Thursday morning complaint about the MAD board

[_Bond...James Bond]

Mr Scratch brought up the issue of Morningstar's scatalogical posting on Shade's board in his blog profile of her. Where is Scatchy?

[_Trinity]

If I recall correctly, Thumper and Boogers were both morningstar.

Interesting. I'm afraid I wasn't around to view that offensive behavior. I doubt Morningstar would like to be reminded of her offensive behavior either, what with her supersmart son looking to her for moral example.

[_Nephi]

I've noticed that if things are considered scripture, then its okay to read regardless of what the content is, but outside of that, it is not. I have also noticed that if scripture was put into multi-media fashion (ie, movies), most Mormons would not go see it (see how many avoided "The Passion" like the plague). It feels like a double standard, but (I hate to say it), I think the "lowest common demoninator" plays in here.

let's face it, most people cannot really grasp much from reading, compared to the writer's perspective. How many people read the song of Solomon and get turned on (see Song 2:3 for a good example of this)? I think that the church has decided (and I somewhat agree with this) that if you are mature enough to understand what you are reading in scriptures, then you are mature enough to deal w/the thoughts that came from that.

Compare this to a magazine or movies, it doesn't take much to process what is given there. It takes no brain process to understand a pornography. It takes a mere ability to read to understand "sex tricks your man will go crazy for" in Cosmopolitan. So, in this respect, the church is somewhat on target.

On the other hand, the church is missing the ability to help "lower demoninators" understand complex scripture by taking advantage of multimedia to explain hard to understand passages. Just to take sex (for example), sex is very natural, and a beautiful thing. I spent the first 20 years of my life telling myself that my sexual desires are bad, only to turn this on its head after getting married (and I wasn't even raised in the chruch!!!).

So the real question is, what do you shield from your children as you raise them? For my family, we live the spirit of the law. If they cannot understand it, and they could not understand it with a little explanation, then we shield them from it. For example, we recently rented Schindler's List, and my 4 year old was not allowed to watch it, but my 11 year old was allowed so. This (IMHO) is extremely important for all young adults and (for this matter) all adults to see. Let's never forget what hatred and group think can cause in the hands of a charismatic individual who is mislead by personal fears and desires of power.

So, shielding should be lived by the spirit of the law, not the letter thereof.

[_Yoda]

For example, we recently rented Schindler's List, and my 4 year old was not allowed to watch it, but my 11 year old was allowed so. This (IMHO) is extremely important for all young adults and (for this matter) all adults to see. Let's never forget what hatred and group think can cause in the hands of a charismatic individual who is mislead by personal fears and desires of power.

So, shielding should be lived by the spirit of the law, not the letter thereof.

Exactly! That's what we try to do as well.

And, I think it's important for parents to view any film their children watch first, whatever the rating.

"The Color Purple" is rated PG, and a very moving film...in the same way "Schindler's List" is.

However, because of the opening scene, and the fact that the main character is molested by her stepfather (who she thinks is her real father until much later in the film), I would not allow my girls to watch it until they were about 13-14 age range, and we discussed it.

It's a powerful film. I cry every time I see it. But it has a lot of heavy themes.

[_harmony]

I was a bad parent. I admit and take full responsibility. We had very few movies with sociological themes in them in my house. Actually, we had very few movies at all, since we were so broke in those years, we only rented movies a couple of times a year and rented the VCR with it.

We had even fewer magazines of any type. If my kids ever noticed that there were magazines of questionable taste in the grocery store checkout line, they never said anything, probably because they never had a chance to see them... once they were big enough to actually be of help in the grocery store, they had to unload the cart at one end and bag the groceries at the other, so lingering at the magazine rack was virtually unheard of. Before that, I left them home. Grocery shopping was the only respite I had from the chaos that reigned supreme in my household, and I only shopped once a week.

