HomeARC ML 0988
MORE ON VIDEOS!--By Father David DO 988 22 December 1980
--Dad's Favourites & Opinions.
1. I'VE BEEN DISAPPOINTED WITH THE TYPE OF MOVIES WE'VE BEEN RECORDING. I thought I made it clear. Didn't you send that Letter to them once upon a time about what I like in the way of videos? (Maria: Yes. I looked through one of the TV mags & it doesn't look like BBC is offering as good programming as they used to.) Well, then tell him not to bother to record anything if there's nothing good to record--don't waste tape, don't just record to be recording! There's no point in that, just to be filling up tapes & filling up space. I mean, we're not recording videos just to be going through the motions & shadow boxing & beating the air just to have something to do.
2. IF THE QUALITY OF BRITISH TV HAS SO DETERIORATED to that point that it's nothing like it used to be when we were there, then let's forget. If we can't get really good historical movies or really good factual travelogues or studies of people, studies of nations, studies countries, studies of history, things that are important to us & our understanding of the World & its people & its countries, then let's forget it!
3. MY GOD, IT DOESN'T DO A DAMN BIT OF GOOD FOR HIM TO RECORD NEWS shows because we don't get them for months until it's all over & a past day & settled & forgotten! I'm supposed to be a news analyst to interpret the news for the Family. But my Lord, by the time we get the video news shows, the news is over, it's history, it's settled, it doesn't have to be analysed, it doesn't have to be predicted what's going to happen, it's already happened! Why the hell can't we get these news shows quicker than we're getting them? I thought it wouldn't take but a few days after he got it on TV there that he could send it here & we'd have it within a week. It's months before we get it! My God, if we haven't even got time to record what God has to say, we certainly haven't got time to record that junk! We're wasting time & money, we've invested a lot on all of our equipment, & yet we can't even record what God has to say here! (We are now!)
4. WHEN I WAS THERE, BRITISH TV HAD SOME GREAT FILMS, historical films. They had series about British history & great men & their lives. That sort of thing is inspiring to anybody. It's like my Grandmother's poem about the sample not the sermon. My God, they get plenty of sermons on audio tape! It's a lot better to be able to see it if you can. That's inspiring! Where the help are those great movies of great men's lives & great historical events? What has happened to Britain, if that's the quality of her TV now?
5. BBC USED TO HAVE SOME BEAUTIFUL MOVIES. They used to have that beautiful series like that "Golden Bowl" & the series on "The Edwardians," & so many others. The British are some of the greatest actors in the World & they have the most marvellous language & they know how to use it like nobody in this World! It's an inspiration, a thrill, it's almost music to your ears just to hear it, but he keeps sending us these idiotic ridiculous, stupid, God-damnable American movies! You tell him I don't want to see another American movie if he can't find anything better than that! The Americans produce very few good movies, extremely few, unless it's something very important & historical & inspirational. I'd rather watch the British at their most foolish than the God-damn Americans even when they're serious!
6. (MARIA: WE JUST TOLD HIM TO DO THOSE AMERICAN DISASTER MOVIES, such as "Earthquake" & "Towering Inferno.") I mean, even these would at least be something for the record to circulate in the Family with all the people that never saw them. I had to see them both in Spanish, I've never seen them in English. I never knew half of what was going on except what I was seeing. Those are classics!--Enough to scare people out of their wits & shake them up & get them busy for God & realise how close disaster can be & how horrible it can be & the way it's going to be, instead of these silly idiotic addle-headed ridiculous nonsense movies!
7. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THOSE BEAUTIFUL HISTORICAL SERIES they used to have in England on television? British TV used to be loaded with those historical movies. Whatever happened to them? I used to love British television because it had so many historical things, documentaries, science films & so on. I mean dramatic historical drama! What happened to them? Aren't they on any more! Well, if not, let's turn it off. We don't have to be watching them just for watching's sake. We don't have to be videoing just to have something to do to be beating the air, shadow boxing, just something to fill up time & tapes--we can't afford it. God can't afford it. The time's too valuable, much less the money! I'm talking about something serious, Son. We have put time, money & effort into this program, & we're hoping it'll do the Family some good; but if we can't find anything better than those silly movies, let's forget television entirely & just confine it strictly to Family videos! At least that would be worthwhile.
8. DOCUMENTARIES OF THE BEAUTIES OF GOD'S CREATION & NATURE & ANIMALS & all that, that's beautiful! I love it! I don't have time to see them all, but they're certainly excellent for the education of our children. Documentaries of God's Creation, that's a different story. We don't want to document & record science just for science' sake especially a lot of it that is nothing but "science falsely so-called" & the intricacies of some kind of a scientific subject that we're not even interested in, doesn't even affect us. We need to try to figure out what's important to record & what's not important. Does he think about it in terms of the Family? Does he think about it? Will this do them good? Does he pray about it? Is he Spirit-led? He needs inspiration, he needs guidance of the Holy Spirit.
9. (MARIA: I THINK A LOT OF IT IS SORT OF HIT & MISS. He reads the guides, but he can't really tell before he sees it, & he doesn't have a chance to watch them all.) He doesn't? Why? He certainly must watch the one he's recording. But of course if you guys don't even value the priceless videoing that you could be doing here, what more can you expect of him when he isn't even here & doesn't even know me?
10. I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY MORE SILLY MOVIES! When I told him musical I had in mind some of the great classics: Sigmund Romburg, Rogers & Hammerstein, Victor Herbert & a lot of very famous light opera, what used to be called light opera before they started calling them musicals. Not just any stupid, idiotic, silly, ridiculous kind of a child's-level thing like that "Bus Holiday" with Cliff Richards! I mean, maybe David could have enjoyed it on his level, but why even waste David's time watching something so silly & stupid & unrealistic & ridiculous even if it is on his mental level? I don't want to clutter up his mind with so much junk if it's not going to teach him anything, if it has no message, no moral, no point, no purpose, then let's forget it!
11. I'M TIRED OF WATCHING MOVIES WITHOUT A MESSAGE & without a point, without a moral, with no inspiration, that just leave me dead or depressed. They don't even end like they ought to end. You'd better tell him to start watching the movies he's recording for us & deciding. I don't want to bother to have him pay the postage on it much less waste tape on it if it's not worth our seeing! If it's not worth his seeing then it's not worth our seeing! Is that clear? I had no idea he's recording movies that he isn't even watching.
12. HE'S GOING TO HAVE TO DECIDE THERE, not me have to audition it here, wasting my time auditioning & deciding on whether it's fit for the Family or not! Let him audition it there! Let him view it there & decide whether it's worth our seeing or not, worth spending my time on it or not. That's what his job is, that's what he's there for--& having seen it, if he doesn't think it's worth it, then erase it! Just use it for the next recording, even if he has to record ten of them before he finds one that's worth sending!
