As we all know, America is a mess today. We see it in our home towns, we see and/or hear about it on the news. We have heard dozens upon dozens of sermons detailing the depravity of America and her culture. I preach about it all the time. I have written books about it. I love America, but I hate what America has become.
Like you, I often hear and have said myself, “The Fundamental Baptist movement is America’s last vestige of old-fashioned, Bible-believing Christianity and America’s only hope for revival.” I believe this is true, but at the same time, like you, I am concerned – very, very concerned!
I am especially concerned with the next generation that has arisen in our own ranks. Thank God for the thousands upon thousands of young men and women who love Christ and are devoted to HIS cause. Thank God for the thousands upon thousands of young men and women who have surrendered their lives to do what HE would have them to do. But, is it just me or are a vast majority of our young people starting to look more like the world and talk more like the world than ever before? Is it just me or are many of our good ladies being caught up with the fashion and the fads of the world? Is it just me or are many of our Fundamental Baptist men getting caught up with the vice and the violent spirit of this present age?
Regrettably, it isn’t just the country that is in shambles when it comes to morality and decency. The church isn’t too far behind the rest of the country when it comes to compromise and corruption. A few years ago, our dear friend and fellow independent Baptist, Pastor Clarence Sexton, in one of his sermons made this statement: “This is the first generation of Christians in a whole-sale fashion that cares nothing about living like the Bible describes a Christian should live, but does not blush when they say, ‘I am a Christian.’” Pastor Sexton is right! You know it, I know it, and just about anyone with one ounce of spiritual discernment knows it. Christian pollster and author George Barna, wrote the following:
For years we have reported research findings showing that born again adults think and behave very much like everyone else. It often seems that their faith makes very little difference in their life. … Even a cursory reading of the list of values abandoned by Christians in the past three decades reveals the shallowness of our spirituality. Many of the values that once made Christians proud to call themselves by the name and that fueled their ability to persevere in the face of persecution, have taken place on the Endangered Values List.
I am sure that I am not the only one concerned about our marriages, our homes, our teenagers, and well, our churches. As I read the Gospels, as I read the book of Acts (which by the way is the greatest church manual ever written), as I read the various N.T. Epistles, and I look upon the horizon of our movement – and yes, even my life – I see some serious contradictions. Having been saved for just over thirty-two years, spending most of that time as a Fundamental Baptist and being somewhat a student of church and Baptist history, I often find myself wondering, “Have we got off track?” I think the answer for those who are willing to be honest and observant is a resounding, yet remorseful, YES!
No doubt, there are many things we can “pick on” and many things that we can point out as “causes” of our dilemma today. Of course, more than anything else we need to get back to God. We need to know HIM, we need to love HIM, and we need to serve HIM. Oh, that we would love HIM passionately, serve HIM fervently, and spread HIS message continually. There is nothing in life worth glorying in but HIM and our intimate knowledge of HIM (Jeremiah 9:23; Micah 6:8).
Regrettably, a new generation may be arising in our midst that knows about HIM, but does not know HIM (Judges 2:10). Much like Israel in the days of the prophet Elijah, we are torn between “two opinions (1 Kings 18:21). Out of one side of our mouth we talk of our devotion to the True and Living God of Heaven, but out of the other side of our mouths we serve the gods of our culture. Much like the children of Judah in Jeremiah’s day, we have forsaken HIM, the fountain of Living Waters and replaced HIM with cisterns that cannot, nor will not ever hold water (Jeremiah 2:11-13).
I would like to take a few moments to ponder on what I believe has become a stench in the nostrils of God, as well as a stumbling block for the people of God. The entertainment industry and its insidious influence in our lives. When we talk about the entertainment industry we are talking about a wide range of topics, such as television, the movie industry, the music industry, the sports industry (that’s a big one for us men), and the newest of the fads – the gaming industry (computer and video games).
Over the past decade or so, I along with a host of others have become very concerned with the influence of the entertainment industry upon, not only our country, but also our churches. I am not only referring to those “other churches,” which we often find ourselves criticizing. No sir, I am referring to our fundamental Baptist churches. One cannot attend a gathering of independent Baptist youth without seeing the stamp of the entertainment industry embedded deeply within many, if not most of our youth groups. By the way, it isn’t only the youth who are being influenced by the entertainment industry. Mom and dad seem to have caught the virus also.