As for the whole sex vs violence thing, well, I have ambivalent feelings. I will never forget the time I came home from the temple and found my children, ages 4 to 17, all gathered around the tv, watching a movie the oldest had rented: The Terminator! My 4 year old thought the part where the guy got skinned was totally cool. *sigh* We had a short pithy talk with the 17 year old at that point. His excuse for allowing his little brother to watch such a thing was... "geez, Mom. We all know it's not real." I would have had nightmares for a month. The 4 year old slept like a well-loved child. Go figure. I like action movies, not sappy chick flicks, so my video collection is heavy on the action and light on the sex. Give me entertainment, not heavy social issues. I've never seen Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, The Color Purple, or any others like them. I prefer to laugh, not cry, when I watch movies. Give me Wild Hogs, and I'm happy.

[_Runtu]

As for the whole sex vs violence thing, well, I have ambivalent feelings. I will never forget the time I came home from the temple and found my children, ages 4 to 17, all gathered around the tv, watching a movie the oldest had rented: The Terminator! My 4 year old thought the part where the guy got skinned was totally cool. *sigh* We had a short pithy talk with the 17 year old at that point. His excuse for allowing his little brother to watch such a thing was... "geez, Mom. We all know it's not real." I would have had nightmares for a month. The 4 year old slept like a well-loved child. Go figure. I like action movies, not sappy chick flicks, so my video collection is heavy on the action and light on the sex. Give me entertainment, not heavy social issues. I've never seen Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, The Color Purple, or any others like them. I prefer to laugh, not cry, when I watch movies. Give me Wild Hogs, and I'm happy.

Yep, there are things children aren't ready to deal with. A few years ago I was home teaching a family, and when I arrived, the 4 year old and 2 year old were watching Jurassic Park. The father said, "They love this movie." I said, "Doesn't the violence scare them?" He said, "Well, it did the first few times they watched it, but they got used to it."

I like mindless entertainment as much as the next, though I honestly can't stand films that insult your intelligence (cough*Titanic*cough). But I do enjoy serious films, as well.

[_Yoda]

Yep, there are things children aren't ready to deal with. A few years ago I was home teaching a family, and when I arrived, the 4 year old and 2 year old were watching Jurassic Park. The father said, "They love this movie." I said, "Doesn't the violence scare them?" He said, "Well, it did the first few times they watched it, but they got used to it."

Interesting comment about "Jurassic Park"---

I LOVE all of those movies...(yes, it's been established, I'm a geek...LOL)

Anyway...when my son was 2, he absolutely LOVED those movies because of the dinosaurs. The violence just didn't really register with him.

However, not that he's 3, he won't watch them. He thinks they're too scary.

[_harmony]

Yep, there are things children aren't ready to deal with. A few years ago I was home teaching a family, and when I arrived, the 4 year old and 2 year old were watching Jurassic Park. The father said, "They love this movie." I said, "Doesn't the violence scare them?" He said, "Well, it did the first few times they watched it, but they got used to it."

Interesting comment about "Jurassic Park"---

I LOVE all of those movies...(yes, it's been established, I'm a geek...LOL)

Anyway...when my son was 2, he absolutely LOVED those movies because of the dinosaurs. The violence just didn't really register with him.

However, not that he's 3, he won't watch them. He thinks they're too scary.

Must go faster! Must go faster!

Geez, I loved those movies! I think I'll watch them again this weekend. :-)

[_Livingstone22]

I only made a handful of posts on the MAD board. I was horrified at the behavior of the members and moderators on it--even though I was am an active member. That's why I've come here.

[_barrelomonkeys]

Wasn't MorningStar the one who came over here as a sockpuppet and spewed a lot of crude sexual and scatalogical stuff?

I was on another board where she had a sockpuppet that talked a lot about sex and diarrhea.

Yeah, that was her. When Shades' board first opened, she posted constantly as "boogers" (and I think another name, but don't recall for certain). It was just bizarre stuff, kind of what you would expect a sixth grader to post on a board and giggle wildly. I don't remember if it was about sex, but it was certainly about body "emissions". I couldn't fathom an adult woman engaging in such strange behavior.

Really? That is bizarre!