13. (MARIA: YOU USUALLY CAN TELL BY JUST SPOT CHECKING or starting at the beginning. We usually can tell five minutes into the thing if it's worth it.) My God yes! It doesn't take us hardly five minutes to get into one of those video to find out whether it's going to be pure trash, ridiculous, silly, profitless, wasteful, time-wasting trash or something really worthwhile. I'm almost ashamed that I've even seen some of that stuff & have to put my commentary on it! I'm ashamed for the Family even to know I wasted my time looking at it. But I did it for their sake, for your sake! If it's worth my valuable time to audition it to decide on whether you should see it or not, then for God's sake why can't he use his time to decide on what's worth seeing or not?
14. (MARIA: WHAT ABOUT MUSICALS like Fred Astaire movies?) Honey, those old musicals, some of the old musicals, the music was good enough, the actors & the famous classics & the characters are famous enough & the music is famous enough & it's enjoyable, just pure entertainment & relaxation, good enough that we can enjoy it. But if it's not even that good & he can't tell the difference between good & bad musicals, good & bad music, good & bad shows of any kind, if he doesn't know the difference, for God's sake tell him to stop recording & wipe out the whole thing!
15. I SUGGEST FOR ONE THING, THAT HE DOESN'T SEND US ANY MORE MOVIES THAT ARE NOT TRUE-TO-LIFE or at least somewhat believable or historical or inspirational. Some of those silly movies insult our intelligence! I feel like the Devil is almost sneering & laughing at us with such tripe, this trash!
16. WE NEED TO WATCH THINGS THAT ARE MEANINGFUL & applicable, apropos & apt to influence our lives & affect us & are important for us to know, or at least educational regarding history or science. Where are the great movies?--All those great movies we used to see when we were in London, both at the cinema & on TV! Where are they? I'd say "Man of La Mancha," that was a classic! "Cromwell" was a classic! (Maria: He's been sending us whatever he could find...) He sent us some great classics & those are worth it, but we don't enjoy these stupid, idiotic, silly, ridiculous things!
17. WHERE ARE THE TRAVELOGUES? I've seen hardly any travelogues, except those on South East Asia. Where are the travelogues of other parts of the World, other countries? Doesn't BBC produce any travelogues on anywhere else but South East Asia? We've had quite a few good nature films, quite a few science films, & there have been a few background news documentaries, but I'll tell you the good ones are rare. (Maria: We still have many we haven't viewed yet.) Just tell him to stop sending us these silly, ridiculous, idiotic, worse-than-childish insane movies with no sanity, no reality, no point, no message, no purpose, no inspiration, no education, no edification, no nothing!--Like that stupid Cliff Richards movie & that other idiotic musical! At least "Quincy's Quest" was a parable. It had a message to it. But that last silly musical he sent us of that guy was absolutely idiotic! I had my finger on the fast button most of the time!--And it couldn't go by fast enough as far as I was concerned!
18. (MARIA: THAT MOVIE "GREAT CATHERINE" WAS JUST SILLY!) Oh my, I never saw anything worse! ... I thought that if you had great actors & a great historical subject like Catherine the Great, the Russian Empress, at least you could be assured of a fairly great movie. But that last one, "Great Catherine," shows you how these actors don't know what's good for them. That was the biggest waste of time & the silliest idiotic movie! About the only good thing I can see about it is, if that's a picture of what the Czar's court was like, that corrupt & that absolutely sickening, it's no wonder the Communists took over! That's about the only edifying thing I could see in it.
19. (MARIA: YOU DON'T LIKE MUSICALS LIKE CAN-CAN?) Well, yes, that's a classic with top actors, numbers, singers & dancers. You can't beat some of those people! There's one nice thing at least about that musical: It's got some pretty girls & a few legs in it! (Maria: He sent us some Miss World shows.) The beauty shows were wonderful, I love them! But he hasn't ever sent us any pretty girly movies hardly! I'd say these funny Benny Hill shows are almost better than some of the junk he's been sending us, & they're absolutely idiotic! But I just say for the guy, he is funny & at least he's got some pretty girls in it & some funny poetry. I mean, I nearly cracked up, I nearly split my sides laughing! They are good laughs, he's a genius, he's a real talented comic, & he's got oodles of pretty girls & they're sexy shows. He's my kind of shocking comedian & funny, even tho' a lot of it's silly.
20. BENNY HILL REMINDS ME A LITTLE BIT OF MYSELF IN SOME WAYS: I say the things that people wouldn't think I'd dare say or do, to shake them up & break them up & shock them! I say what other people are thinking but don't dare say, & do what other people want to do but don't dare! So actually I enjoy that idiotic thing. Some of it is too stupid of course, & you sit there with your finger on the fast button most of the time, but some of it is really funny & really good, & even good music, good happy dance music & pretty girls.
21. (MARIA: THE CHRISTMAS SHOWS THAT ARE COMING UP NOW, ARE YOU INTERESTED IN THEM?) Of course, if it's really pretty Christmas music & Christmas shows & carols like those beautiful Christmas shows that he sent us before of Perry Como & the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, etc. He ought to know--he's got the same God, the same Jesus, the same Holy Spirit. He ought to know what we'd like! We have put a lot of money & effort into this & bought all kinds of equipment & all these videos & everything, & risking our lives to get the videos here & there & yon. (Maria: It wasn't really his fault. It was ours, since we had told him he didn't have to watch them.) Then I don't care to send them to all the rest of the Family & have them waste their time on it. (Maria: We told him he didn't have to watch every single minute of them because[DELETED]) Well, you tell him he does have to watch the movies from now on. I never told him that, & I never dreamed he wasn't watching'm!
22. IF THEY'RE GOING TO BE SERIOUS MOVIES, they ought to at least have some kind of application, be at least a little realistic, have some kind of moral or message or meaning or something. If they're just going to be plain fun, there's a difference between something that's truly funny & something that's downright idiotically silly! By funny or comic or humorous, I don't mean insane, slapstick idiocy! I don't care for that kind of comedy, where people go batting each other around & that's supposed to be funny, where violence is supposed to be funny. I'm sorry, but I'm just fed up with the kind of junk & trash & worthless, time-wasting, time-consuming, waste-of-tape & money & his time & mine & the Family's!
23. THINK OF ALL THE GOOD THINGS THEY USED TO HAVE ON BRITISH TV!--Beautiful travelogues, beautiful scenic films, beautiful science films. I used to get inspirations out of them. I used to get Letters out of them! I got marvellous messages & meanings out of them! But I certainly can't get any meaning nor head nor tail or any sense at all out of some of this junk! Nothing! I mean, it's not worth an inch of tape!
