Recently Eileen and I sat down and watched “Salmon Fishing In Yemen”.
It is a likeable, if quirky, movie, with two likeable, if quirky, characters: Dr. Alfred (“Fred”) Jones, a “bookish English fish expert”; and Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, an employee of a wealthy sheikh’s English land holding firm.

The film is the (fictional) story of a fabulously wealthy, salmon-loving, fly-fishing sheikh wanting to introduce salmon fishing to the arid country of Yemen on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
He plans to do this by transplanting 10,000 Scottish salmon there, a plan which is “fundamentally unfeasible” according to Fred. Yet, as you get to know the sheik and his motive to help his countrymen, you can’t help wanting the plan to succeed.

Though the film is pleasant in its own way, and more restrained than many other movies when it comes to sexual references and bad language, yet what there was prevents me from generally recommending it.
Focus on the Family has a comprehensive review of the movie on its “Plugged In” website. (I acknowledge that some of what I say here is taken directly from that review.)

But what I found most disturbing is the way I found myself wanting Fred and Harriet to end up together. You know they will (after all, it is another of the Hollywood genre “odd-couple” movies); and by the end it is certain.
You want to see them end up together because, despite their oddness, they are both likeable and seem to be so good for each other.

Also, you begin to sympathise with Fred in his odd ways as (it is at least implied) he has Asperger’s: in his own endearing, Austenesque way he continually refers to Harriet as “Miss Chetwode-Talbot”.
But he also obviously cares for her as a fellow human being and in her season of grief, in a platonic effort to cheer her up, he takes her food and generally seeks to encourage her.

But – and here’s the rub – each is already bound by vows formerly made to others.
Harriet promised to wait for her boyfriend, a soldier who was sent off to fight in Afghanistan. But now he has gone missing in action and, though it was never officially stated, she assumes he is dead – hence her grief. But he isn’t dead, and yes, he does turn up again.
Under the circumstances, one can understand why Harriet might feel she is no longer bound by her promise.

Fred, on the other hand, is married. He is married to Mary who is married to her job, and who sees her wifely conjugal duty as, well, just a duty.
So now, we feel sorry for Fred, and begin to think he deserves a break – a break like Harriet.
Yes even when, later, Mary wants to give it another go, we think, “No, you had your chance.” So that, by the end of the movie, you are happy that Fred and Harriet are going to get together.

It is at this point that you may realise you have been ambushed.
Once again the culture has conformed you to reshape your thinking. So that you now think, even if there are no Biblical grounds to end such a marriage, sometimes it just has to be: here is a couple who deserve the happiness they have found in each other.

The message isn’t shouted in your face. It is not: “Adultery is justified” (nothing physical takes place between Fred and Harriet in the movie); or: “Divorce is good.”
It simply wears you down to where you begin to doubt that there is an absolute moral good or, at least, it doesn’t apply in this case. You start to make unbiblical exceptions.
But this is the agenda of the culture in which we live – and we need to be aware of it.

At times we have visited homes around where our church is, to give opportunity to converse with people there about the gospel.
I remember one house I visited. They were an older couple. They told how they used to go to church; they used to believe what was in the Bible. But then their son had “come out” and entered into a homosexual relationship. Over time they became much more accepting of such behaviour; I mean, how could they condemn their own son when he had entered into a “loving relationship”?
I have since come across a number of similar, almost identical, cases like this.

This is how our culture works.
We know what the Bible says; we believe it is true.
But then we come up against a situation that makes it hard for us to believe that God’s teaching could really apply “in these circumstances” – and we begin to make exceptions.

I am not talking about learning to apply the Scriptures in a thoughtful and compassionate way; or about making allowances where the Bible itself would have us make allowances. See, eg. Matt 12:3-6.
But I am talking about the way the culture in which we live plays the devil’s advocate, and seeks to ambush us and wear us down with: “Has God really said…?” (Gen 3:1).

As in the Garden, Satan’s most effective weapon is not full-frontal attack, but seduction. He insinuates himself and his values into our lives by subtlety. “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field…”
Beware “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” 2 Cor 2:11

We are in a battle:

“Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”   Eph 6:10-13

We cannot hope to overcome unless we:

• gird our waist with truth,
• put on the breastplate of righteousness,
• shoe our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace
• take the shield of faith with which we will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one
• take the helmet of salvation,
• take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God
• pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.   Eph 6:14-17

And yes, the world will think you strange if you are different:

We have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 1 Pet 4:3-4

I don’t mean to tell every Christian which movies they can, or cannot, watch. As Tim Challies has remarked: “Movies can be a good part of life. They can be enjoyable and can help us relax and can help us enjoy the world that God has made.”
But he also notes how :

“One of Satan’s great tricks is to get Christians to allow so much entertainment. To think that we have the right to entertainment. That it’s a necessary part of being human to have three or four hours of entertainment a day.
And then to allow ugly messaging into our hearts, into our lives, into our families through that entertainment. (emphasis mine)…
We just need to be so, so careful that we’re not compromising in our entertainment, that we’re not allowing Satan a subtle little foot hold into our lives, into our hearts, into our minds and slowly changing us just through our entertainment.”

Kevin DeYoung (The Hole in Our Holiness) sounds a similar note of caution:

“I know it’s easy to be overly dogmatic when talking about matters the Bible doesn’t directly address, like movies and music, or dating and dress. We have to allow that good Christians will make different choices for themselves. I don’t want to minimize the reality of Christian liberty and the role of the conscience. But if you are in Christ, please consider whether your conscience is functioning as well as it ought.”

I know I must continually examine my own conscience in this regard. I don’t pretend to have got there yet. “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” Phil 3:12-14
But I do have to be daily on guard against imbibing the values of the world around me. Time and again I am convicted of my own failures in this area, and the need to flee again to Christ, my Saviour.

When it comes to matters like “movies and music, or dating and dress” it is not just the more obvious concerns that we need to think through, eg. it is not just a matter of sex, violence and language in movies and music.
It is also important to think through: “How is this medium subtly affecting how I think? What values is it seeking to inculcate?”
We need to be deliberate in our thinking.
We need to engage our minds.

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Pet 4:13-15

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Rom 12:2