PG?","description":"Terry Mattingly recently noted -- in a column that was picked up here, here and probably elsewhere as well -- that the movie Facing the Giants has been","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Should \"evangelistic\" movies be rated PG?","og_description":"Terry Mattingly recently noted -- in a column that was picked up here, here and probably elsewhere as well -- that the movie Facing the Giants has been","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2006-06-13T10:41:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-04-19T02:51:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/7991\/933\/400\/facingthegiants.jpg"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html","name":"Should \"evangelistic\" movies be rated PG?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-06-13T10:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-19T02:51:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"Terry Mattingly recently noted -- in a column that was picked up here, here and probably elsewhere as well -- that the movie Facing the Giants has been","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/06\/should-evangelistic-movies-be-rated-pg.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Should “evangelistic” movies be rated PG?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}