Post by Head Mutant on Mar 22, 2004 19:34:42 GMT -5
So I've been working on a fun little article, using fodder that CAP (www.capalert.com) has been giving us for years. It should be up within a week or two, it's pretty funny and I hope it'll be enjoyable.
Anyway, my curiosity got the better of me after reading through so many horrible and antagonistic reviews, and I wrote a longish letter to the guy running CAP with several questions. Here's my letter to him:
===========================
Hello,
My name is Justin, and I'm writing an article on CAP for my movie website. I had a few questions I'd like to ask you out of curiosity -- this is off the record, and none of your answers would go in my article. If you don't respond, fine, but just realize that I'm not writing a piece of hate mail, as easy as that might be.
I'm sure you're aware that CAP is fairly famous in the internet community for its, shall we say, extreme and nitpicky views on films. While I applaud its efforts, I question the legalistic and hard-line fundamentalist stance on all movies.
My questions are these:
(1) Do you even like movies? At all? Or do you and your reviewers approach each film with the sole intent to rip it apart? I've read quite a few of your review pages, and very seldom do I sense that there's any sort of balanced view from a movie lover -- just the condemnation of someone who sees all films as dirty and corrupt.
(2) You say you're writing this for parents, but how does this ministry help any parent other than warning them away from pretty much every single movie you cover? In other words, why do you preach avoidance almost exclusively, instead of (a) informing the parents without trying to bias them with your strong language that's intended to persuade, and (b) offer parents tips on how to discuss this film with their children and teach their children wise discernment, instead of sheltering them forever?
(3) God is wrath and justice, but God is also loving, merciful, compassionate, and intelligent. While it's a good thing to stand up for what is right, would it kill anyone on CAP to admit that a movie with an F-word can also hold beauty, truth, entertainment and wisdom? Or are those things Jesus would condemn? Baby, bathwater.
(4) Why is CAP's website so hard to navigate? If you've been running this site for a few years, you should realize that nobody likes pop-up windows, or a poorly designed way to navigate. For a site this big, I'm wondering why no one has put any apparent time into making it easy to use and read.
(5) What is up with the scoring system? That has to be one of the most confusing and obscure way to rate movies I've ever seen, even though I understand your purpose for it. Also, if you're doing this ministry for a parents, to help aid their decisions and not make their decisions for them, why do they need a scoring system if you've already laid out every small little flaw in the movie already? Don't you realize that different parents
consider different things as more or less severe when exposing to their child?
Again, I don't write this out of hate or any superior sense, just a general confusion. I'm a youth pastor at a church and I've been a movie critic for many years, both of which have taught me that movies -- like ANY form of entertainment and art, even paintings and works of classical literature -- are always flawed but not always to be avoided. I went to a Baptist high school, and that line of thinking, that it's always better to avoid and shield yourself from anything remotely worldly and entertaining instead of learning how to use your brain, the wisdom God grows inside of you, and the discernment that comes with age to filter through entertainment and recognize what is acceptable, what is not, and when I watch a movie that has flaws, how to pull out the good and discard the bad.
You fling verses around on CAP like you were sitting with God, throwing lightning bolts in order to get rid of all evil everywhere. But even God's stayed his hand from wiping a sinful world clean of evil in order to redeem the good from the bad, and we should always be extremely careful when it comes to completely denouncing something because we feel we have God's full authority and authorization at our back. CAP is not humble, nor does it show signs of being a loving and caring ministry; instead it's just a list of "Thou Shalt Nots" where nothing is good enough.
Thanks for your time,
Justin
www.mutantreviewers.com
==========================
Anyway, he wrote me back. CAP's full response:
==========================
Justin:
Maybe the title of your group says enough. Your rationale certainly is not from Heaven.
In Service to His Little Ones through their Parents and Grandparents in His Name by His Word
-------
Tom Carder
CAP Ministry
Anyway, my curiosity got the better of me after reading through so many horrible and antagonistic reviews, and I wrote a longish letter to the guy running CAP with several questions. Here's my letter to him:
===========================
Hello,
My name is Justin, and I'm writing an article on CAP for my movie website. I had a few questions I'd like to ask you out of curiosity -- this is off the record, and none of your answers would go in my article. If you don't respond, fine, but just realize that I'm not writing a piece of hate mail, as easy as that might be.
I'm sure you're aware that CAP is fairly famous in the internet community for its, shall we say, extreme and nitpicky views on films. While I applaud its efforts, I question the legalistic and hard-line fundamentalist stance on all movies.
My questions are these:
(1) Do you even like movies? At all? Or do you and your reviewers approach each film with the sole intent to rip it apart? I've read quite a few of your review pages, and very seldom do I sense that there's any sort of balanced view from a movie lover -- just the condemnation of someone who sees all films as dirty and corrupt.
(2) You say you're writing this for parents, but how does this ministry help any parent other than warning them away from pretty much every single movie you cover? In other words, why do you preach avoidance almost exclusively, instead of (a) informing the parents without trying to bias them with your strong language that's intended to persuade, and (b) offer parents tips on how to discuss this film with their children and teach their children wise discernment, instead of sheltering them forever?
(3) God is wrath and justice, but God is also loving, merciful, compassionate, and intelligent. While it's a good thing to stand up for what is right, would it kill anyone on CAP to admit that a movie with an F-word can also hold beauty, truth, entertainment and wisdom? Or are those things Jesus would condemn? Baby, bathwater.
(4) Why is CAP's website so hard to navigate? If you've been running this site for a few years, you should realize that nobody likes pop-up windows, or a poorly designed way to navigate. For a site this big, I'm wondering why no one has put any apparent time into making it easy to use and read.
(5) What is up with the scoring system? That has to be one of the most confusing and obscure way to rate movies I've ever seen, even though I understand your purpose for it. Also, if you're doing this ministry for a parents, to help aid their decisions and not make their decisions for them, why do they need a scoring system if you've already laid out every small little flaw in the movie already? Don't you realize that different parents
consider different things as more or less severe when exposing to their child?
Again, I don't write this out of hate or any superior sense, just a general confusion. I'm a youth pastor at a church and I've been a movie critic for many years, both of which have taught me that movies -- like ANY form of entertainment and art, even paintings and works of classical literature -- are always flawed but not always to be avoided. I went to a Baptist high school, and that line of thinking, that it's always better to avoid and shield yourself from anything remotely worldly and entertaining instead of learning how to use your brain, the wisdom God grows inside of you, and the discernment that comes with age to filter through entertainment and recognize what is acceptable, what is not, and when I watch a movie that has flaws, how to pull out the good and discard the bad.
You fling verses around on CAP like you were sitting with God, throwing lightning bolts in order to get rid of all evil everywhere. But even God's stayed his hand from wiping a sinful world clean of evil in order to redeem the good from the bad, and we should always be extremely careful when it comes to completely denouncing something because we feel we have God's full authority and authorization at our back. CAP is not humble, nor does it show signs of being a loving and caring ministry; instead it's just a list of "Thou Shalt Nots" where nothing is good enough.
Thanks for your time,
Justin
www.mutantreviewers.com
==========================
Anyway, he wrote me back. CAP's full response:
==========================
Justin:
Maybe the title of your group says enough. Your rationale certainly is not from Heaven.
In Service to His Little Ones through their Parents and Grandparents in His Name by His Word
-------
Tom Carder
CAP Ministry