24. IF HE THOUGHT THAT'S WHAT I MEANT BY MUSICALS just because they were a bunch of silly dancing & ridiculous songs & no meaning, rhyme or reason, no beauty, no nothing, it'd be more profitable to just sit & watch some of those sex movies in the city--at least it's real & at least the performers are genuine!--At least it's a view of God's Creation, even though some of the ugliest parts. At least it's scientific & educational. But some of this BBC idiocy is almost unbelievable! Where are the beautiful historical movies that we used to see?
25. WHERE ARE THE BEAUTIFUL MOVIES WE USED TO SEE about how life was in those days or how life was in the beautiful days of the past, the Golden days, the Golden years, how beautiful the World used to be? I mean, it's like looking into hell itself to look into the present & look forward! It at least gives us a pleasant view of how beautiful the past was, how beautiful things were then, the lovely ladies, the stately carriages, the beauty of the art & all the things that they had then. But praise God we're going to have them again some day when they junk all these cars & all these planes & all the rest! The World is going to go back to those things, that slow moving & natural way of living. But where is it now? Don't they have movies like that on British TV anymore? Where are the inspirational historical fiction movies about the lives of great people & their historical times?
26. I WANT TO SEE SOME HISTORY! I WANT TO SEE SOME OF GOD'S BEAUTIFUL CREATION, whether it's scenic beauty or naked women! What happened to that kind of thing on British TV? Did the narrow-minded censors finally get it all eradicated, eliminated? I mean, some of the present BBC junk is almost as bad as Monty Python's & all that blasphemous insanity! But even that with all the cynicism & satire on public figures & characters & politics & modern events, had a little meaning to it, spoofing & poking fun at famous people. But when they started spoofing & poking fun at Jesus Christ & making Him out to be some kind of hippie idiot that didn't know what He was doing, they went a little too far!--Shows what a bunch of God-damned anti-Christ[EDITED: "s"] they are!
27. WHERE ARE THE TRAVELOGUES? I'll tell you, almost the most beautiful series & the most important & inspiring documentary that he has sent us that has touched our hearts & given us a burden for missions has been those marvellous travelogues on South East Asia, "Spirit of Asia"!--All about their religions & their spiritism, with beautiful photography, beautiful girls, beautiful dancing, beautiful music, beautiful scenery! I like to see things that are beautiful! I'm sick of seeing ugliness! "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever thing are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Phil.4:8.)
28. (MARIA: DO YOU WANT THOSE NUCLEAR THINGS HE SENT US?) Yes, we have to see them. We must not be ignorant of the Devil's devilish devices! (2Co.2:11.) We have to know about the horrors that man is preparing for himself & that the Devil is inspiring them to concoct to destroy the wicked. We have to know things about nuclear war & chemical warfare & all that junk. Really, also we need to know about what so-called natural disasters are like or Towering Infernos or Earthquakes or whatever they are. We need to know some of these things to shake us up & wake us up & realise how horrible life is for some people! It ought to give us a greater burden to try to reach them with the Gospel with the Love of the Lord before too late!--They sure need it!
29. (MARIA: WHAT ABOUT THOSE MULTI-NATIONAL PROGRAMS?) Some of the Multi-Nationals were very interesting & very apropos & interesting to us from a standpoint of business. We're a multi-national, & some of those things affect them like they affect us. But we sure have to wade through a lot of junk to get a few things out of them! But they're educational & they are informative, & you just have to take the bitter with the sweet on some of this stuff. It can't all be good, so it's better to go ahead & try it.
30. OUR CHILDREN NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD. They need to know about countries, peoples, customs, religions, science, God's science & the marvels of His Creation. Some of those things he's sent us we've just been fascinated by, the marvels of God's Creation! I think that thing about viruses, the "Invasion of the Virians" was a very worthwhile thing. I got inspired on that thing, how true it is! These are the messengers of Satan, these are diabolical things of the Devil which God has permitted, like the Devil himself, & created for the Devil's use to attack wicked sinful iniquitous mankind for his sins, & it is an invasion from inner space!--& much more genuine, realistic & important than all these stupid idiotic, sci-fi movies of unreal & unrealistic & unimportant so-called invasions from outer space!--But even the sci-fi movies have some meaning, & we like to watch those. Those at least are supposed to be partly scientific.
31. (MARIA: BUT THE OPERAS & OPERETTAS & THINGS, THOSE ARE PRETTY MUCH A WASTE OF OUR TIME? Though they're supposed to be of pretty high-quality, we're not really concerned with things like that. They don't really have too much point to them.) Well, but I like ballet, the long Russian ballet. You don't have to watch it all the time. You could just enjoy the music, just listen to the music. Even when you did look, at least it was pretty girls & beautiful dancing, classical Russian ballet that I studied in college just because I liked the music & dancing. You know, there's music & dancing like that in Heaven--unto the Lord! Hallelujah!
32. I EVEN DISCOVERED SOME HISTORICAL & MODERN POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE TO THAT RUSSIAN BALLET! It was really a parable. I was going to skip over the whole thing, but I got fascinated with the story because I could see how they were using it as political propaganda. The Russians don't produce anything for no purpose & no message & no meaning & no reason. So I was curious to know why they would spend two-&-a-half hours on a ballet, but by the time they got done I knew why!
33. THEY WERE PREACHING FROM START TO FINISH IN THAT BALLET, IMAGINE! You notice the French & the Spanish were really the heroes, & it was aimed at the French & Spanish public to show that the Russians appreciate them & their culture. Even though the poor Arab chieftain was a villain, it made you feel sorry for him & sympathetic to his cause, & you felt sorry he got jilted & let out. What a parable, what an allegory, what a meaning! I mean even a thing like that was more worth watching than some of those silly, ridiculous, idiotic modern musicals!
34. THE AMERICANS HAVE PRODUCED A FEW IMPORTANT SIGNIFICANT MOVIES relating to their political life or history, important characters, things meaningful affecting our present day life & our future. They have produced a few serious movies with important meaning, but I sure would say not many! BBC used to program almost no American movies when we were there. I don't think we hardly ever saw an American movie on British TV when we were there. I can't remember seeing any American movie, & if there were, I usually didn't like them--some silly cowboy thing! Usually they were beautiful historical, romantic things about Britain's great past & romantic history, the good ol' days!
35. NOW IF IT'S WORTH OUR SPENDING MONEY & PART OF OUR TIME, IT'S WORTH MY SPENDING A COUPLE OF HOURS HERE TO TELL YOU WHAT WE WANT & WHAT WE DON'T WANT. No wonder Britain's days are numbered, if that's the kind of trash they've got on BBC now compared to what it was ten years ago! When I first went to London I was thrilled at their television! I had never seen such good TV, nearly all of it educational & informational & documentary & historical & travelogues & important to your life and your future and important to your understanding of the past & history & great people's lives, science, creation, etc. But this recent silly junk ought to be confined to beer halls & music halls & girlie shows! I mean, it's not even as good as a girlie show, some of the stuff! I'd rather go see a good stripper!
