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Rotten Tomatoes aggregates the opinions of professional film critics — a population that skews heavily secular, urban, progressive, and ideologically aligned with Hollywood's creative community. When these critics give a glowing review to content that mocks Christianity or glorifies sexual immorality, they are doing so from within a worldview that does not share Christian values. A 95% on Rotten Tomatoes tells you that secular critics loved a film — it tells you nothing about whether a Christian should watch it. The Godly Score was built specifically to fill this gap. It evaluates every title using 14 biblical signals drawn directly from Scripture, producing a 1-100 rating that answers the question Rotten Tomatoes cannot: how does this content align with Christian values?
Other Christian review resources like Plugged In (Focus on the Family) provide content warnings — noting profanity counts, sexual scenes, and violence levels. This is useful but incomplete. A film can have zero profanity and no sexual content and still be spiritually devastating — promoting occult worldviews, mocking Christianity, or presenting a thoroughly godless framework for human meaning. The Godly Score goes further by evaluating the spiritual framework of the content itself. Is Jesus referenced positively or negatively? Does the content present a redemptive arc? Does it glorify sin or present it with appropriate consequences? Does it promote spiritual darkness as appealing? Proverbs 4:23 says "above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." Guarding the heart requires understanding not just the surface content but the worldview being transmitted.
The algorithm weighs multiple factors: explicit content signals (profanity, sexual content, violence) are considered but do not dominate the score. Spiritual signals carry heavy weight — whether Jesus is honored or mocked, whether spiritual darkness is presented approvingly, and whether the content promotes virtues aligned with Galatians 5:22-23 — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. A film can score well despite dark content if that darkness serves a clearly redemptive purpose. A film can score poorly despite clean surface content if it promotes a fundamentally anti-Christian worldview.
The Godly Score works best as one tool in a broader discernment toolkit. Use it alongside Plugged In for detailed content breakdowns, IMDB for factual information, and your own prayerful judgment informed by the Holy Spirit. 1 John 4:1 says "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God." This testing principle applies to every form of media we consume.
GodlyScore evaluates media and public figures across nine biblical signal categories: profanity (Ephesians 4:29), sexual content (1 Corinthians 6:18), violence (Psalm 11:5), LGBT normalization (Romans 1:26-27), spiritual darkness (Ephesians 5:11), glorification of sin (Romans 1:32), deception mechanics (Proverbs 12:22), virtue strength (Philippians 4:8), and redemption arc. The score reflects not just whether content is present but how it's framed. Score: see full guide.
See our Biblical Discernment Guide for the complete methodology. GotQuestions and the Gospel Coalition provide thorough evangelical analysis.