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This week, a Senate panel is hearing arguments about whether or not a film should be R-rated if it shows characters smoking cigarettes.

It's not such a wild idea. After all, films get R-ratings if their characters use certain swear words, expose certain areas of their flesh, or if the violence becomes too extreme for the vulnerable minds of younger viewers. Why not give a film an R-rating for giving attention to equally volatile behavior—one that causes cancer, obesity, depression, and even death?

It makes you wonder—why do we give films strict ratings for certain portrayals of misbehavior while other misbehaviors are shown regularly without any protest? Pride. Lying. Jealousy.

And what about the glorification of eating foods that are bad for you? Should a film be R-rated if the characters wolf down Big Macs on screen or drink Big Gulp-sized cola? Certainly, if characters who cuss can influence impressionable viewers to make poor choices, so can the presentation of reckless consumption of foods that lack nourishment.

Scripture tells us to avoid idle talk, murder, and lust. Thus, many Christians are offended—even outraged—whenever these behaviors are reflected on the big screen. But Scripture also tells us that our bodies are our "temples." We should honor God by being wise in how we use them and in what we give them. Why are those same Christians undistracted by big screen role models who advertise the pleasures of addictive soda pop, candy, and fast food?

Personally, I think artists should be free to portray the way human beings behave—both the good behavior and the bad behavior—in contexts that prod us to think about choices and consequences. It is up to the viewer to listen to his conscience, avoid those things that cause him to stumble, and learn to be a discerning viewer who is not influenced and persuaded by evidence of worldliness. A Christian who vows to "see no evil" will have to build a wall around himself and never venture out into the world Jesus asked us to love.

But we also must exercise our free will, to become strong against temptations toward misbehavior of any kind, whether it is shown in the media or exhibited by our neighbors where we live and work. Christians are called to "test all things and hold fast to what is good." That goes as much for our diet as it does for our media intake.

We're surrounded by fast food advertising. It has a massive influence on children who watch television. It has turned many grownups into junk food addicts. And it is this problem that Morgan Spurlock focuses on in his new documentary Super Size Me.

Whether or not you eat at McDonald's once a year, once a month, once a week, or once a day, if you're a discerning grownup, you should get in line to see this eye-opening, entertaining, appalling documentary. Spurlock decided to find out the hard way whether or not McDonald's fast food is as bad for our bodies as folks say it is. And he did learn. As he committed himself to eating three meals a day from the McD's menu for thirty days, the hard way proved much harder than he—and his doctors—ever dreamed.

Spurlock's film explores much more than the disintegration of his health. It also exposes the ruthless business tactics of fast food companies and national food corporations to get kids addicted to sugar and junk food. This (brave? insane?) filmmaker suggests that there's just as much reason to worry about the discernment and health of people who eat fast food as there is to worry about smokers. The information backs up his argument. So do his internal organs.

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48