36. (MARIA: BY & LARGE, THE NON-FICTION MATERIAL HAS BEEN PRETTY GOOD IN GENERAL. It's been some of the movies that you really were disgusted with.) Yes, I'm sick of these silly, meaningless, senseless movies, idiotic, insane movies with no meaning, no purpose, & not even funny! Not even beautiful! Not even sexy! Just silly! Silly & sickening! I'd rather watch sex movies of the plunger in the pipe, the piston in the cylinder.--At least it's more realistic, but I get sick of them.--Too much of a good thing! Once you've seen one of them, you've seen them all. What else is there except the push-pull motion, & you can see that at home without watching movies!
37. WE CAN MAKE SOME SEXY MOVIES OF OUR OWN. That'd be more profitable. [DELETED] That'd be a lot more interesting. Why don't we make a few good sex movies of our own, if that's the best we can do? At least dear Paul & Marianne, GBT, throw in a little beauty at the end, a little of the beauties of God's Creation, & show us some pretty girls in nice artistic poses & with a sweet message & so on.--Beautiful, just beautiful! Did you see that one of Joan yet? GBH! I mean that was really courageous! She really tried to make up for what she had missed before.--And some of the latest from different Homes took a lotta love & liver!--But so sweet! ILY!--But they're not long enough!
38. OF COURSE IF A GIRL ISN'T SEXY, SHE JUST ISN'T SEXY, EVEN IF SHE'S STARK NAKED & BEAUTIFUL! It's just like looking at a bare icicle! But even in their delicate conditions of being pregnant, if they're willing to make pictures like that in the nude, I've got to hand it to them for courage & nerve! They certainly had a sweet message! I must say the beauty of their faces & the beauty of their messages was even more beautiful than the beauty of their forms! I was more into looking at their faces & hearing what they had to say than their nudity! Nudity just for nudity's sake & simply being naked is not all there is to it! If a body hasn't got meaning & expression & eyes that fascinate you & hypnotize you, it can leave you cold! A women's face can be sexier than her body!--Plus sexily draped see-through clothes!
39. LET'S RECORD SOMETHING WORTHWHILE FOR THE FAMILY. I was glad to hear you were busy this morning taping the children & some of their activities--at least we know that's worthwhile! Get the kids & the Family. Thank God, some of the Homes have been sending us some very fascinating, interesting Family movies! I'm getting to meet the actual Family yourselves for the first time! I don't think some of you people out there realize how isolated we are, how completely totally exiled we are, not just from our country, but also from our Family--which is our country! We've seldom met you or seen you in action or heard you talk. Now at least we're getting to see you! It's been a blessing & great inspiration to us & encouragement, & also helps us to see some of the things you need.
40. (MARIA: DID YOU LIKE THAT VIKING SERIES THAT HE SENT?) Some of it was very interesting. It was definitely historical & very interesting. I think some of it got a little boring when they went into too many details of artifacts & digging in the dirt & all. But that's again the documentaries where you have to take the bitter with the sweet. I thought it was very good & I would say it was worth his recording & educational for our kids. All this knowledge is not gonna be lost, you know. We're gonna need it some day in the next World to teach others about Jesus! We need to get acquainted with Vikings now so we'll understand'm when we meet'm! Ha!
41. EVEN IF IT'S FICTION, EVEN IF IT'S DRAMA, I WANT TO SEE FICTION & DRAMA THAT HAS MEANING, that's either serious or at least true-to-life even if it's humorous, if it's got some message or purpose or inspiration or education or information. If it's edifying & good for us, that we need to know, even if it's drama & fictionalized history, historical fiction.
42. HISTORICAL FICTION IS LIKE A WOMAN'S BUSTLE. Of course, if you don't know what a bustle was, you wouldn't understand what I'm talking about. Do you know what a bustle is? Huh? A bustle was wire framework that women used to wear on their behinds to drape their dresses over so it looked like they had a great big sexy hiney! It was very popular to have big behinds & big hips in the good ole days, & I still like them. I don't know why the hell women want to get skinny as a rail & look like some kind of a clothes pole for, I don't know! These matchstick girls you see in these fashion magazines don't appeal to me at all. They look sour & skinny & sick! In the good old-fashioned days people appreciated God's Creation & wanted to even magnify & exaggerate it a little bit, so women used to wear this wire frame inside of the hind end of their dress to make their hiney look bigger, & it was called a bustle.
43. THE OLD JOKE WAS, WHY IS HISTORICAL FICTION LIKE A BUSTLE?--Because it's a false tale built upon a stern reality! A false tail built on a stern reality. Ha! However false the tale may be, if it is built on stern reality & historical fact & real life, then it can be interesting & meaningful & educational. The "Tale of Two Cities" was one of my favourites because it was historical. It was a fictional tale, but it was about a very real historical period in time & those two cities & their history, & it was bringing to life & making it living & real, the life & times of those people who lived in those days, so you could imagine it & you could relive it & feel it & understand it & make it much more appealing & interesting for young people to read history. At the same time as I was reading an exciting fictional story I was reading history about the real events that these people's lives were involved in.
44. EVEN THE MURDER MYSTERIES ABOUT THE FAMOUS SCOTCH MURDERS AT LEAST ARE HISTORICAL TRUE STORIES. They're horrors & I'm not particularly crazy about watching them, but they are interesting & give you a little insight into the Scotch character & show that not all the Scotch are so God-damn righteous, but they're plenty damn self-righteous! It's got to have some truth in it or be at least a little believable & life-like & not completely idiotic, insane & unrealistic & unbelievable!--It certainly shows why their churches so hypocritically persecuted our Family!
45. EVEN THAT "BEDTIME STORY" WAS NOT ONLY FUNNY BUT IT GAVE YOU INSIGHT into how some of these con men & these women-chasers work, David Niven & that brute beast Marlon Brando. And the scenery was beautiful & the women were beautiful! I mean, I like to look at a beautiful woman even if there's nothing else to it! The scenery was beautiful & the women were beautiful! But what was also very interesting & fascinating to see how some of those guys operate, & I suppose it was somewhat realistic at least.
46. OF COURSE SOME OF THE EVENTS IN THAT WERE OBVIOUSLY RIDICULOUS & IDIOTIC & UNREALISTIC & couldn't have happened. But nevertheless you've got to take again a little of the bitter with the sweet along with that clowning & the hamming it up & slapstick type of comedy that was so silly it wasn't even funny. But, well, that's Marlon Brando. But David Niven, I always liked him. He's usually a very serious type character, & if he is humorous he's really funny because it's a kind of pseudo-serious British type of humor. But I cannot go into every detail & explain exactly why I like some movies & why I don't like others. (Maria: It really helps.)
