Currently In Production "Tribulation" from Cloud Ten Pictures. Stay tuned and we will notify you about the release date of this fascinating Movie and Story starring Gary Busey, Howie Mandel, Margot Kidder, Sherry Miller, Leigh Lewis and Nick Mancuso. Take a look at the production by clicking on the picture.

DECEIVED! - A Signal From Beyond. An Enemy Within - A Science Fiction Thriller at its best. Check out the Whole story of this soon to be released Movie. 

The Miracle Of The Cards - A Movie based on a true story - a miracle of faith and life.

Cloud Ten Pictures and Frank Capra Jr. present Burt Reynolds in Waterproof. True forgiveness and reconciliation sometimes comes about in ways we do not expect... click here to read more. Check out their special offer here... Special Offer.  

"Judgment" A dramatic thriller by Cloud Ten Productions - the people that brought you "Left Behind - The Movie" check out the Movie Trailer and Information concerning this Great New Movie!!! http://www.judgment-themovie.com/ 

Check this great book out! 

Fires of Darkness is a Christian novel by Tom Buford.  Through God's work in his life Tom overcame a major addiction to pornography and has dedicated his writing and www.firesofdarkness.com  to minister to that person who is struggling with the same addiction. "With all the drama of a John Grisham novel, the intricate detail of a Tom Clancy tale, and the unobtrusive, yet keen spiritual insights of a Frank Peretti story, Tom Buford has woven a fascinating yarn in FIRES OF DARKNESS. It will keep you turning the pages, anxiously awaiting the next surprise. You will be intrigued, challenged, and inspired by FIRES OF DARKNESS." 

Parents: Arbiters of
entertainment content by Jon E. Dougherty - 09/13/2000

Television Show 04/02/2001

Cap Data 1996 - 2002 on R-13 rated movies (02/20/2003)

On our page at <http://www.capalert.com/r-13> we have the R-13 data for 1996/7 through 2000. I just finished three days compiling the massive data for 2001 and 2002. What is revealed is not as I expected. Following is the text of the display graphic when the R-13 page is completed, which may not be until late next week:

• In 1996/7, 14.8% of PG-13 movies analyzed were R-13.

• In 1998, 26.3% were R-13.

• In 1999, 46.0% were R-13.

• In 2000, 67.9% were R-13.

• In 2001, 66.1% were R-13.

• In 2002, 64.5% were R-13.

This reveals that the percentage of R-13 movies in the PG-13 stratum has appeared to level off, biased around 66%. That should NOT give us any comfort because a full two-thirds of the PG-13 movies analyzed still earned scores equivalent to the scores earned by R-rated movies. So, about 66% of the entertainment diet of our 13 years olds is objectively equivalent to R-rated programming (especially in Impudence/Hate [most notably in foul language] and sexual programming revealed deeper in the R-13 data). Did you ever wonder why our kids are becoming so worldly without becoming wise?

There is something almost miraculous and not obvious to the viewer at 2000 where the slope sharply changes from approximately 45 degrees to a nearly flat but yet an ever-so-slight reversal of about 2% in each of 2001 and 2002. The sharp change began in 2001. We published our first R-13 finding in 2000. -?!?!?- The implication is just to delicious to be ignored but is probably just wishful thinking. We certainly have made a name for ourselves even in Hollywood ....... but the implication is probably just wishful thinking. But it is nice to think Jesus made some changes through us. Even if it is wishful thinking. Is that a sin?

More to come as the years go by.

In Service to His Little Ones through their Parents and Grandparents in His Name by His Word ------- Tom Carder CAP Ministry www.capalert.com A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Christian Ministry 100% Dependent on Donations/Funding

Special Announcement - May 5, 2001 - Thomas Carder

The CAP Ministry Reveals 68% Were "R-13"

In four years of an on-going study by the ChildCare Action Project:

Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP Ministry), mathematical evidence has been revealed about the moral decay of popular movies. Rock-solid evidence. "Rock-solid" because our investigations standards are the teachings and expectations of Jesus Christ ... and they never change. They are independent of the changing tides of common morality.

In 1994 and 1995 verification and validation of the comparative baseline database of the CAP analysis model was performed. With 100 being the highest possible score, movies earned the following CAP Final Scores consistently and reliably:

€ G: 100 to 87
€ PG: 86 to 68
€ PG-13: 67 to 55
€ R: 54 and below

"R-13" is a term coined by the CAP Ministry to describe a PG-13* movie which earns a CAP Final Score of 54 and below. Of the movies analyzed by the CAP Ministry in the recent four calendar years, the following percentages of PG-13 movies were "R-13":

1997: 14.8%
1998: 26.3%
1999: 46.0%
2000: 67.9%

Do you see a trend forming here?

