Watching movies and TV Shows… should we care what we watch? This is probably a question that most Christians have asked themselves over the years and anytime you ask a Christian this, you’ll get a ton of different answers. Some people are strict and go to one extreme of only Christian television/movies. Others will simply not care what they watch and have an “anything goes” mentality.
I used to be one of those people. I did have my limits—I have never watched horror and I never will. And vulgar comedy is another line I simply won’t cross, but I used to LOVE shows like Game of Thrones.
Should we watch what we watch? The answer in my own walk with Jesus that I’ve found is: absolutely, yes. But why? Why does it matter what we watch? Isn’t it okay, as long as we know it isn’t real?
Today, I’m going to give you a list of the TV shows I watched and regret watching—ones that I won’t watch ever again. I’m going to be open about my recent convictions that the Holy Spirit is giving me, but first, I’m going to tell you why.
- Watching bad things opens doors for the devil to enter in. Demons and the devil are real, guys. No matter how you may want to pretend they don’t, they do. And they work in this world and the devil seeks to steal, kill, and destroy us. He wants to hinder our walks with the Lord however he can. So, if you watch bad things, he can use those as open doors to slip into your life. This is critical when you watch horror, or anything that includes the devil, Satan, and demons. I firmly believe you’re inviting those demons into your house and life when you watch shows like Lucifer and Supernatural. I used to be a huge Supernatural fan, and I’ll tell you the reasons why I’m not a fan any longer further down.
- Watching bad things could lead you into temptation. Every one of us struggles with sin. Now, we may each struggle with a different sin, but sometimes, we may watch things that trigger one sin or another. Sex scenes and lust is one area that every Christian should be aware of. When you’re watching that, the images are already getting into your mind. Cussing is another example. If you watch shows littered with curse words, you’ll be more likely to pick them up and use them yourself, and this includes blasphemy—taking the name of the Lord God in vain. Would you use your parents’ names as a cuss word? Most of us wouldn’t, because it would show them disrespect. Then, why do we disrespect the God who gave us life?
- Jesus said whoever looks with lust has already committed adultery in their hearts. Uh-oh. This means that He sees the heart—our innermost thoughts. Anger is murder, and lusting in our thoughts is adultery. This is bad, because we all have bad thoughts. So, watching bad things is JUST as bad as committing that sinful act yourself. Take a sex scene for example. Would you walk up to someone’s window and watch two people having sex? No… that would be creepy. Or no different than watching porn.
Without further ado, let’s get to my list of shows that I watched and regret watching. This is in no particular order; they’re all bad and I used to love each and every one of these shows at one point. Some of them, I actually DO still love them, but I’ve been convicted to stop watching them, so it’s a struggle against my flesh not to.
- Supernatural
For anyone who doesn’t know, Supernatural was a show about two brothers who hunt supernatural beings—mostly ghosts, but also vampires and other creatures. Now, anyone who knows me knows that vampires and werewolves don’t bother me. For a time, ghosts didn’t either. The first like four seasons of this show was great and I loved the dynamic between Sam and Dean—the brothers. It got pretty scary at times, but then they started adding religion to it. They included more and more demons and angels and didn’t portray them according to the Bible or Christianity. I got to season ten or eleven, around the time when one of the angels portrayed himself as the new messiah. They also included heaven and God and it got really weird. I felt heavily convicted, stopped watching it. I don’t really regret watching the earlier seasons, but I’m starting to as God helps me understand the importance of not filling my mind with images of violent monsters that are scary like Supernatural did and inviting those demons into my life.
- Game of Thrones
Most everyone has heard of Game of Thrones because it was so popular. With Game of Thrones, I never felt convicted over it until after the show was over, so unlike Supernatural, which I never got to finish, I did finish Game of Thrones. The finale sucked, but that’s beside the point. Its set in a fantasy world based off medieval times. It has a lot of violence—extreme, in some cases. Violence doesn’t bother me as a personal conviction as much if it’s more historical based, because that stuff actually happens. Now, it can get to a point where I feel convicted. But it’s important for you to pray and follow the convictions of what God tells you personally. But Game of Thrones was filled with sex and nudity and other gods and goddesses—the belief in them, anyway. But I ignored it because I loved the story, plot, characters and the fact that the writers would kill off even main characters at a moment’s notice. It’s a show I’m still fond of, but it helps that I’ve already watched it, so there isn’t a temptation to rewatch it again—at least, for now. I hope it doesn’t, but I pray that I can be strong and not give in. I do regret watching it and more, I regret that I didn’t care whether it was right or wrong to watch it.
