Can a Christian watch "The Walking Dead?"

Doveaman said:

its emotional effects on us are real and potentially harmful (may cause high blood pressure).

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Let me ask you something..
Have you ever seen Passion of the Christ?

dp

Doveaman said:

Faith in God is not a mental and emotional feeling, it is expressed through our actions. If our actions contradict God's intent for our lives, then our faith is weak.

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I would say that our faith in God should also be evident in our emotional state of mind and our mental thinking. Would lusting be considered fruitful and holy? Probably not, and that's mental thinking, not a physical action. But I do agree that our actions do represent a massive portion of our faith in God, as that is what other people see in us.

Crowns&Laurels said:

Let me ask you something..
Have you ever seen Passion of the Christ?

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Yes.

Was it fictional?

Dom Puccio said:

I would say that our faith in God should also be evident in our emotional state of mind and our mental thinking. Would lusting be considered fruitful and holy? Probably not, and that's mental thinking, not a physical action. But I do agree that our actions do represent a massive portion of our faith in God, as that is what other people see in us.

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By actions I meant both actions of the mind and actions of the body.

Holoman said:

Don't worry about it, watching The Walking Dead is fine.

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What would Jesus do?

I watch TWD without guilt and GOT with guilt. It's a toughie.
In my head, I know that the more one seeks after God and purity, the more repellent a lot of modern media will be to the Christian but there are some things I can't seem to shake. The thought of the Twin Peaks reboot is giving me pause too.
*sigh*

Doveaman said:

By actions I meant both actions of the mind and actions of the body.

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Good cover.

Crowns&Laurels said:

dp

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Yes I have.

I never knew it was sin to watch The Walking Dead. It is my favorite show right now.

Troy Rambo said:

Hey, I gave my life to Jesus about a month ago and made many changes to my life as a result. As a non-believer I watched The Walking Dead without a thought that it was poisoness. Now that Im conscious about avoiding sin, Im concerned about this show. The thing is I really like this show and I will be disappointed if I have to give it up. It is full of violence, death, and gore. But does watching this stuff cause me to sin? I would greatly appreciate some opinions. Thanks.

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Philippians is a nice short book of the bible and I would suggest to read it. Take notice of the final chapter and see what Paul challenges the Philippians to focus on, it may help your decision.

But I can also appreciate not everything is black and white and something may be sinful to one but not to another. What God looks at is our hearts not the action. If you are still having trouble deciding what to do I would suggest to fast it (take a break from it). You can choose to pray or seek God during the time you would typically watch it or just simply stop watching it and try and focus on something more easily defined as wholesome. Could be as simple as taking a walk or writing in a journel.

After a break from the show or when you think you're ready ask yourself if you still want to watch it and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to make the right choice and be ready to listen, the HS spirit can speak to us in many different ways. You may even want to watch an episode again but you may find your desires for the show have changed; don't be surprised.

Regarding your dreams pray that God reveals his desires to you (much beyond the preference of the show). Dreams can be fickle but God can speak through them. Keep asking for God's help but don't do it alone, plug yourself in to a church and get some good friends to help with the choices.

People keep watching things for all sorts of reasons - sometimes its to see how a story develops, whether its sinful for you may depend what you like about the show. Just wanting to see how a story pans out isn't sinful in my view. But I hate the way they keep these shows running and running for seasons, and that's obviously a ploy.

I don't know what values the show promotes. And haven't seen it myself but I have watched a lot of stuff, but now its more films. Some films I admit even as an adult still disturb me, and others leave me feeling a bit dead.

For a new christian and I say this as someone who still struggles a lot myself so I don't want to be a hypocrite. Sometimes we have to say no to something others continue to watch, and "say no to ourselves" as we move on in the christian life.

If there is a constant onslaught to our sensorium in some of these episodes, I think this will be detrimental to us in some way, could lead us to crave scenes of action and violence and intensity.

I've watched a couple of things like this in film. I like to look for redeeming value in films - probably I overestimate it at times. Films do have worldviews and can sometimes exert quite an influence on how we think afterwards - mature adult or not.

The thing to think about is what is any show's message - what is coming across from it? What are you taking away from it if anything. Another thing is with TV series they usually go on and on the first season is maybe worth watching... maybe, but then they try to keep the audience tuning in.

Pray about it.

This also came to mind:

dms1972 said:

People watch things for all sorts of reasons - sometimes its to see how a story develops, whether its sinful for you may depend what you like about the show.

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I think everyone who watches TWD and GOT watch them in part because of the story and in part because of the violence, gore and nudity which enhances the story.

What I don't understand is why would a Christian think it is okay to entertain themselves with violence, gore and nudity, whether fictional or real.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" -- (Jer 17:9).

The human heart has a fine way of convincing us that what we do is okay, even when it is not okay.

We are free to watch whatever we want, but we are not free to determine for ourselves what is okay and what isn't. That's God's prerogative.

Christians are followers of Jesus. We do what Jesus do.

What would Jesus do?