Another way of thinking of "R-13" is a movie containing R-rated programming targeted at your 13-year old (and younger) kids. More could be offered to further describe "R-13" but confidence is high that our readers are quite capable of gathering the meaning.

In four years the percentage of R-13 movies more than quadrupled (an increase of 459%) which says in the year 2000 that 450% more of our 13 year old kids were fed R-rated programming than in 1997. Did you ever wonder why more and more kids younger and younger each year are becoming so worldly? Does the expression "stealing childhood from children" now have more definition for you?

It will be interesting to discover what 2001 has in store. What if the same has happened to PG movies over the same period? To G-rated movies? What about 2002 and the years after that? If adequate funding is offered, we'll let you know.

This discovery was made with absolutely no selectivity. On each of the movies analyzed the same analysis model was used using the same equations, the same data gathering methodology, the same investigation standards, even the same computer program in the same computer, all setting on the same desk and even done by the same investigator.

This is just one of the findings of the CAP Ministry regarding popular entertainment. Another finding is that sex, drugs and violence are NOT the most corruptive of the presences in movies. They take their toll, to be sure, but are not the real problem -- they are but spinoffs or by-products of the real problem. More on this and other findings later.

With a worldwide readership of more than 50,000 per month and trust enough in the CAP model for it to be incorporated in a textbook for the University of Oxford, London, in periodicals and professional newsletters, and enough trust in it to be endorsed by mainstream ministries plus uncountable parents and grandparents, CAP findings should be taken seriously.

Thomas A. Carder
President
ChildCare Action Project (CAP) Ministry
A nonprofit 501(c)(3) ministry
P. O. Box 177, Granbury, TX 76048-0177
cap@capalert.com
www.capalert.com

* "G", "PG", "PG-13" and "R" are registered marks of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
©CAP Ministry, 2001
 

Thomas Carder - 01/04/2001

The results are in.  The percentage of PG-13 movies which earned CAP scores equivalent to R-rated movies has been calculated.  To refresh:

During verification/validation of the CAP analysis model comparative baseline database of movies in 1994/5:

G-rated movies earned CAP scores from 100 to 87
PG movies earned 86 to 68
PG-13 earned 67 to 55
R  earned 54 and below

"R-13" movies are PG-13 movies which earned CAP scores of 54 and less.

In 1995/6/7 we analyzed 27 PG-13 movies and 14.8% were R-13
In 1998, of 19 PG-13 movies 26.3% were R-13
In 1999, of 50 PG-13 movies 46.0% were R-13
In 2000, of the 129 movies we analyzed, 53 were PG-13.  Of the 53 PG-13 movies
67.9% were R-13.

In four years the percentage of R-13 movies more than quadrupled (an increase of 459%).  I guess that says that in 2000 more than 450% more of our 13 year olds than in 1995 were fed R-rated programming.  Ever wonder why more and more kids younger and younger each year are becoming so worldly?  Does the expression "stealing childhood from children" now have more definition for you?

The full report is available at <http://www.capalert.com/r-13.htm>.

It will be interesting to discover what 2001 has in store.  Now I wonder what has happened to PG movies over the same period.  G?  I'll let you know. Eventually.  Prayerfully.
--
Always in Jesus' name.
--
Thomas A. Carder
ChildCare Action Project (CAP): Christian Analysis of American Culture
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit Christian Ministry
Email: mailto:cap@capalert.com
Website Address: http://www.capalert.com/
-------
Dedicated to investigating and reporting on the impact of the American culture on the integrity, self respect, and coping skills of youth, and inherently on family values and unity, using the teachings of Jesus as Investigation Standards.

TV  Viewing and Your Family:

Just an Hour of TV a Day Leads to Violence - Study

Updated 10:12 AM ET March 28, 2002

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Teen-agers who watch more than an hour of television a day are much more likely to become violent than the rare adolescent who watches less, researchers reported on Thursday.

One of the most definitive studies yet to link watching television with violent behavior finds both men and women are affected by violent programs on television -- but teen-aged boys are especially at risk.

``We saw the jump was between less than one hour and more than one hour a day. There was a four-fold increase,'' Jeffrey Johnson of Columbia University in New York, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

His advice: ``Parents should try not to let children watch more than one hour a day on the average.''

Johnson, a psychiatric epidemiologist who studies patterns of behavior, said 60 percent of TV programming contained violence.

An average hour of television portrays three to five violent acts, the American Psychological Association says.

Johnson's team tracked 707 children, most of them white and Catholic, who took part in a study in upstate New York.

The children, aged between 1 and 10 when the 17-year study started, were interviewed several times. The researchers also checked state and federal arrest records.

WATCHING FOR THE WRONG REASONS

The link between watching television and behaving violently was clear even after the researchers accounted for other factors such as childhood neglect, low family income, or a psychiatric disorder during adolescence.

Researchers said that in some families these factors did in fact lead to more television watching.

