Brett McCracken is the senior editor and director of communications at The Gospel Coalition and an elder at Southlands Church. He released his ‘Best movies of 2022’ and unsurprisingly, at least one of the films is full of graphic sex and nudity.
Last year his top 10 movies featured many that were rated ‘R’ for language, violence, and frequently for scenes of sex and nudity. Then he released his top 20 TV shows, and they were also full of sex and nudity, including graphic scenes of homosexuality. He would later suggest that watching this sinful content makes him better at evangelizing.
McCracken says these are movies that don’t “confuse the difference between having something to say and telling audiences what to think” and are “artistically excellent.” He notes:
“Don’t take my commendations as wholesale endorsements of the content. Just because I loved a film doesn’t mean I loved everything in it, and a “best” movie doesn’t mean an appropriate movie for all audiences. Though the films highlighted below are all in some way edifying—depicting goodness, truth, or beauty in ways Christian viewers can celebrate—a few are rated R and should especially be viewed with caution and discernment.
Though many on his list are problematic, like the R-rated TÁR where the main character strip down for a bath and there is full frontal nudity, according to IMDB, the primary offender is the pornographic Norwegian film The Worst Person in the World.
This movie is rated R or 18+ in most countries for graphic sex and nudity throughout. Common Sense Media reveals that the film “follows the life of twentysomething Julie (Renate Reinsve) as she navigates her way through life and various relationships. It deals with adult themes and sexual acts — both intercourse and oral sex — are portrayed on-screen, including full-frontal nudity.”
Kids in Mind has more details. Here is a sampling. Viewer discretion is advised.
After a woman breaks up with a man, they kiss passionately on a sofa, they move to the floor where the man removes the woman’s shorts and underwear (we see her bare legs, hip and the side of her buttock) and performs oral sex on her; the man stands up later and we see him without pants (his genitals and bare legs are shown). A man and a woman kiss passionately and remove each other’s clothing (we see his bare chest and abdomen); he thrusts on top of her (we see pubic hair, bare buttocks and bare breasts).
A woman lifts her shirt to show her bare breasts to a man (we see her bare breasts); he’s working and looks at her but is not distracted. A woman looks at another woman’s Instagram photos and we see her striking suggestive poses that reveal her partially bare buttocks, cleavage, abdomen, back and legs.
A woman pulls down a man’s pants in bed, and bites and slaps his bare buttocks (we see his bare buttocks). A man and a woman sit in bed (sex is implied) and we see the woman’s bare breasts and the man’s bare shoulders, chest and legs. A man and a woman sleep in bed together (we see their bare shoulders and sex is implied).A woman is shown fully nude (we see her bare breasts, legs hips and abdomen) during a hallucination where she removes a soiled tampon and throws it in her father’s face.
During a hallucination, a woman imagines her fully nude body aged and we see her bare breasts, abdomen and buttocks as several people’s hands touch her; she also imagines an infant nursing from her breast.
This is “in some way edifying—depicting goodness, truth, or beauty in ways Christian viewers can celebrate?” How pathetic and meager.
We did not watch the film, but several reviewers noted that the first nude scene occurred 4 minutes into the movie. At that point, McCracken did not turn off but kept watching, knowing that this sort of content would likely appear later in the film, but was apparently so invested in this obscure foreign film so early in, stunned at how theologically thoughtful and entertaining it was, that he had to see it through.
It makes you wonder if McCracken himself used discernment when choosing what to watch. He has the same tools for content that we do, and either did not use them (undiscerning) or did and watched it anyways (perverted) because the thought of seeing a bunch of naked flesh under the guise of art was too irresistible to bear.
Why not turn it off? This is the SENIOR EDITOR OF THE GOSPEL COALITION WE’RE TALKING ABOUT!
And people wonder why we say this organization is not to be trusted.
McCracken is not the only Christian of note we’ve catalogued that has a propensity for watching filthy content. Other offenders include Jackie Hill Perry, Lecrae, Kyle J. Howard, and Ruslan,
