I grew up going to church every weekend. I was encouraged to read my Bible from an early youth. I was active in the youth department and I was for the most part a ‘good old Christian boy’. I intellectually understood most of the church’s doctrines and I was fully aware of the spiritual war between Christ and Satan. My father knew enough about Hollywood to say “don’t watch movies and television, they’re bad for you”, but that was about the extent of it. There was no real explanation why. So I grew up without a large Hollywood influence, until I was 18. Flash forward to college. When I got to the university I decided on a film degree with aspirations to go to tinsel town to make it big. I began to consume massive quantities of mainstream movies with little to no respect for the ratings. I wanted to make films for a living, so I rationalized it away as ‘research’. My weekends were filled with trips to the theater, often hopping from one movie to the next. I would rent stacks of movies from blockbuster and escape into the world of entertainment.
My addiction soon overtook my desire for spiritual things, and I replaced any time I would have spend reading the stories in my Bible with fanciful tales from Hollywood. I left college and moved to Los Angeles when I was 19, and lost all connection with God. I chased everything under the sun that I thought would make me happy, but to no avail. I lived this way for about 10 years until God finally got ahold of my heart. As I look back over my life I can tell you with 100 percent confidence that God pursued me the entire time that I was selfishly seeking fame and fortune. When I decided to listen to Him, everything changed.
I believe that my movie addiction was one of biggest reasons I was wooed away from my relationship with God. I wasted my best years on chasing my dreams and filling my mind with fantasies. When God won me back I wanted to do something for Him. I prayed and asked Him a very simple question: “What do you want me to do with my life?” Have you ever prayed that prayer? When you do, I am 100 percent confident that God will not ignore you. For me, God answered the prayer with giving me a ministry that exposes Hollywood for the influence it has on us spiritually. In 2008 Little Light Studios was born. We put together a number of presentations that have examples of how and why we are affected by the things we watch.
Called to be a light
Myself along with a small team have traveled around the world speaking at churches, high schools, colleges, and spiritual retreats. Alongside our work of this sort we have created a number of other productions that discuss relevant issues that affect our focus on Christ. But ministry work is hard. You are often over worked, under appreciated, and depressed, all the while battling discouragement. Sometimes I wonder is it making a difference at all? Especially when it’s not always a popular message. Who doesn’t watch movies? Many times people don’t want to hear a message that threatens their fun. So why do we do it? Because like Paul wrote in Philippians 1:9-11:
“… that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
I believe that Christ is longing for us to be “filled” with His righteousness. Movies are often filled with unrighteousness that leads us to have many filthy thoughts, which brings me to the title of this blog: ‘From Movies to Porn to Jesus’.
Addicted to porn
I recently returned from Brazil where I was giving lectures on media. I received a testimony from a 20-something year old girl who had grown up in the church. She had a similar experience as myself with being active in the things of God, but she and her family were very addicted to Hollywood entertainment. She had grown up on it. They saw every movie Hollywood put out without regards to ratings. When she was only 8 years old, she became particularly fascinated with romance. She saw how Hollywood always portrayed love and she longed to be swept off of her feet by the handsome princes in the movies. Because she was only 8 years old and not able to have an relationship like the ones in the films, she became addicted to pornography–an addiction that lasted into her 20’s.
She became so ashamed of the addiction and never understood that the Hollywood movies had primed her for enslavement to pornography. She even contemplated suicide. Someone had suggested that she watch one of the presentations that Little Light Studios had produced on the effects mainstream media has upon your spiritual life, and it gave her the answers she was seeking. She and her family stopped watching movies and got rid of 5,000 DVD’s they collected over the years. She began to fill her mind with the Bible. Today she has been freed from her addiction and seeks Christ’s righteousness.
“She became so ashamed of the addiction and never understood that the Hollywood movies had primed her for enslavement to pornography.”
When I hear such a testimony, I know God has a purpose for Little Light Studios to produce material to give such answers to help free people from damaging media. I can honestly say, even if it was only for the good of one individual who has made a decision to dedicate his whole heart to Christ, it was all worth it. So thank you for everyone who has supported the work of Little Light over the years. May you continue to pray for our efforts as we continue to labor for God’s Kingdom.