47. I WOULD SAY MOST OF THE DOCUMENTARIES HAVE BEEN GOOD. And the few travelogues he's sent us I've enjoyed every inch. They're beautiful! (Maria: He says BBC just started another 13-week series like the "Spirit of Asia.") Well, I hope it's on some other area for a change. I've almost had Asia up to here, South East Asia, but still it's interesting. I mean, if it's still on South East Asia, they're beautiful people, beautiful country & interesting religions & beautiful girls & dancing & music & all the rest. Honestly, I could see them over & over again. I think they're good for the Family. It certainly gives you a burden for those poor little children & those people in the darkness they're in, the futility of their lives & all the rest. I'd say they're good missionary movies & inspire you to want to go tell'm about Jesus! PTL!--Amen?
48. THESE COUNTRY & PEOPLE STUDIES, TRAVELOGUES, studies of the people & their cities & their countries & their lives should be extremely important to us missionaries, to help familiarize us with those places & how they live & what they're like. Even that one about the people who live all over the swamp in Colombia was fascinating & makes you appreciate our own lives. I wanted the children to see it. It should make you thankful for even a tent & being able to camp out!--It's better than the way they live! You don't have to drink sewage!
49. SOME OF THE MOVIES HE HAS SENT US HAVE BEEN THRILLING, INSPIRING & EDUCATIONAL, informational, realistic & important & with a message, especially the great classics. But some of that junk, especially some of those musicals, have been the silliest, most ridiculous idiotic trash I've ever seen!
50. (MARIA: MICHAEL BURKE, LUDAVIC KENNEDY, ETC., MOST OF THOSE IMPORTANT COMMENTATORS HAVE GOOD SHOWS.) Yes, you almost know a documentary by its MC. Some of those guys are terrific! They're really brilliant analysts of news or whatever their subject may be, usually fascinating material! David what's his name, that political analyst. (Maria: Yes, with a lisp.) Yes. He's a bit ugly & lisps a bit, & it's amazing to me that a guy like that with a speech impediment should have overcome it & climbed to the top where he's a top news & documentary analyst in spite of his handicaps! I've got to admire him! He's brilliant!
51. SOME ARE HOUND DOGS SICCED ON THE ENEMIES OF THE [EDITED: "ACS"] on some of those things, but at least it tells you what kind of propaganda BBC's getting out & who the [EDITED: "ACs"] are after. If you can find out who their enemies are, why at least maybe we can find out who some of our friends might be!--Ha!
52. BUT IF BBC TELECASTING HAS DETERIORATED SO MUCH ON THOSE OTHER IDIOTICS, IT CERTAINLY IS GOING DOWN THE DRAIN! (Maria: Well, it's almost become Communist!) It's certainly [EDITED: "AC"]! They must be trying to corrupt the morals of the people & abet their decadence! But what can I blame on them when you guys can sit right there & you don't know what's good or bad or what's worth recording or not! How can we blame BBC for bad programming? Some of you can sit right there & let three hours of our talks run by & not even know the difference!
53. I AM PARTICULARLY FOND OF TRAVELOGUES & STUDIES OF PEOPLE & COUNTRIES. (Maria: Like the one on Russia.) Yes. That so-called Russian language show is instead really a study of Russia & the Russians, & it's fascinating! I could watch it over & over. Some of those things I could watch over again & get something more out of them each time! Fascinating! Beautiful! Where have we ever heard any honest documentary about the Russians which was the slightest bit sympathetic or realistic or not anti-Communist & anti-Russian?--Certainly not in the U.S.!
54. AT LEAST IT PORTRAYS THE PEOPLE AS THEY ARE! And it does try to sift out a little bit of the propaganda from the reality. I think what they're trying to do in it is show you the difference between Communism & the real Russian people! That Russia is a wonderful country & the Russian people are wonderful people & that Communism is just an affliction!--It shows that Russia & the Russians are still a wonderful people in spite of Communism!
55. I THINK I'D ALMOST PUT TRAVELOGUES & DOCUMENTARIES & EVEN FEATURE DRAMATIC MOVIES OF LANDS & PEOPLES & THEIR CUSTOMS & RELIGIONS, ETC., AT THE TOP OF MY LIST. I think I really enjoy those more than anything. I enjoy things that are about people, even more than things that are about nature. I enjoy watching people more than animals or bugs or microbes. But those are interesting too, & they're part of our education & good for our children. So don't knock the microbes either, even though they're not that pleasant to watch! But I love to watch travelogues, beautiful scenic beauty & the beauty of God's Creation & the people & their customs & their religions & all the rest.--That I think is almost my favorite.
56. AND I'D SAY THE WONDERS OF GOD'S CREATION COME ABOUT NEXT ON MY LIST of things I like to watch, the marvels of His creation, including beautiful women, naked or unnaked, which takes us into some of the interesting aspects of true science, not science falsely so-called. And I think to view the realities of the present time, we'd have to throw in a little bit of present-day news. But if it's changing so fast & it gets to us when it's old, it really is not too important for us to watch it, if by the time we get it, it's ancient history! We can read the papers or listen to radio or watch local TV for the latest news.
57. (MARIA: ON ONE OF THOSE RELIGIOUS SHOWS, "THE RASTIFARIANS," YOU PUT "DISGUSTING!" Did you mean the subject itself was disgusting?) Well, I would say that we almost had to afflict ourselves to see it, just to see how disgusting & sickening these God-damn savages can be & how fiendish, devilish & depraved they are! I mean it was something almost like you need to know what the evil's about, at least, or see it. I would think it was important. I've thought of it ever since then often, & it helps you realize what Africans are like & how they're dragging the whole World down to their bestial level with their horrible Africanism & African music!
58. LOOK AT THE GIRLS THAT ARE GOING AROUND NOW WITH THESE AWFUL AFRICAN HAIRDOS! I don't mean the natural big fuzzy bushy Afros of the blacks & mulattos; I'm talking about these braided things that take hours & hours to do, so even movie stars are doing them! The Africans are dragging the whole World down! It's just another sample of how degenerate they have become! I mean it was ugly & it was sickening & disgusting. [DELETED]
59. SO, NEXT TO TRAVELOGUES & STUDIES & MOVIES OF LANDS & PEOPLES & RELIGIONS, I WOULD SAY COMES HISTORY. Maybe the World doesn't learn anything by history, but we ought to! It helps you understand the people, it helps you understand the present, it helps you understand why we're going to have such a future as history repeats itself! Also, some of it is inspiring, you admire the way people used to be, heroic & idealistic & so no. Which brings up the next subject, & that is the famous lives. History, of course, is the story of famous lives, whether it's documentary or dramatic, it interests me if it's historical & realistic.
