I saw a movie tonight and was surprised by the content. I was surprised at the rating that it received. I decided to look up some material on the MPAA Rating Board and how they rate. For those of you that are LDS, you'll know that leaders of the Church have plainly taught to not see R-Rated films (source). But that almost, in our minds, causes us to think that everything else is acceptable. Below is a review of the MPAA ratings and an interpretation of what they really mean. It might make a difference to view them in this light.

If an organization of the world is going to step in and say, "Hey, we are strongly cautioning you. We're giving you a stern warning.," then that might be something that we, as members of the Church, who profess to live a higher standard, should think about. I'm not saying all PG-13s are bad. I'm just saying, why are we surprised when a movie that the world says, "You're strongly cautioned and if it was any worse, we'd enforce our standards on you," turns out to be inappropriate? I don't see a surprise in that at all. Yet, I was surprised. I think that this shows a tendency in my life to live as close to the line as possible. That's something that I'm going to have to work on and I think that this might be a more accurate measure of where I stand than other things that I choose to use as measures.

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