Quest for purity

I probably saw the film Doctor Zhivago half a dozen times. The last was with my late husband. As we were exiting the college theater, I fairly swooned to him, "Wasn't that beautiful!" He replied tersely, "It was about adultery."

Years later, I am thinking that comment over. I, who once upon a time never met a movie I wouldn't watch, am now closer to the hour when I will meet my Maker. He is the One who made the following statements:

"Purify your hearts" (James 4:8).

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: . . . to keep oneself unstained from the world" (James 1:27).

"Let us cleans ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1).

"Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with the everlasting burnings? He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from looking on evil . . ." (Isaiah 33:14-15).

Yesterday's X-rated movies are today's R-rated, and so on, in a stampede to the cultural bottom. And I have pretty much slid down the briar path along with everyone else. But the remarkable thing about Doctor Zhivago-a movie that did more injury to my soul than any other movie I have ever seen-is that it showed no explicit sex. So what shall I say then, in my newfound quest for purity? If I make myself an arbitrary rule to avoid all films below a PG-13 score, that net doesn't catch the 1965 film starring Omar Shariff and Julie Christie that featured their illicit romance on the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. Any suggestions, reader?

Well, I guess I can always watch Quiz Show over and over.

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