60. I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU WHAT I THOUGHT OUR CHILDREN NEED TO KNOW, the basic education we all need to know. First of all the three R's, the basics, & we're supposed to be past that stage by this time: "Reading, Riting & 'Rithmetic." Then the junior high education or the upper grade 3G education: General Social Studies, General Arts and General Sciences. We need to know something about God's Creation, the World around us. What else is important in life besides History & Geography & Science, knowledge of the World around us, God's creation? General Arts, the arts of Literature, Music, paintings & dancing. We should have a basic general knowledge of what man has produced in the way of expression of his feelings & emotions & beauty, like basic philosophies, literature, art & music--a general knowledge of the general arts. These are things we all ought to know something about.
61. YOU'RE PRETTY STUPID & PRETTY DUMB AS A WITNESS when you're talking to intelligent people if you don't know who the famous artists, writers & musicians are & you've never read anything of them nor never seen their art nor never heard their music. They'll think you're really some kind of a boorish country bumpkin or stupid idiot if you don't even know any of those things. We do definitely need to know something about the general arts. So I have even enjoyed some of the videos on art, music & literature & its history, particularly if it includes the beautiful paintings or the beautiful ballets & compositions or readings of poetry & literature or beautiful old paintings!
62. I THINK THESE ARE BASIC THINGS THAT OUR KIDS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE SYSTEM as intelligent fairly decently educated children & not total ignoramuses regarding these things. Of course you can go to the extreme like dear Tim was doing by wasting all your time on art galleries & raving about the masters to where it becomes an obsession instead of just part of your general education.
63. I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE FEATURE FILMS THAT ARE EDUCATIONAL, about lands or peoples or history of famous events or famous men or women. (Maria: "Call of the Wild?") I thought "Call of the Wild" was very educational about the famous Klondike Gold Rush, for people to see what a gold rush is like, how wild & crazy they are! But I think it had a horrible ending! It could have had a better ending. It's hard to believe Jack London would have ended his book that way. Have you read it? I never have, but he was a personal friend of my Mother's, & they just didn't end stories that way in those days! I think that's some peculiar perverted quirk or the new turn to perverted movie endings.
64. THEY COULD HAVE HAD HIM SOMEHOW HEROICALLY SURVIVE IT ALL & come out on top & finally find the mother lode, blah, blah! Instead, the whole thing ended in total defeat, total disillusionment, total bitterness, & made you feel like life wasn't even worth living if you lived all your life & that's the way you ended up! Maybe he was just trying to teach a lesson that that's the way all gamblers end up.--But he wasn't even a gambler! You should have at least seen him rewarded for his virtue of resisting gambling & refusing to catch the gold fever. A guy like that should have discovered a gold mine! Even the end of the dog seemed like an anticlimax, the only one that survived, & even he went to the wolves! I'd say it was a very bitter, cynical movie, really, except the first part was interesting & true-to-life.
65. TRUE-TO-LIFE, THAT'S A GOOD EXPRESSION TO USE FOR FILMS I LIKE! Whatever we video ought to be true-to-life, even if it's funny & humorous it's true-to-life. You know, the kind of jokes which are not even true-to-life are not the funniest by any means. In fact, the less true-to-life they are, the less funny they are. The funniest humor & the funniest jokes are those that are very true-to-life. So was "Bedtime Story" with David Niven & Marlon Brando, & most of it was pretty true-to-life. Certainly the mansion he lived in & these scenic views of the Riviera & its society & its gambling & its women & all that was a glimpse into that kind of rich life & high society. Even that should be part of our children's education.--They need to know what life is all about & how the other half live!
66. I THINK THAT'S WHY THE LORD LET ME AS A CHILD SNEAK OFF TO SO MANY MOVIES! I was so protected, shielded, isolated & insulated from the real life of the World, that I knew nothing about it, virtually nothing about it. God had to let me sneak off to movies to see how the other half lived.--In fact how the other 99% lived! So I'd at least understand the World, know what it was like & what it was all about, & it sort of got me fed up with the World just by going to the movies, because a lot of it just made me sick! They were so sickening! I didn't have to participate myself or enter into the World & go through it by personal experience, because I got sick of it just from going to movies!
67. I WOULD SAY AS A GENERAL CRITERION FOR ALMOST ALL THE VIDEOS, WHETHER IT BE FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, IT HAS GOT TO BE SOMEWHAT TRUE-TO-LIFE. It's either got to be real life or true-to-life, right? Even some of those great movies like "Death on the Nile" or "Grand Hotel" are character studies & travelogues! You were studying the actual scenes & taking a trip up the Nile & meeting the actual natives, and living the life of the Paris rich in a World-famous Paris hotel!
68. ALSO AT THE SAME TIME YOU ARE FOLLOWING THE LIVES & THE CHARACTER STUDIES OF REALISTIC PEOPLE, real people probably modeled after actual people. They are fascinating, interesting character types, character studies. That's the fascinating thing about "Grand Hotel," if you even remember it at all, & "Airport" & "Ransom" & Some of those movies like that. They are stories that are true-to-life that you can believe could have happened or maybe even did happen. (Maria: Like "My Fair Lady"?) Yes!
69. IF YOU CAN TAKE INFORMATION & EDUCATION & HISTORY & ALL THAT & DRAMATIZE THEM then they're even more effective, I consider, just like our skits. They're even more effective both with us & our children. They're more fascinating, they're more interesting. It weaves in a narrative, a story of somebody's life, two people's lives, like the recent one about the Russian girl. "The Girl from Patruska." That is one of the first inside studies we've had of the life of a Western journalist inside Moscow & how they live. Fascinating! I even was willing to go back & see half the movie over again with Maria 'cause she missed part of it, it was so interesting!
70. SOME OF THESE MOVIES WHEN YOU FINALLY SEE THE END THEN YOU WANT TO GO BACK & SEE IT OVER AGAIN to really appreciate it the second time even better, because then you understand it better, like that complicated one about the Oslo Airport, "Ransom," a genuine true historical incident, even though it was dramatized. Perhaps part of it was totally fictional, but at least it had a message! It was historical & it was realistic & gave you an idea about life in an airport & the problems of a security officer with crime & diplomacy & officialdom, etc.
71. WE NEED MATERIALS WHICH WILL EXPLAIN TO OUR CHILDREN, & even our own grown-up mothers & fathers, what life is all about & what the World is like, both physically & spiritually, historically & geographically, religiously & whatever you want to call it. It should be informational, edifying, helpful, informative, instructional & profitable, & not something totally irrelevant, totally unbelievable, totally unrelated, something you can't possibly relate to or relate anybody you know to, because it's totally unlike life.
72. SO I'D SAY THAT IF YOU WANTED A TOP YARDSTICK GOLDEN RULE FOR THE KIND OF VIDEOS we want to see, it's either got to be real life or true-to-life, & if it's not, forget it! It has no purpose meaning or point or message if it is not real life or true-to-life. I would say that just about fits everything I've mentioned. All kinds of movies, even science fiction can be true-to-life. It's at least true-to-life enough that it is usually based on genuine science, the kind of science fiction that is really interesting, that which is based on scientific possibilities--what might actually become of it if they let it go too far, etc. It's either gotta be true life or true-to-life, historical fiction, geographical fiction, or even dramatic fiction.