Its hard to believe that in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, men of God “lifted up their voices like trumpets” against Hollywood and its vile products. Can you imagine that just over a quarter of a century ago (I know it seems like ages), men of God raised their voices against TV and bringing Hollywood videos into the home. Many of us can remember Dr. John R. Rice’s small booklet What’s Wrong with the Movies? which was written over 70 years ago. In this small booklet, Dr. Rice condemned watching Hollywood movies. That was over 70 years ago! Many of us can remember our dear brother, Lester Roloff, and others like him preaching against the evils of television. That was over thirty years ago. Many of us can remember Dr. Jack Hyles and others like him preaching hard against bringing movie videos home to watch. Oh, how times have changed!
In far too many cases, the TV has become an altar in the center of our living rooms. Far too many of us have been influenced more by the TV, videos, DVDs, or the latest movie down loaded from our computer, and let’s not even talk about video and computer games. It’s all around us and it simply cannot be denied. Our young people, as well as we old codgers, often know more about the Hollywood celebrities than we do about Bible characters. How many of us can honestly say that we spent more time in the Bible than we did watching TV or some Hollywood video over the past thirty days.
Even many of our youth activities and/or youth conferences often have as their theme some Hollywood movie that just so happens to have been a hit that year. I have often thought that was quite a coincidence. If you do preach against Hollywood and then bring your young people to a youth conference with a Hollywood theme, what does that spell? CONFUSION!
You know we are in trouble when our skits are “Christianized” versions of skits stolen from Saturday Night Live. Sorry, someone has to say it!
Have you noticed how some of our teenagers are dressing? How about the hair styles? Every time a new hair style or dress fad comes in, you can bet your money (if you were a betting man) that it probably came from Hollywood, the music industry, or those godly role models known as professional athletes. I know because I have been in the ministry for about thirty years and have been working with young people longer than that.
Have you taken notice lately of the naming of our children? The name Britney became extremely popular right around the time Britney Spears was “making a name for herself.” That’s what you call a coincidence. I read recently that the name Miley, as in Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana), is one of the most popular names today. Lord, help us! Let me quote Mr. Barna once more:
The world of entertainment and mass communications – through TELEVISION, radio, contemporary music, MOVIES, magazines, art, video games and pop literature – is indisputably the most extensive and influential theological training system of the world. From commercials to sitcoms, from biographies to hit songs, from computer simulation games to talk shows, God’s principles are challenged every day, in very entertaining, palatable and discreet ways. Few Christians currently have the spiritual tools to identify and reject the garbage.
Whereas we once received what we believe from our parents, our churches, our colleges, and our theological seminaries, this is no longer the case. The average American, including the professed believer, is being influenced far more by the entertainment industry, music, movies, sports, and the gaming industry than by the Book. Yes, “God’s principles are challenged every day, in very entertaining, palatable and discreet ways.” And as Barna notes, “Few Christians currently have the spiritual tools to identify and reject the garbage.”
My personal opinion is that once we opened the door of our homes to the television, we “gave place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27). The Devil, knowing that a picture is worth a thousand words and that there wasn’t any more effective way to dilute the Christian testimony of the people of God than by pumping “spiritual sewage” into the home and thereby corrupting the family. As one pastor wrote, “I believe when we get to Heaven we will find this (the TV) was the greatest tool of the Devil to corrupt the family and damage the true church of the living God.” The same preacher went on to say:
When I was a boy and later when I first got saved, preachers like John R. Rice preached against the movies and that Christians should not attend those movies. The Devil realizing the failure of the movies he then moved the movie into the living room. Now the Christians could see the movies they had missed without going to the movie house and no one would know what they were watching. Once people began to get TV into their homes they would have to have an antenna on top of their house and old time preachers would say, “you can tell where the Devil lives by the horns on top of the houses.” Over time the preachers began to get televisions in their homes and they stopped preaching against it and now because of the sin portrayed on it they have quit preaching on sin. It is hard to preach against something you are paying to have in your living room without being a hypocrite.