Sure, why not? I love that show.

I think everyone who watches TWD and GOT watch them in part because of the story and in part because of the violence, gore and nudity which enhances the story.

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Yeah "enhances the story" - when its a bit lacking.

There are many reasons I boundary myself in regard to TV series, and some genres of cinema, regardless of content, but even then I have made poor, unwise choices, sometimes one after another. But for me multi-season TV shows are mostly a waste of my time (I don't like to feel a TV show has me for even an hour or so of a week - if its going to run for like five years). I like things to be wrapped up in a few hours at most or a few episodes. Otherwise I think its just a ploy by a network to keep people tuning in. If something is coming over as poisionous to someone then they will feel conflicted about watching it.


"Television's images have their immediate effect on us, but that effect is seldom to cause us to persue their truth or falsity....the increasingly rapid pace of television's images makes careful evaluation impossible and undesirable for the viewer, thus rendering determinations of truth and falsity difficult if not impossible. With sophisticated video technologies, scenes change at hypervelocities and become the visual equivalent of caffeine or amphetamines. The human mind was not designed by its Creator to accomodate to these visual speeds, and so the sensorium suffers from the pathologies of velocity...Habituation to such imposed velocities tends to make people intellectually impatient and easily bored with anything that is slow moving and undramatic." Doug Groothius - Truth Decay

Christians are followers of Jesus. We do what Jesus would do.

What would Jesus do?

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I appreciate what you are saying but sometimes its like asking: here is this high jump, what would a world class athlete do. Well they have been in training so they can do it. So we need to train. By being with Jesus through Scripture and the Holy Spirit, and prayer. That's how we train.

The OP is a christian about one month, and the show seems poisionous to them now. Whatever is not of faith is sin.

But christians can differ on many things, and so we need to be fully convinced in our own mind.



Phillipians verse is speaking to me here

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

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I watched it but found it to be boring, owing an enormous debt to The Stand and The Night of the Living Dead. After they shoed away from the interesting SF possibilities by blowing up the fictionalized CDC it became rather too dull. Now, does anyone want to claim that I am not a Christian because I enjoyed the first few episodes of a zombie apocalypse before losing interest?

For that matter, does my enjoyment of The Matrix make me a Gnostic? Does my enthusiasm for the Iranian epic Haji Baba make me a Shiite Muslim? Would reading Virgil make me a homosexual worshipper of the Roman pantheon?

I rather hope not; this whole train of thought smacks of the delusions and hypocrisy of 17th century Puritanism. Interestingly the greater portion Puritan congregations in the vicinity of Boston degenerated into Unitarianism and then Unitarian Universalism.

I think it depends but the concern is valid.
If something can be watched as entertainment and the audience being entertained is solidly grounded in their faith, then I wonder what error such entertainment could introduce (not to justify watching porn or overly gratuitous violence and I too detest the gratuitous use of both). If watching in mixed company in that regard (babes in Christ) I have heard people justify doing so with the caveat that a discussion follow in regards to various errors in faith and morals as presented in what was just viewed and why those errors are to be refuted. If that cannot be done properly then I think something else should be watched. I personally would not let children watch either GOT or TWD but am a fan of both. If someone has troubles with porn, then obviously many shows on TV including the nudity of GOT should be avoided. So I do not think this is one size fits all Christians.
There is also something to be said of the reason nudity or violence is being depicted, though it is often easier to see what I mean with violence. The human body and the gift of joy it can bring us are from God, so in itself those things are not evil and portraying it in a manner OTHER than one which can ONLY be taken as titillating is possible and it also does reflect our human reality - which is what entertainment does. Likewise violence can be justified in the struggle of good against evil. So when entertainment can present things in such context and to the degree it reflects reality it can properly be considered entertaining. If it is senseless/mindless portrayal (many video games for instance) then I would question whether that is entertainment or indoctrination. I would lump many (not all) current reality shows in that mindless category as well.

I think those ideas of being entertained are different than the real possibility of desensitizing ourselves to human suffering as well as the potential for any addictive habit; including TV shows. Like any habit, the obsession can potentially occupy too much of our time/thoughts. Which is also why I prefer marathon viewing of a series/entire season/multiple seasons over a rainy weekend or two to waiting each week to watch something first broadcast, especially commercial broadcast where I know half my time is wasted waiting for commercials.

Troy Rambo said:

Hey, I gave my life to Jesus about a month ago and made many changes to my life as a result. As a non-believer I watched The Walking Dead without a thought that it was poisoness. Now that Im conscious about avoiding sin, Im concerned about this show. The thing is I really like this show and I will be disappointed if I have to give it up. It is full of violence, death, and gore. But does watching this stuff cause me to sin? I would greatly appreciate some opinions. Thanks.

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Half the shows on TV are full of violence, death, and/or gore. Most people watch them without being much affected. But if they pose some concern for you, don't watch them. It is not a sin to watch them but it is a sin to deliberately place oneself into temptation, so it depends upon your personal reaction to the show.