73. IF IT'S BASED ON REALITY & HISTORY & TRUE-LIFE & TRUE & BELIEVABLE CHARACTERS or actual characters, then it's worth our seeing. If it's absolutely totally unrelated to life or history or mankind or creation or anything that's important at all, if it's totally unrelated & totally untrue & untrue to life & utterly silly, ridiculous idiocy, I don't care to waste my time watching. I mean, you can have comedy, you could have humor, you could have things that are funny that are very realistic & very true-to-life, & the more realistically true-to-life it is the funnier it is, & I don't mind having a good laugh once in awhile. Some people are really funny. I mean that guy Benny is a scream! He's one of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV. He's got good music & pretty sexy girls & all kinds of sexy humor, ribald bawdy poetry, & he says the shocking things that I almost wish I had said! Ha, ha!
74. (MARIA: YOU EVEN LIKED THE LITTLE PROGRAMS ON HERBS AND COOKING AND THE FARMING PROGRAM.) That was one of the most practical programs you could ever see on all different kinds of herbs & how to use them in cooking or perfuming. I never thought I'd ever be fascinated with a cooking show, of all things! She was a cute little plump woman cook, & she made it so simple & so interesting that I was absolutely fascinated by that woman's program! It was all about how to use herbs in cooking, & it really was fascinating & was something practical.--Also how to grow them in your garden, as well as how to use them in your cooking, how to use them in your pillows or your sachets & things like that to sleep on at night, & it was fascinating! It was something practical like my Grandmother would have taught. But how many things do you get taught like that nowadays, that are down-home & down-to-earth & of practical use to any Family?--Very few!
75. (MARIA: THE LITTLE SHOW ON FARMING: You know how they took us through the little house & how he showed how he was using solar heat. He even showed their little solar stove.) Yes of course, that's very practical: Something about using solar energy & solar heating--anything that's genuine factual information about something that's important. But I don't really care about the personal love life of the grey-green grasshopper. It doesn't affect me as far as I know. But it is something about God's Creation, so if it's interesting enough & on the children's level, with enough action in it or it's fun to watch it & it's all right for the children, fine!--Those are about God's funny little creations, & some of them are amazing! Even some of that microbe life, the underworld & all those worms & those bugs that live underground. That's absolutely amazing, the things that God has made! So it's got to be either real life or true-to-life, or we don't care to see it.
76. (MARIA: OCCASIONALLY THERE'RE SPORTS PROGRAMS like the "Fastnet Race" which you said you enjoyed, & the hang-gliding that you said was thrilling.) I think the "Fastnet Race" was important because it showed it was a terrible calamity & how a lot of people died & there were all kinds of wrecks! It was a very outstanding bit of history or news, & it was interesting to see them analyze it, why it happened & what was wrong with the boats & all the rest of it. I mean, it was just something that happened to be interesting to me. I mean, it might be a lot of isolated odd things like that might only be interesting to a few people, but not everybody has to see every video we circulate.
77. HANG-GLIDING IS THRILLING!--MAN HIMSELF HAS FINALLY ACTUALLY LEARNED TO FLY! That's what I call real flying! And I thought that one on the autogyros was absolutely fascinating, because I think that's probably going to become the personal air travel of the future, if we have any future! They had those things when I was a kid, but they totally abandoned them for the helicopter, & I never knew the difference until I saw that picture, that there is a difference between the autogyro & the helicopter. The helicopter is entirely different. It's manipulated by a tail fin & a tail motor, a tail propeller, & its big whirling propeller up top that's motor-driven, contrary to the autogyro.
78. THE AUTOGYRO IS JUST WHAT IT SAYS: IT WHIRLS AROUND AUTOMATICALLY! It is a little tiny man-size plane almost as small as a hang-glider. Did you see it? You sit in this little tiny bucket seat, & it's just got one propeller. It's propeller driven, but this big fan blade up above the propeller lifts it when the fan blade starts twirling, & it has more lift than the wings of an airplane! In fact they have to be careful that they don't go too fast & have too much lift or they go straight up! The pilot manipulates it & drives it a lot like hang-gliding. I think autogyros are apparently going to come back into their own again, if given time.
79. IT IS A REAL SKILL TO LEARN HOW TO FLY ONE. This guy has made dozens of them & is trying to interest the governments & other organizations into reviving the autogyro, that it is a really important flying machine, a totally different flying machine from the helicopter. The great big blade above is not motor-driven & that is not what drives it, but it's propeller driven by a regular normal airplane propeller with a pusher motor, usually behind the pilot, & it just starts up at such a speed that the large blade on top begins to rotate.
80. IT'S THE SAME PRINCIPLE AS THOSE LITTLE TOY PROPELLER BLADES THAT WE KIDS USED TO BUY, little toy twisted blades on spiral piece of wire, a little fan blade you stuck on the spiral piece of wire through the middle of it, & it had a little tube-shaped slide down here so that you went "whissssh," like that, & the little propeller went flying up into the air almost like a boomerang or a Frisbee! The same with the autogyro, it is the wind current & the motion which causes it to go up, & it will never drop like rock like the helicopters do when their motor fails! It can glide to a landing even when the motor fails!
81. BUT WHEN A HELICOPTER MOTOR FAILS, IT JUST DROPS LIKE A ROCK & NEARLY ALWAYS KILLS EVERYBODY! Whereas you can glide an autogyro into what they call a "dead-stick" landing, even if the motor fails. You can still glide it down to a soft landing. They can also be made so small, a tiny little thing, almost looks like a toy! They could be useful too because they can be made so that they can glide like that into an area absolutely soundless, even in warfare or espionage, etc. They can also fly up very high. He's flown it up about 30,000 feet or so, motor-driven, & then it can glide down to your target area completely soundless! All that's very interesting, fascinating! Some of these developments of science that are apt to affect our lives are tremendously important.
82. WHEN I FIRST HEARD ABOUT VIDEOS I THOUGHT, "WHAT A WONDERFUL TOOL FOR US & OUR CHILDREN!" Some are scattered in all kinds of countries with other languages & get no television or anything in our own languages. What a wonderful educational tool Videos could be! We can be selective & we can view it at out own convenience & on our own time. We don't have to go out & risk our lives on the highways to go to some cinema. We can select educational films & it can be a marvellous educational medium for our children & for us, informational, really profitable, really edifying, really important.
83. WELL, THEN THERE'S ANOTHER THING THAT IS VERY INTERESTING: OLD NEWSREELS!--The old newsreels of some famous events & people. They're kind of jerky & hurry around like the Keystone Cops, but at least it's very interesting to see the actual real people, to see those actual Presidents & World leaders & interesting characters in real life in actual movies! Those things are priceless, they're fascinating! I love to watch them!