Ouch!!! Because of our intermingling with our culture we have become like those in the book of Judges (read the entire second chapter). Our culture and the entertainment industry is anti-God and anti-morality, and has become a snare to the people of God. It has caused us:
- Not hunger for the things of God
- Hunger for the things of this world
Have you noticed that even the best of us at times struggle with hungering and thirsting for God? Does it seem like we find ourselves at times hungering for the things of this world? May God return us to the “simplicity” that is found in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3). A few years ago, I read these words concerning the early church:
The early church was a disciplined church. Yet unlike some later religious groups, the early Christians generally didn’t try to legislate righteousness through a plethora of rules and regulations. Instead THEY RELIED ON SOUND TEACHING, RIGHTEOUS EXAMPLES, AND THE TRANSFORMING WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. … Of course, the church can effectively teach by example only if it, as a body, has conformed to the teachings of Christ. For example, what would the attitude of most Christians today toward a believer who dressed simply and modestly, regardless of fashion? Who took no interest in violent sports of today? Who refused to watch television programs and movies that centered on immorality or that were spiced with profanity and graphic violence? Let’s be honest – he would probably be viewed as a fanatic! MOREOVER, IF A WHOLE GROUP OF CHRISTIANS LIVED THAT WAY, THEY WOULD PROBABLY BE CALLED A CULT.
With HIS help, may we become a people who rely on sound teaching, righteous examples, and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit to become a people who do not love this world (1 John 2:15), are not friends of this world (James 4:4), and refuse to be conformed or fashioned by this world (Romans 12:2; 1 Peter 3:13-16). But, mark it down and remember this. The closer we get to HIM, and the more saturated we are by HIS Word, the greater chance people – yes, even “Christians” – will look at us as fanatics or even cultic. I don’t know about you, but I will go ahead and with God’s help, be a fanatic for Jesus!
Notice what was said about the imprisoned pastor:
“He is a model prisoner in every respect except one: he refuses to denounce his faith in Christ, and he will not stop praying and preaching.”
The director went on to say:
“He is so into the Bible that he has lost touch with reality.”
Of course, that was the perspective of an unsaved Bible-rejecter. In all reality, this Chinese pastor was a man who had his eyes focused upon Christ and his affections set on things above. He was a man who was living for that which is truly real!
“I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.” (Psalm 101:3)
“I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1)
This verse is similar to the one in Psalm 101:3, but it warns more specifically about looking upon women to lust after them. The Lord Jesus Christ warned, “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).
“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.” (Ephesians 5:3-7).
Proverbs warns, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23).
Movies and television programs are filled with the things forbidden in Colossians 3:8. A few years ago Calvary Contender reported:
Foul language, including curses, offensive epithets, scatological language, sexually suggestive or indecent language, and censored language increased by 94.8 percent during the Family Hour between 1998 and 2002” (Calvary Contender, Dec. 2003).
The divorce rate is over 50 percent. Thanks to the Internet, hardcore pornography is widespread, and statistics show that even pre-school children have been exposed to the perverse and the putrid, through the Internet and television. Both young and old alike are being lied to that many sexual partners leads to fulfillment. For many years, actually decades now, teen pregnancy rates have spiraled out of control, and alcohol and drug abuse is skyrocketing. Because of the technology of our day, we have comforts and toys that, as one author put it, “most people around the world don’t even know enough about to dream of.” Yet America is a culture also known for its “unfulfilled lives, insatiable appetites, welfare dependency, lost dreams, fractured families, and broken hearts.”
For many years now, many of us have been concerned about the lack of true spirituality, not in simply in our country, but in our churches. I am thoroughly convinced that one of the primary – if not the primary – instruments of the devil, in our day, which has led the people of God down the slippery slope of compromise, has been the entertainment industry in general, and Hollywood in particular. Over the past six weeks or so, we have taught on this topic in our church in Long Beach. It is not an easy message in the year 2010. Why? Because far too many of us have become entangled with the world, especially when it comes to the entertainment industry.
One of the great characteristics or distinguishing marks of the Baptist people throughout the ages has been that of holiness or separation from the world and a worldly church. Regardless of the day in which they lived, they chose to be a people who walked in the light and separated themselves from the darkness of the surrounding culture!
In the words of J.T. Christian, in his book A History of the Baptists, we find these words:
THE TIMES HAD CHANGED AND SOME OF THE CHURCHES CHANGED WITH THE TIMES. There were those who had itching ears and they sought after novelties. … Ministers became ambitious for power and trampled upon the independence of the churches. THE CHURCHES CONFORMED TO THE CUSTOMS OF THE WORLD AND THE PLEASURES OF SOCIETY … THERE WERE, HOWEVER, CHURCHES WHICH REMAINED UNCORRUPTED AND THERE WERE FAITHFUL MEN WHO RAISED THEIR VOICES AGAINST THE DEPARTURE FROM APOSTOLIC PRACTICE [A History of the Baptists, pp. 42].
