There's a little more information about the ratings controversy surrounding FACING THE GIANTS. The story seems to have gotten started in a June 7 phone conversation between Kris Fuhr (vice president for marketing at Provident Films) and Joan Graves, persident of the MPAA ratings board.

According to Fuhr, she was told that the film was given a PG rating because it, “was heavily laden with messages from one religion and that this might offend people from other religions.”

Graves says that she told Fuhr that the rating was due to, "mature issues, e.g., depression, matters relating to pregnancy and sports-related violence."

The full story can be found at:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06062001.html

As I mentioned before, I think there is a lot of validity even to the comment reported by Fuhr. Most Christian parents wouldn't want their children to go into a movie they perceived as trying to persuade them to switch religions, and that consideration should run both ways.

In the light of Graves' comments the MPAA rating seems even more innocuous. It takes a lot of distortion to see this as a sinister anti-Christian plot out of Hollywood.

The difficulty with the "Culture Wars" is that both sides often express an embattled mentality. When you're certain that someone out there is trying to do you in you are less inclined to be charitible (or even rational) when you hear reports like this. I hope that people can step back a bit and see that most of the "battles" between Christians and non-Christians in the US in the last few years are hype and political posturing.

I hope we can all find the decency and common sense not to fight a 'war' that has so little basis in reality.