84. IT'S EVEN INTERESTING TO WATCH THOSE WAR SERIES, LIKE THE HORRORS OF THE WORLD WARS! At least you're seeing reality & history, & you can kind of sense & feel what it was like, & there must be something we can learn from real life & history. The Lord said about the Jews, that He let those things in the Bible happen to them to be lesson to us for our profit. So if we're not supposed to learn from history, then what good is it? We're supposed to know history & learn from history. That's why we have the Bible, both the Old & New Testaments. Most of it is historical, & we're supposed to learn some kind of lessons from it.
85. I'LL ADMIT THAT IN SOME WAYS THE PRINTED WORD IS SAFER & we can perfect it more, edit & secure it & all that. But I wonder sometimes if that's enough? I wonder sometimes if they'd really heard or seen it, would it have had more effect? Radio & television certainly seem to have more effect on people, & movies. How many people read books today? How many of this younger generation are going to be absorbed in reading books? In the United States most of them can't even read! We've got a television generation coming up, a movie-minded bunch for which reading is going to go out of style like hieroglyphics! They've got computers now too, so kids don't even have to learn mathematics! Why should they?--Machines can do everything for them!
86. WHY READ BOOKS WHEN YOU CAN WATCH MOVIES?--THAT'S THE WAY I FEEL! That's the way I felt out on the road when I had lots of chance every night to go to a movie. Why sit in a lonely hotel room wading through the laborious difficult task of trying to read a book when I could see the whole thing summed up for me, visualized & dramatized in a two-hour nutshell, & save me all that hard work & eyestrain! So are videos good for anything or not? Do they have any advantage or don't they? I think they do!--I certainly enjoy them when I'm too tired to do anything else!--How about you? P.S.: How about some pretty sexy girly movies too?--Not hard porn, but artistic nudity & romantic sex!--OK?--Tks! GBY! ILY!
87. (HE'S DOING MUCH BETTER NOW, GBH! We hope you WS Units are enjoyin'm! Sorry we can't send'm around to all of you but it's against the video rules!--Gotta keep'm in the Family!--Ha!--But love can find a way!--Amen? PTL! GBYAKY enjoying videos!)
________________________________________________
REACTION TO DAD'S REBUKE RE: VIDEO FILMS--Thaddeus and Sarah
[EDITED: "--From those who supply our educational videos."]
15th Jan. 81
Dearest Dad and Maria,
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR LOVE AND YOUR LOVE AND CONCERN FOR BOTH US AND THE WHOLE FAMILY. We are really thankful for a true father in the Lord who loves us enough to correct us in the power and Spirit of the Lord.
ALTHOUGH PETER AND MARIA TRIED TO TAKE THE BLAME, WE FEEL VERY RESPONSIBLE for our mistakes, since we could have watched the films we were uncertain of. Indeed, on many occasions the Lord did give us the checks to watch, but we didn't take our responsibilities seriously enough--in fact we didn't even fully recognise our responsibility to act as a filter so that only the material meeting the criteria of Phil.4:8 was recorded.
WE COULD MAKE ALL KINDS OF EXCUSES but the tapes tell their own tale, and it is a salutary lesson to us of the need we have to stay in the Spirit and not follow our own minds. We do apologize for not heeding the Lord's Spirit, and we would like to share some of the lessons that we have learnt from reading your Letter.
FIRSTLY, WE NEED TO TAKE SERIOUSLY AND SOBERLY OUR RESPONSIBILITY to feed the Family with the right kind of food. Here we are dealing with perhaps the most powerful medium of our time--if not of all time, a medium which moves people and which influences their minds, for good or for evil. It is a powerful propaganda machine which moulds people's thoughts, either dulling their senses or inspiring them to action. It can be an amusement or a warning beacon, a distraction or a guide. As such, it must be viewed prayerfully so that only that which meets these criteria so clearly laid down in your Letter, will get through to affect the minds and hearts of our Family from the most impressionable child to the Prophet himself.
IT IS OUR MINISTRY TO SORT THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF so that the good grain can be saved to be a blessing and inspiration to those who would never otherwise see it, and for a time when such good wholesome food is no longer broadcast as the Enemy strengthens his grip over the Media.
WE NEED TO JUDGE THE SPIRIT OF THE FILMS NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE CAST IS. Over this holiday period, we have been watching films with a new light. Many times, despite a famous actor or cast, the overall film had a very dark spirit, and would not leave us inspired. Some, although having almost escaped our eye in the Programme Guide, turned out to be jewels.
REVIEWING YOUR LETTER SHOWED US YOU LIKE TO SEE FILMS ABOUT PEOPLE--those that made it, those with a story to tell, a lesson to share, a moral to change lives, those whose actions in some way changed the world--their world so that by taking heed to them, we, too, can affect the world we live in. Then there are the films about the places--to inspire us with the need to GO, to jerk us out of our rut and our burnt-out fields to seek pastures new.
VIDEO IS A PERFECT MEDIUM FOR EDUCATION. The TV has a magnetic hold on young and old. There are many good films catering for the needs of children and adults, teaching about the wonderful world the Lord has created. Learning about life is so much easier when it is presented alive on film.
AS YOU SAID, DAD, "God's Word and Man's reaction to it decide the course of world events." Who knows how much the Lord can use these films as His training course for us. You said that teachers are a shortcut; well, time is short and we need to learn so much, and the video provides a means to do it.
THERE MUST BE A PURPOSE TO OUR VIEWING rather than just watching to pass the time away. So many of the films on television are there to distract people from the real world--and for us to waste our precious Family's time with such films is to fall ourselves into the Devil's dreamland world of fantasy and make-believe, where nothing is real, there are no absolutes and our time is just wasted away. If the Devil can't get you to quit, perhaps he can just distract you, while the souls slip away.
MAY THE LORD FORGIVE US FOR OUR NEGLECT. Your Godly anger, so full of love and concern for your children's welfare, has really woken us up to the Devil's devices and subtlety. We love you so much and pray that the whole Family will benefit from the lessons, and we look forward to the day when we can be fed the pure water of the Word through the mouth of His Prophet on Video.
Your loving children,
Thaddeus and Sarah
Written by Thaddeus
[EDITED: "PTL! GBY!--Tks for taking my advice so well & patiently. Your response is excellent & your letter beautiful enough for the FN, so here it is! We can't expect your Videos to be perfect since you don't make'm but I'm sure they would if you could! Nevertheless, I'm sure the Lord is going to make'm a blessing to our families, particularly in the visual education of our children--& even ourselves! PTL!--Tks & GBY for showing such a wonderful spirit & doing such a "good & faithful" job! Keep'm rollin'! WLY!--Dad"]
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