What enabled our spiritual forefathers to break out of their cultural mold and be a holy and separated people? As one author noted, “The answer lies in the fact that they weren’t really non-conformists. They just conformed to a different society.”
This was one of the secrets of the early Christians. THEY WERE ABLE TO REJECT THE UNGODLY ATTITUDES, PRACTICES, AND ENTERTAINMENT OF THEIR CULTURE BECAUSE THEY CONFORMED TO A DIFFERENT CULTURE. Tens of thousands of other Christians shared the same values, attitudes, and standards of entertainment. ALL THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN HAD TO DO WAS TO CONFORM – CONFORM TO THE BODY OF BELIEVERS. WITHOUT THE CHURCH, PRACTICING A GODLY LIFESTYLE WOULD HAVE BEEN INFINITELY MORE DIFFICULT.
This same author continues with these words:
It has always been God’s intention for us to be a holy and separated people. We find this truth over and over again in the Holy Scriptures. Leviticus 11:45, 47, For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. … To make a difference between the unclean and the clean …
In His love, God had chosen Israel to be a special, separated and holy people; a people who would be consecrated unto Him and Him alone (Deu. 7:1-9).
Over and over again, we find that God warned His people concerning intermingling with the surrounding culture. Through Moses, God promised His people victory over the godless nations that they would encounter on their way to the Promised Land, as well as once they entered the Promised Land. In addition, He warned them not to make a covenant with them or their gods.
See Exodus 23:2, 33; Exodus 34:12-16; Numbers 33:50-55; Deuteronomy 7:1-9, 16; Joshua 24:14-15; Judges 2:1-19; 1 Kings 11:1-3; Proverbs 4:11-26; Isaiah 30:1; Isaiah 31:1
In His wisdom, Jehovah God warned Israel not to intermingle with the godless because they would be influenced to be turned away from the one True and Living God and be tempted to serve the pagan gods of the culture. Because of this danger Jehovah God commanded them to “destroy their altars, and break down their images.”
Just a few verses later, we find God’s people being warned to “have no pity upon them,” because they are an “abomination” and they will become a “snare” or a stumbling block on the road to fulfilling His ultimate purpose for their lives. In fact, He states quite emphatically, don’t even bring their gods into your homes (see Deuteronomy 7:16, 25-26).
Again, they are reminded to “overthrow altars” and to “break down pillars,” in other words to utterly destroy that which is of the world.
Deuteronomy 12:2-3, Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.
Why were they commanded to do this? Because God knew how easy it is to turn our backs on Him and begin to worship and adore other things, especially vile and wicked things.
Jeremiah 2:11, 13, Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. … For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
We have become so earthly minded that we are of little heavenly good!
The Sandman Syndrome has definitely fallen upon our nation, especially the Lord’s church over the past 50 years. We are much like sleepy Rip Van Winkle, of folklore, who has awakened to a whole new world; sadly, many of us have yet to awaken to the changes, which have taken place in our midst. All one has to do is turn on the TV (especially cable), walk into the local video rental store, open up the Internet, turn on your radio and listen to the popular music of the day, secular and Christian alike, and it is very apparent that America, and the church in America is in dire straits, to say the least! In his book, How We Got Here, David Frum writes:
We are the heirs of the most total social transformation that the United States has lived through since the coming of industrialism, a transformation [revolution] that has not ended yet!
Our generation is the “heir of the most total social transformation” ever to take place and the entertainment industry has been a tool, an effective one at that, in this Cultural Revolution. According to one writer, “We have witnessed what amounts to a cultural revolution, comparable to the one in China, if not worse, and whereas the Chinese have to some extent overcome their cultural revolution, I see many signs that ours is getting worse all the time, and there is no indication that it will be overcome in the foreseeable future.”
Today’s technology, though helpful in so very many different ways, is destroying us; and, nowhere more so than in the entertainment industry. Because of the technology we have available in the twenty-first century, yielding to the tempter has become much less difficult and more commonplace for the people of God than in any other time period in our history. Whether it be TV, movies, music, video and/or computer games, the internet, cell phones or a host of others that can be named, praying “deliver us from evil” has never been more relevant than today. Maybe we should start praying “deliver us from entertainment.”
