Podcast Summary – The Briefing with Albert Mohler
Episode: Friday, November 21, 2025
Host: R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
Theme: Cultural Commentary from a Biblical Perspective

Episode Overview

In this episode, Dr. Albert Mohler provides a Christian worldview analysis of the intersection between entertainment and morality, focusing on recent revelations about motion picture rating criteria. He examines the implications for Christian families, discusses changes in children’s programming, addresses listener questions on artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in sermon preparation, considers the rise of “trigger warnings” applied to Scripture, and offers a pastoral response to a theological question about Judas’ repentance.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Entertainment and Morality: Motion Picture Ratings Exposed

Timestamps: [00:04]–[13:00]

• Entertainment Is Never Value Neutral: Mohler insists that Christians must recognize the intrinsic moral content of all entertainment. The choices parents make for themselves and their children carry real moral weight.
  • “We understand as Christians that this is never value neutral. We understand there is no neutral ground.” [00:13]
• The News – Motion Picture Association’s Rating Criteria Revealed:
  • The New York Times reported that, for the first time, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has publicly disclosed some of the logic and criteria behind its movie ratings.
  • Historically, an anonymous board of parents rates films based on what “a majority of American parents would” consider appropriate—an increasingly difficult and controversial task in a polarized culture.
• Subjectivity and Controversy:
  • Mohler describes the board as facing accusations of being both overly prudish and overly permissive:
    • “Some people see the board as prudish, that is too conservative. Others are saying that it's permissive, it's too liberal.” [01:57]
  • Criteria include context for nudity, violence, language, and themes like drug use. Mohler underscores the alarming subjectivity in these judgments.
  • Notably, the specifics—such as how many times a particular swear word is used—can be the difference between ratings.
  • He highlights that industry professionals know how to “play to the boundaries.”
• Risk & Parental Responsibilities:
  • Mohler warns that parents often underestimate what is allowed under certain ratings and should be more, not less, suspicious:
    • “I just want to tell parents, hey, wake up. You need to look at this. … If anything, you should be more suspicious than you ever knew.” [05:42]
  • The case of the film 8th Grade (intended for adolescents but given an R rating) exemplifies Hollywood’s tendency to push boundaries for attention and profit.
• Illogical Elements and Moral Insanity:
  • The rating system permits under-17s to attend R-rated movies with any adult, not necessarily a parent, which Mohler calls out as nonsensical and morally irresponsible.
    • “What logic does that make? Is that adult supposed to be a parent? No, it just says an adult. What kind of sense does that make?” [09:30]

2. The Failure and Futility of the Rating System

Timestamps: [11:00]–[13:00]

• Admission by MPA Leadership:
  • The current leader of the ratings board admits the guidelines aren’t “a hard and fast rulebook”; every case is nuanced and contextual.
    • Quoting her: “‘The beauty of the system is it's not a perfect science. And the frustrating part of the system is it's not a perfect science.’” [12:03]
  • Mohler’s assessment: “By the time you end the article, you begin to wonder, well, then what exactly is it? I think the answer is it's a fig leaf and little more.” [12:24]
• Christian Complicity and Awareness:
  • He urges Christian families and churches to recognize their role: if they take the system seriously, they risk complicity in its flaws.

3. Children’s Programming and the Pace of Entertainment

Timestamps: [13:00]–[17:00]

• Sesame Street’s “Refresh”:
  • USA Today reports Sesame Street is moving to Netflix with new, partly animated episodes and an explicit aim to slow down and quiet children’s programming.
  • Mohler applauds this, noting the dangers of fast, noisy, overstimulating entertainment that conditions children’s attention spans negatively for genuine learning or worship.
    • “It's just shocking to us how many parents just put a screen in front of a kid. ... but the one thing that shocks me about the programming itself is how loud it is, how noisy it is and how fast it is.” [14:55]
• Impacts on Attention Spans:
  • He connects the dots from overstimulation as children to challenges in church and school later:
    • “Do you ever wonder why the attention span of congregations gets shorter and shorter? I think a lot of it is because of entertainment that comes at them faster and faster.” [16:00]

