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Should Christian Blogs be Rated G?
Is your blog “Rated G”? Take this test to find out…
Now, on to a more particular question: Should “Christian” blogs be Rated G? Or are you crossing a boundary when it gets all explicit and sketchy? Does one sacrifice authenticity for “prudence” and “discretion”?
What’s your take?
Mine, by the way, are “Rated G” through this test, but I think that’s just because I’m not using “bad” language.
I personally think mine are more “PG” but I’m not sure.
And don’t ask me how I found the “R Rated” image…
Buzz it!
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36 Responses to “Should Christian Blogs be Rated G?”
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Often the rating is more than the violence – the bible is definitely R rated – only because there is not a higher rating. There's more genitals, love, war, sex and violence in the bible than most modern day thrillers.
But …. to reach certain audiences you have to appeal through certain mediums – I'd hate for NetNanny to block Churchcrunch … or my personal blog lol.
Netnanny has already blocked mine. she told me so.
I don't think there is an answer. No two Christians blogs are created equal. We have different subjects. We have different lives. If you write a blog your experiences working in the daycare at church, it is probably G. If you write a blog about your missionary work in Haiti, it may not be a G-rated kind of thing. We don't live G-rated in a G-rated world. We obviously shouldn't push our language and image choices just to be risque but if we are going to have meaningful dialogues about real world issues, they won't always be G-rated. Out.
and that, my friends, is that.
Can't improve on that response, so I'll just say "I second that"!
My blog got a 'PG' rating – mainly because I use the word 'missionary'.
That's hilarious!
oh dang.
Perfect
My question is ' what is a "Christian" blog?'
ooooh. booya.
Haha. True.
I was expecting an R rating, but mine came back PG.
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Here's my rating!
Well, I'd say we need to talk about the "R"-rated stuff sometimes. But not in a vulgar or offensive way. The Bible talks about the sex, violence, and brutality of things without being overly graphic (usually…some of the Old Testament is pretty interesting…). It's not always what you say, but how you say it.
My two cents to add, you all seem to have it covered quite well!
Morality is subjective
to some perhaps… some believe it's absolute.
The original usage of the word moral meant – tradition or custom.
Mine got a PG rating because of a few instances of the word 'death' and the word 'hell.'
ooooooooooooh. you're bad.
Content decisions should be made based on it's relevance to the target.
So rated G? no…
Crass? also no.
Agreed
By the way, mine was rated G. Only one instance of death. Apparently I have avoided the use of the word missionary in spite of my impending move to the Dominican next Monday.
I think the hard thing about the rating system here is that it is looking for offensive content and not really understanding what could be offensive to some is not offensive to others. Same thing with Christian blogs. What they could view as not offensive could be offensive to others.
I pretty much got fired from my job as a jr high bible teacher at a private school for writing a series of blog post on how america was a post christian nation. To me this is not offensive and needs to be discussed. To the school, highly offensive.
I would say they (being the school) would rate my blog R, but if you were to look at it, you would give me a G.
But I like offensive stuff, it makes you think.
Mine was rated PG, so I'd be a hypocrite to say all Christian blogs should be rated G.
What put mine in the category was one reference to pain and two to porn. The references to porn were because I suggested somewhat seriously that if we label a post or two porn, people who google porn might find our sites instead, and be given an opportunity to rethink their choice…
I'm of the opinion that we can use whatever tools are at our disposal to help connect people to Jesus. We probably *should* limit the ones we use to what we have some skill using. As someone not raised a Christian, it's really weird to me that we can't use curse words to make our point when they'd be oh-so-helpful at certain times. I also don't understand why in a world made by the God we worship, we can't talk about whatever we want to talk about. Taboo subjects seem somehow anti-worshipful to me. Acknowledging reality, whether good or bad, and with some openness to gray, sounds more authentic to me. Bring on the R-rated Jesus-centric blogs, I say.
That being said… i usually shoot for the PG range. So, whatever.
Who is the authentic you and who does God want you to be? Do you use G rated language? If so, if we were being authentic why would our blog be otherwise.
We overuse the word authentic. Maybe we've dulled its definition. It seems like in some ways, when we (Christians) say "authentic" what we really mean is to identify with the world outside of ourselves. That's connecting with culture. But it's not authentic.
I agree with your first point, but would like to hear more about your second point. When i hear 'authentic', I take it to mean not pretending to be something other than who you are. I think it's true that the world outside of ourselves might be drawn to authenticity because western culture often encourages us to be something other than who we are, and to be something other than who you are to attract that wouldn't be 'authentic', but, again, that's not how I've heard it used.
Although, to the letter, it might be more correct to say that authentic Christianity conforms to the likeness of the original Christian. Which raises a host of implications…
Mine is G-Rated, ha ha – would something technical be other than G- rated??
I think that, as Christians, we need to set the example – we need to be salt and light.
yet, lets be realistic – no one is perfect so don't pretend to be.
But it does not mean hang out all the dirty washing – there needs to be a filter.
Mine was G rated. I seriously thought I would get pinged for a post on 'the sex talk". but no. When you post mainly about your wife and kids and what you get up to as a family then I suppose a G rating is expected
Chrissulli hit it.
As for the image, you could just use your l33t hax0r skills and reasonably deduct that if the image path for the G-Rated version is http://www.oneplusyou.com/q/img/bb_badges/rated_g... then the R-Rated is obviously http://www.oneplusyou.com/q/img/bb_badges/rated_r...
Mine got PG for the words "pain" and "death." I think discussing topics like that are what make blogs worth reading. A blog that views the world through rose colored glasses and never discusses the harsh realities of people's lives is probably not worth reading.
So, I think it's OK to be PG, PG-13 or even R. I believe a blog can glorify God and still talk about pain, death and porn. And anyway, it shouldn't be about how many times you use those words. It's about how you discuss them and bring redemptive principles to intersect with real life.