- Spartacus
This one is one I’m ashamed to admit I watched and regret watching completely and wholeheartedly. It’s a show about gladiators, specifically, the historical one in real life named Spartacus who started a rebellion against Rome. Sounds fantastic, but gladiators mean nudity and I’m talking, full frontal male nudity. It got pretty bad and I would close my eyes or fast-forward it and tell myself it was okay. Now, I know better and regret watching a show like that. Despite how much I loved the characters and the history.
- Black Clover
This is literally a show my sister and I felt convicted to quit watching this week. So, it’s still raw and fresh and it’s a show we both enjoyed. Its very similar to the anime Fairy Tail. There’s a guild of mages who work together to fight bad guys. It was actually really good, until this current season where they’re going after devils and it’s focusing more on that aspect and getting a bit creepier and I felt more convicted the more we tried to watch this current season. I wish they didn’t go that route, or simply called them monsters. It irritates me the Hollywood wants to always use demons as the ultimate bad guys. The devil is real and it isn’t a joke or something to be glorified like they do. It isn’t just a monster to defeat. It’s more creative for them to have built their own monsters with their own names. The earlier season of Black Clover did that—the bad guys were an old race of Elves, and that works just fine. It was really good, but I can’t watch it with demons in it.
- Shadowhunters
This show as well as the next two sprung up on me before I realized what was happening. Like, I made the decision to never rewatch it again before I fully realized what I was making a commitment to. When the mood hits me, I get really addicted and love to binge Shadowhunters. I have already watched and finished it. Like Game of Thrones, it had a terrible finale, but it helps that I’ve already seen it. This is the hardest one for me to give up—or one of the hardest, anyway—because it’s based off my favorite book series. Granted, that series wasn’t the best either and I shouldn’t have read it. The Mortal Instruments Series, by Cassandra Clare. Both the book and the show have a homosexual couple that the fans adore. I personally feel convicted about watching homosexual couples on shows, especially since it’s included everywhere and basically shoved down our throats by Hollywood at this point, to try to undermine God’s design of the nuclear family. But, more than that, they twist religion on a level that’s equal if not worse than Supernatural. There’s a character in here, a vampire named Simon, that gets the mark of Cain. Yes, the mark that God placed upon Cane in the Bible. They also twist old Bible stories in the TV Show, where one of the demons they hunt is a woman who was supposedly Adam’s other wife instead of Eve. It gets really super twisted and I should not have watched it when I first got to those parts of the series, but I ignored the Holy Spirit and watched it anyway. Now, I regret it and know that it’s highly wrong, that I never should have watched it, and will never watch it again.
- The Witcher
I watched the first season of this show last year I believe. It’s about a guy with magic powers that hunt monsters. The monsters aren’t called demons, which was the good thing, but it has Game of Thrones level nudity and violence, especially one particularly grotesque scene that should have made me quit the season right then and there. It will be hard for me to not watch season two when it comes out, because I love the main character and the actor who plays him so much, but I feel very convicted about this show because of the nudity and horror-style monster fighting violence.
- Outlander
This is a show I haven’t prayed about yet, but I already know that with the nudity, including one particularly BAAAD scene at the end of season one that I should NEVER have watched, fully regret watching, and am ashamed to admit I did that deals with male rape. It’s a romance series, so there’s a lot of sex and nudity in the earlier seasons, but I loved the couple, and the main guy character, and I loved the history because the main woman time travels back in time and falls in love with the main guy. It also deals with the Jacobite Rebellion up to a certain season, which is one of my historical rebellions—next to the Boshin War in Japan about a hundred years later. I still haven’t seen the latest season yet.
What things should you be convicted about? I can’t tell you. It’s something you have to pray and seek God about and see what types of things He warns you to stay away from. But when you feel that you shouldn’t be watching something, listen to God and don’t watch it anyway. Don’t ignore the Holy Spirit like I did. Make the right decision and even if its hard, cut this out of your life. You’ll be blessed for doing the right thing. You’ll draw closer to God and your relationship with Him will grow.
For me, what helps now is to double check the reviews, ratings, and parents guides before I get into a show. It’s harder once I get into a show, to quit later, so I always want to make sure from now on out that I know what I’m getting myself into and avoid them altogether. If I don’t watch it from the start, then it won’t be hard to quit it later.
Pray and seek God, especially in these times. We always want to make sure we’re in a right relationship with God and that starts by cleaning out our lives.