4. Listener Questions: AI and Sermon Preparation

Timestamps: [17:00]–[25:00]

• AI and Preaching: Risks and Discernment
  • Listener #1 worries that AI will encourage sermons that preach “non-biblical doctrines.”
  • Mohler agrees, noting AI’s mass “scraping” of the internet poses dangers:
    • “What’s scraped up is sub-biblical, sub-orthodox, problematic in every way.” [20:45]
    • “Artificial intelligence ... can be a part of the background search ... When it turns generative in terms of creating the material, I think we have a huge problem, and I think we know it.” [25:00]
  • He warns: Preachers’ core task is to personally labor in the Word, not to delegate sermon creation to AI or any artificial “author.”
    • “It is the preaching of the word of God by the man of God, given that assignment to the congregation ... coming through his heart and his soul, not coming through the keyboard.” [24:30]
• AI as a Study Tool:
  • Listener #2 asks about the pros and cons of using AI for assembling study materials.
  • Mohler sees no major ethical concern in using AI as a search or sorting tool for background resources, akin to a search engine, as long as the preacher exercises critical discernment and does not allow AI to generate original sermon content.

5. Trigger Warnings and the Bible

Timestamps: [25:00]–[29:00]

• University Assigns Trigger Warnings to Scripture:
  • A UK university was reported to give “trigger warnings” before some biblical texts.
  • Mohler deconstructs the logic of “trigger warnings,” noting they:
    • Originate from a reasonable desire (helping trauma survivors) but are illogical and inconsistently applied.
    • Are increasingly tinged with progressive ideology and are being used to stigmatize Christian Scripture itself in academic settings.
  • On Scripture’s approach:
    • “The Scripture is never salacious, but it is also not evasive. It tells us what sin looks like, the forms that sin takes.” [27:00]
  • Mohler warns of the trend toward censoring gospel proclamation:
    • “We are not far from some of these liberal regimes declaring that the preaching of the Gospel needs to be accompanied by a trigger warning. And of course that's just a step from saying it shouldn't be permitted speech.” [28:30]
  • He contrasts U.S. First Amendment protections with Europe and Canada, where hate speech laws threaten religious expression.

6. Did Judas Repent? A Theological Question from a Child

Timestamps: [29:00]–[32:00]

• The Biblical Record on Judas:
  • A nine-year-old listener asks if Judas repented before his death.
  • Mohler answers plainly:
    • “There is no biblical evidence whatsoever that Judas repented. There's absolutely zero evidence that he repented.” [30:30]
  • He instructs: Let the Bible speak for itself. Judas serves as a warning to all:
    • “The very clear teaching in the New Testament is don't be Judas. ... we must repent of our sins and come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And without that, there is absolutely no hope.” [31:30]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Entertainment:
  • "We are making moral judgments and we are taking moral acts." [00:10]
• On the MPA Ratings System:
  • “If anything, you should be more suspicious than you ever knew.” [05:42]
  • “It all depends on the context. … The answer is it's a fig leaf and little more.” [12:13–12:24]
• On Children’s Programming:
  • “A sermon can appear to be just a very slow delivery of words, because, after all, it is a delivery of words. … They're having trouble processing slow and normal because they're now conditioned to fast, loud, and flashy.” [16:35–17:05]
• On AI in Sermon Preparation:
  • “AI has no place between the Preacher and the congregation, none.” [24:30]
• On Trigger Warnings and Scripture:
  • “The Scripture is never salacious, but it is also not evasive.” [27:00]
• On Judas’ Repentance:
  • “There is no biblical evidence whatsoever that Judas repented.” [30:30]
  • “The very clear teaching in the New Testament is don’t be Judas.” [31:30]

Conclusion

Dr. Mohler closes with a call for vigilance, discernment, and faithfulness as Christians engage with entertainment, technology, and culture. He emphasizes the need for biblically grounded decision-making, both at home and in the church, and reminds listeners of the constant challenges to Christian faith and virtue in today’s society.

For further resources and Mohler’s Christmas devotional, listeners are directed to his website.