``Childhood neglect, growing up in an unsafe neighborhood, low family income, low parental education, and psychiatric disorders were significantly associated with time spent watching television at mean age 14 and with aggressive behavior reported at mean age 16 or 22,'' they wrote.

The study, published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, found that 5.7 percent of the adolescents who watched less than one hour of television committed aggressive acts against other people in later years, as compared to 22.5 percent of those who watched between one and three hours a day.

And 28.8 percent of those who watched three or more hours of television daily committed aggressive acts. Broken down by sex, this equaled 45 percent of males and 12.7 percent of females.

Violent acts by males included assault and fighting that led to injuries, while violent behavior by young women included robbery and threats to injure someone.

Johnson said several mechanisms are at work. ``One of the most important one is the tendency to imitate behavior that people see on TV,'' he said.

``We are social beings and we tend to want to try out things that we see other people doing, especially if we see the person rewarded for what they did or portrayed as a hero for it.''

Johnson said many studies had shown that people simply become inured to violence when they see a lot of it -- either in real life or on television.

``It has been shown that viewing media violence leads to a desensitization effect,'' he said. ``The more violence that they see, the less negative, the more normal, it seems to them.''

Perhaps people who watch lots of television lose their social skills, Johnson said, or never develop them.

``So when they get into a conflict with somebody else, whether it is road rage, whatever the situation might be ... they may not be able to work their way out of it gracefully. They may resort to something like verbal aggression and they may even start throwing verbal punches because they don't know what else to do,'' he said.

Parents v. Television -- Seven Steps to Sure Victory

In light of the trends, some parents are simply removing television from their homes. While that seems the logical solution, it does not protect their children from a culture saturated in television’s amoral programming. And many parents are not prepared to take such a drastic step. Still, there are strategies a conscientious family can use to gain control over television. Make a game of it.

1. Define the playing field. Parents who truly want to conquer TV’s influence over their children should reduce the total number of operating TV sets in the home to one.

Then locate it in a place where parents can most easily monitor the child’s TV habits. Some parents find that locating the television in a room that’s not easily accessible discourages the whole family from watching much TV.

2. Have a game plan. Determine the amount of time you as a parent can spend watching TV each week. Then, sit down with the family and consult programming schedules to determine ahead of time what shows you’ll watch together during the coming week. Turn the TV on for those shows only, and for nothing else.

3. Have a coach present before the game begins. Children, including young teens, should not watch TV without a mature adult present. It is imperative that parents know exactly what their children are watching. Children, for the most part, have passively absorbed many of the media’s values without adequate guidance to develop critical skills for evaluating what they see and hear.

4. Develop the skills of the game. Watching TV with their children, parents can raise issues and guide discussion about the show’s content. During the program, make notes regarding questions to discuss. For example:

• Do characters use language we don’t approve of?

• What did characters do that showed their honesty or dishonesty? What were the consequences?

• Did any character display selfishness? What was the end result?

• Were there any activities that conflict with our Christian faith?

• What moral values were taught or implied?

Use questions that relate to your children’s lives and maturity levels. Encourage children to develop a set of questions or a checklist for the family to use in evaluating programs. One way to develop critical viewing skills is to videotape programs you want to watch. Then you can pause for discussion at appropriate points as you watch the program.

5. Observe the three-strikes-and-you’re-out rule. When a program offends your family’s Christian values (profanity, crude language, illicit sex, etc.), turn it off immediately. Then discuss why you did so. Use questions to encourage children to reach their own conclusions.

Use a three-strikes rule to rate a series overall. For example, if “Program A” has to be turned off this week because of bad language, that’s strike one. If you watch again in two weeks and it has to be turned off because of sexual content, that’s strike two. When it gets the third strike, it’s permanently off the family’s viewing list.

6. Substitute liberally. Provide fun options -- go for ice cream, watch a family video, do a good deed for a neighbor, go to the park, buy a new board game or jigsaw puzzle, or browse at the bookstore. It is important to have some plans in place before tackling the task. Get ideas from your children for activities to replace the hours you’ll gain as TV becomes less and less a part of family life.

7. Review the game and develop strategies. As you reflect on your new relationship to the TV set, urge your children to identify ways to take a stand on issues. Be a good role model for them in this regard.

Write letters of concern to the networks and advertisers about the influence of television. Write letters of thanks for good programs. Write letters to the editor of your local paper dealing with television and other moral issues. Encourage your children to do the same.

As you learn to prevent television from dominating your family life, you will find yourselves growing closer as a family. Furthermore, your values will become a more integral part of daily living, and your children will be learning to make sound moral judgments in all areas of life. It demands time and discipline, but it’s worth the commitment to plant your family on a firm Christian foundation.

Randall Murphree is Editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. He can be contacted at randall@afa.net.