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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 28, 2023

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Kids under a certain age still aren't permitted to watch R-rated films in theatres without a gaurdian so far as I'm aware.

I believe that is company policy and not law in America. Back when Passion of the Christ was in theaters they let kids in and the explanation was there's no law about R rated movies, just corporate policy that they may change on a whim.

Also what a movie to let kids in. Passion of the Christ is torture porn.

Passion of the Christ is torture porn.

Christians believe that the events in Passion of the Christ actually happened. It's like claiming that a Holocaust documentary is torture porn. And that the standards for showing it to kids should be the same as the standards for showing actual torture porn that has no connection with the real world.

It's like claiming that a Holocaust documentary is torture porn.

If it's a documentary that uses actors and CGI to show death camp victims being gassed and burned and machine-gunned in excruciating detail, it's torture porn.

When that film came out I recall historians claiming that it was wildly inaccurate. As a matter of historical fact: the last day of Jesus's life did not occur as depicted in that film. It's not a documentary or factual historical reenactment.

Crucifixion was a really painful and drawn-out way to die. So that was approximately correct and of course believed by Christians. But the wildly exaggerated scourging and out of control Roman soldiers was fictional torture porn for torture porn's sake.

As a matter of historical fact, Jesus didn't rise from the dead either.

It may not have actually happened as shown in the movie, but people believe it happened. Which still disqualifies it from either being torture porn or from being treated the same way as intentional fiction.

As a matter of historical fact, Jesus didn't rise from the dead either.

Does this assertion add any light to the conversation, or just heat? Would a reversed version of this assertion, made by a Christian, add any light to the conversation?

The passion of Christ was based on actual Roman Catholic doctrine and traditions about how it went down and not on the consensus among secular historians about what Roman judicial practices would have looked like because it was a religious film.