With the non-judgmental, politically-correct, sex-crazed, anything-goes culture that we have become at home, it seems as if America has set herself up for international humiliation and a dismal future. Our country permits Hollywood to put anything in a movie and still call it PG-13. The average American, Christians included, permit TV and computers to bring all manner of filth into our homes.
Let’s take a few moments to consider some startling statistics which should cause us to wake up and take notice: American households with teenage children watch an average of 59 hours of cable and network TV every week. In addition to the TV watching, American teenagers see, on average, 67 full length feature films each year – either in a theatre or on video. This comes to more than one movie each week. American teenagers own an average of 42 music CD’s, 16 game cartridges, and seven computer games. More than 35 percent of American teenagers have their own personal TV; more than 80 percent own their own personal radios; more than 76 percent possess cassette or compact disc players; and while only 39 percent own their own personal computers, more than 68 percent have access to the Internet. And the numbers are rising as we write.
Far too many of these toys are time wasters and feeders of the flesh at best and are responsible for dulling the spiritual life of our youth. In the words of one author:
This is very serious business. Electronic mass media have become the dominating means of conveying and purveying modern culture among young people. So what do you think? Is that a good thing? Do you think we should be satisfied with the way this revolution in culture has transpired in our lifetimes?
What’s interesting about these statistics and so many more than we could mention, is that we don’t seem to understand the importance. We are told that 81 percent of all Americans admit that they are seriously concerned or at least uncomfortable with the direction that modern entertainment has taken in recent years. In these polls, we find that only 2 percent of Americans believe that the media should have the greatest influence on children’s values. But 67 percent of these same people, common Americans, admit that it does. In fact, they believe that today’s entertainment media is wielding an even greater influence than parents, teachers, coaches, or religious leaders. As pioneering media analyst Marshall McLuhan has argued, “Satan is a great electrical engineer.”
As one author has decried, “The fact is incontrovertible: People today live by the media, whereas they once lived by the Book.” The Lord knows it’s true! Christian pollster and author George Barna sets us straight, saying:
The world of entertainment and mass communications – through television, radio, contemporary music, movies, magazines, art, video games and pop literature – is indisputably the most extensive and influential theological training system of the world. From commercials to sitcoms, from biographies to hit songs, from computer simulation games to talk shows, God’s principles are challenged every day, in very entertaining, palatable and discreet ways. Few Christians currently have the spiritual tools to identify and reject the garbage.
In other words, “God’s principles are being challenged every day” by a new wave of theological thought, by way of our entertainment system, and few (very few) of God’s people “have the spiritual tools to identify and reject the garbage.”
Professing Christians, it is said, watch close to the national average of five hours of television each day – and much of it godless and filling the mind with impressions of the worst this world has to offer.
We independent Baptists may not go to the movies, because we don’t want to financially support the Hollywood movie industry but we will buy their videos. And we may not watch the R-rated videos (but many of us do), but we will watch the PG-13, which would have been an R-rated video ten years ago.
Because of this, a lukewarm spirit rests in most of our churches, yes, even our best churches. I have to agree with Francie Taylor, who writes in her book The Ten Traps of Television:
People aren’t becoming more lukewarm these days by accident. If you are a regular TV watcher, spiritual things are bound to seem dull to you by comparison. Whether your mind is being exposed to trash or trivia, your heart is growing cold, or at least indifferent to the things of the Lord. You are still running the race, but the enemy has now erected high hurdles with your permission, and you are not able to clear them.
It would appear that growing cold and indifference are the signs of the times today, and the entertainment industry has been a great instrument in the hands of the devil to bring about this cold front.
Our God never intended for His church, bought with His blood, and sealed by His Spirit to adopt the customs and ethics of this wicked and perverse generation. The Scriptures are still clear and the command is still true today, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world,” but the subtlety of the world, the flesh and the devil have taken their toll upon the church today.
1 JOHN 2:15-17, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Regarding this passage, Matthew Henry in his commentary, writes:
“The world draws the heart from God, and the more the love of the world prevails, the more our love for God decays.”
Now, that’s preaching! The present day church, especially here in good old America, has surrendered to the flirtation of a decadent culture. Former Bible teacher, J. Vernon McGee was right when he said:
We are living in a godless world that is in rebellion to God. Our contemporary culture is anti-God, and the child of God ought not to love it. We are in the world but are not of it.
