Hollywood Strikes Back Against Christian Content Before Turning Other Cheek

The Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) film-ratings were instituted on November 1, 1968, after complaints by conservative religious groups regarding the sexual, violent, and profanity content of films in American theaters.

In an apparent counter attack, the MPAA struck back by instituting a policy of using statements of faith or religious content as a consideration to increase a film's rating to PG or even higher. A recent controversy was triggered when the MPAA established a PG rating for Sony Provident Film's Facing the Giants in which a coach assures a player that "following Jesus Christ is a decision that everyone makes for himself, but, if he accepts Christ, it will change his life."

After some soul searching, Joan Graves, the chairman of the MPAA's ratings board advised that religious content would no longer be considered in establishing a film's rating. She also clarified that the PG rating had nothing to do with its religious content in the first place and was actually based on a conversation in the film referring to infertility.

Trivia of Note:

• The "X" or "XXX ratings were never officially sanctioned or trademarked by the MPAA. The X rating is often self-applied by pornographers for business reasons and has become the de facto designation for pornography.
• The first, widely-distributed PG-13 movie was Red Dawn (1984), followed by Dreamscape(1984), and The Flamingo Kid (1984), although The Flamingo Kid was the first film rated PG-13 by the MPAA.