Kiefer Sutherland signed on to a Christian film with an R-rating. Cool.

Christians are often of a mixed mind when it comes to storytelling. Since Christians are, more often than not, conservative in nature and uncomfortable with media violence and sex, there is an inclination to create artistic works free of those elements. There's nothing wrong that, but I think it is severely limiting to place these films in magical worlds where cursing, sex, and violence don't exist and where Good People(tm) never do them. It often creates and artifice that the world can be a nice place if you want it to be and leaves its viewers, whom live in the real world, with a sense of disconnect from the work.

Good people do things that are wrong. Now you don't want to say that it's okay that they do, but to deny the reality of the sinning nature of man is to alienate the viewer from the message. To tell people that if you just believe in the Jesus's Salvation you can do no wrong eventually leads to the dissonance between the actions and beliefs of people that believe but are not perfect. If a person drops a dictionary on their bare foot, most are not likely to say "golly-gee-willikers." My father has not, as far as I can remember, ever cussed. My mother has. Different people, even good different people, behave differently. They speak different languages. To have everyone in an artistic work speak the same language interrupts the sense of reality that religious works are supposed to depict.

A long time ago a group of us went to see "While You Were Sleeping" in the movie theaters. When we left, someone commented "I don't think I heard a single cussword in that movie." Since it was a romantic comedy the dialogue mostly dealt with a family talking to each other, that's appropriate. There are times when that is the case and it's a refreshing change of pace. On the other hand, if you're dealing with a Christian story in which there is a drunk man swaggering about, do you really want him saying "dag nabbit?"

A large number of heroes in Christian works probably are not the types to cuss. On the other hand, they will be dealing with those whose type it is. Deal with the characters realistically.

In the case of the Sutherland film, To End All Wars, there will probably be a lot of violence. A lot of conservatives deplore the violence in movies, but this is one case where it is wholly appropriate (the main characters are POWs). Context is important. Several years back a major news network showed Schindler's List, which includes nudity and violence. A conservative congressman denounced the showing of such things on network television and many probably felt the same way. The congressman ended up backing down, in large part, because the violence and nudity were shown in context and were not gratuitous. Violence itself in film is not bad, as many war movies demonstrate. The problem is violence without a moral context. When the killing is done tastefully by the villain or justifiably by the hero, it shouldn't raise the ire that it often does. Putting them all in the same category does not make them look worse, rather it makes the violent productions where immoral violence occurs appear more harmless.

It also creates an even larger disconnect between Christian works and popular entertainment that alienates much of the potential audience, leaving the film to merely be preaching to the choir. Another example that comes to mind is Christian Rock. My best friend was in a Christian rock band in college that eventually split up in part due to a perpetual debate as to whether enough of their songs were directly about Christ. Christian rock is presently at an apex on the music charts with bands like Creed preaching the Word. What makes bands like Creed so effective is that they sing about a multitude of things about life that marginal and non-Christians can relate to. Some might view this as marginalizing their faith and message, but to me it's making it tenable to a much larger audience who might never hear the message at all, "marginalized" or no.

I'd be remiss if I didn't disclose my bias on the matter. I am presently writing a novel right now with a number of religious themes. There aren't sexually explicit scenes, but it certainly does not evade the entire subject. There is also violence because it's rather integral to the plot. And there's cursing, because that's what normal people do.