Love for the world has been cultivated by the creativity of the entertainment industry, in spite of the fact that we have been admonished to “abhor that which is evil” (Romans 12:9), and to be careful lest our minds be corrupted.
2 CORINTHIANS 11:3, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
CORRUPTION OF OUR CULTURE
Dealing with the corruption of our culture, by way of the entertainment industry and our technological advances, WorldNet Daily’s David Kuepelian is correct stating:
Well now, is it just my imagination, or is there something about today’s … free sex that permeates this culture, that literally evokes the spirit of Sodom and Gomorrah? It’s as though the rebellious spirit of reprobate, pagan civilizations of the past was being tapped into by today’s pop culture. …
The fact is, what has risen “out of the pit” in today’s world bears a striking resemblance to the ageless spirit of defiant paganism, a spirit now inhabiting millions of people “freed” … from the pain of their own conscience – which is to say, freed from God and the divine law written deep down in every person’s heart.
Of course, in a very real sense, they are also victims – they’ve been set up for all of this. For not only has today’s popular culture – from its astonishing gender confusion to its perverse and powerful musical expression – become toxic virtually without precedent in modern history, but also, MOST PARENTS HAVE NOT PROTECTED THEIR OWN KIDS FROM IT. …
Author Rebecca Hagelin, in her book Home Invasion: Protecting Your Children in a Culture that’s Gone Stark Raving Mad, writes:
For many legitimate reasons, entertainment, education, research, etc., virtually every American parent has installed these easy routes for the enemy to infiltrate our homes. With the touch of a button or the click of a mouse, the vilest of human beings enter our living rooms and our children’s bedrooms and engage in behaviors that we would never allow live, warm bodies to do. Yet, there they are – hour after hour, day after day – displaying their violence, graphic sex acts, and foul language in front of our children while good parents hang out in the kitchen and make dinner.
Pastor and author Rod Parsley gets it right stating:
Add to television, movies, and music the violent or perverse content in many video games and Internet sites, and you have a prescription for cultural disaster. … It is all too evident that there is a civil war going on for the destiny of our nation.
The entertainment industry has been an effective tool in the capture of our culture. As Taylor reminds us, “It’s time we stopped allowing the enemy to have the keys to the front doors of our homes via the television.” Of course, this would include other forms of entertainment readily available (i.e. music, videos, DVDs, computer/video games, etc…). In the words of Eric Holmberg, the founder and director of Reel to Real Ministries:
Any struggle for the control of a culture must appeal to the mind and the heart by addressing both the ideas that power the intellect and the images that fuel the imagination. Put simply, the usurper needs to rely heavily on propaganda. It is the arts’ ability to subtly appeal to the heart and the mind that makes it such a powerful force for cultural change. For this reason successful revolutionaries have always paid special attention to the music, literature and films of their times.
Because of the effectiveness of America’s entertainment industry our culture has become obsessed and possessed with crass barbarism – with the most blasphemous, relativistic, humanistic, sexually perverse, violent, occultic, and profane forms of entertainment imaginable. In his classic book, The Death of the West, Patrick Buchanan writes:
Through its capture of the institutions that shape and transmit ideas, opinions, beliefs, and values – TV, the arts, entertainment, education – this elite is creating a new people. Not only ethically and racially, but culturally and morally, we are no longer one people or “one nation under God.” Millions have begun to feel like strangers in their own land. They recoil from a popular culture that is saturated with raw sex and trumpets hedonistic values. … The moral code they grew up with is dying inside the country they grew up in.
In half a lifetime, many Americans have seen their God dethroned, their heroes defiled, their culture polluted, their values assaulted, their country invaded, and themselves demonized as extremists and bigots for holding on to beliefs that Americans held for generations. … We are two countries, two peoples. An older America is passing away, and a new America is coming into its own. …. They have replaced the good country we grew up in with a cultural wasteland and a moral sewer that are not worth living in and not worth fighting for ….
The entertainment industry has been greatly responsible for the tragic transformation of our culture. And, sadly, we have exported our wicked ways around the world. As former Supreme Court nominee and author, Robert Bork has argued:
Popular entertainment sells sex, pornography, violence, vulgarity, attacks on traditional forms of authority, and outright perversion more copiously and more insistently than ever before in our history. It is no answer to point out that much of popular culture is harmless or even benign. The culture has changed, is changing, and the change is for the worse. The worst is the leading edge.
One nation under God. Hear Hear.
Thank you.