[ksen]

To be honest, I'm not sure of the rationale to avoid theatres. I think it has to do with "avoiding even the appearance of evil". After all, nobody knows what movie you are seeing and someone could assume you are going to watch some pretty raunchy movies.

I don't know if I buy that reasoning. If that is truly the reason then Christians should not go to video rental stores (where you can find much worse than is what is in the theatre), should not have tv's in their homes, and should definitely not have internet connections in their homes.

I think it is something that began many years ago and has just been kept up as a tradition. But like I said, it is request our church has made of its Deacons so it is not my place to break it just because I don't agree with it.

I didn't have to accept the nomination, but I did, so know I must abide by the requirements set forth by our congregation.

Don't worry about me thinking you are being critical. If someone has a question about why I do the things I do, or don't do, I don't mind answering.

[Corin Stormhands]

I think it is something that began many years ago and has just been kept up as a tradition.

I think Sam (if I may take a stab at this ksen), that it comes from the teachings of the "Holiness" movement, in part spurred by the teachings of John Wesley. Wesley taught that one must live an outward as well as inward life of holiness. Wesley saw that many in the church of his day would act one way on Sunday and another all through the week. He taught that the life should be consistent.

Somewhere along the line that evolved into "don't drink, don't smoke, don't dance, etc." and thus avoid any "appearance" of evil. In my background women used to wear (and some do) what we referred to as the "Wesleyan bun." They would not cut their hair, but they would pull it back tight and put it into a bun on their heads. We often thought the tightness of those buns contributed to their sour dispositions.

As I said yesterday, many have taken these things to extremes. And I think even Wesley would think that.

At the same time, the principle is sound, even if the actual practices are not.

I went to a Holiness College. Rules were very strict (see above). When I was there, girls could not wear pants to class, chapel or in the dining hall (that has since changed in a big way). Guys could not wear beards and hair had to be off your collar and off your ears (and I started there in the 70s).

The college has since relaxed many of the rules, particularly the dress code. But I went there willingly, knowing the rules and I kept them. In one sense that was a great environment because you really didn't have to be bad to be rebellious.

When I said yesterday that I thought the rule about not going to movies was silly, what I meant was I think rules like that miss the mark.

Still, I respect it. And I respect ksen for abiding by the rule since he made the commitment.

And no, I don't fault ksen for not always keeping the rule. We are human. We are all fallible.

As Christians we recognize that only Christ was perfect. And we recognize that we will indeed fail. But we believe that our failures (sins), past, present and future were nailed to the cross and we just need to ask His forgiveness.

I'll stop preaching now...

[Sam Cree]

Thank you, ksen, I enjoyed and appreciate your thoughtful response to my question.

"I didn't have to accept the nomination, but I did, so know I must abide by the requirements set forth by our congregation."

I agree, that kind of says it all. BTW, congratulations on the nomination.

Judaism has literally thousands of rules, developed over centuries, and compiled in quite a few volumes, separate from the Torah. I kind of use my own judgement on which ones(of the ones I even know about) to follow, but admit that if everyone did that, the tradition might not be very coherent. OTOH, Judaism has too many rules, if everyone tried following them all, or even tried just being aware of them all, everyone would be tied in knots, IMHO.