Your
eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes
are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are
unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness~ Luke 11:34
When our kids were
young, we homeschooled them. They all eventually landed in public school but we
started out teaching them at home. Some of my favorite homeschool memories were
the science projects we did together.
One year, my youngest daughter and I conducted
an experiment to determine the effects that food coloring had on plant growth
and production. We planted three healthy little green bean plants and used
water with red food coloring to water one of the plants, water with equal
amounts of yellow food coloring to water another, and plain water for the last
plant. All the plants got the same amount of space to grow, amount of water and
exposure to light. The food coloring was the only variable.
The plant given the
yellow water fared the worst by far. Its leaves were yellow and sickly and its
growth was stunted from the beginning. It survived (barely) but never did
produce any beans. The plant with the red food coloring did a little better. It
was small and sad-looking but it did eventually produce a few small, oddly
shaped beans. We didn’t eat any of them because…well, frankly, they scared me.
At this point you may
be wondering where exactly I’m going with all of this. I do have a point, I
promise. The other day I was watching a newscast and some talking heads were
debating the effects of our entertainment culture on youth in general and, more
specifically, the effects of the gangsta hip-hop entertainment culture on
impressionable teens.
The female talking
head was convinced that the effects of popular entertainment were largely negative
and pointed to social problems (promiscuity, teen pregnancy, high drop-out
rates, drug use and violence, low opinion of women) among youth in some sectors
as an example of how some forms of entertainment are slowly poisoning our youth.
The male talking head was not convinced. He argued
that many adolescents view sleazy entertainment and admire the hip-hop culture
and do not necessarily have the same dramatic problems that others have. He was
adamant that it is not the effects of the entertainment industry that is
causing our plethora of social problems.
Their discussion
reminded me of the bean plants. Let me explain…
Our little bean
plants were affected by the food coloring they were fed—some more than others. The
plant that was fed yellow food coloring was affected dramatically by its diet.
The effects were clear and obviously negative.
The plant that was fed red food coloring was sick, but less so. The
effects of its diet really didn’t show up until it came time for the plant to produce
a crop, and then it was too scary to eat. The other plant that grew to be
healthy and it produced a good crop of beans.
It seems a little
crazy to assume that something as seemingly benign as food coloring would
affect the growth and production of a plant but our little experiment proves it
does. I am convinced that the entertainment we choose can affect our spirits,
much like my food coloring laced water affected the growth and development of
my little bean plants.
Scripture teaches
that what think about matters (Philippians 4:8-9). We all think about what we
see and what we hear, whether we recognize it or not. The human brain is a
fascinating creation. It captures and remembers every image it sees and every
word it hears and can—under the right conditions—recall information from years
past.
For the last thirty
years or so our culture has feasted on questionable entertainment choices and
scoffed at the notion that those choices are causing a change in societal
attitudes and behavior. Entertainment choices have changed us as a culture in
several key ways…
Entertainment has normalized
dysfunction~
Dysfunction is as old
as the earth itself. Every culture in every time has had its fair share of weirdness.
Thanks to television, our modern age has redefined dysfunction as normal and
healthy and the things that God defines as normal and healthy are now viewed
with skepticism and even concern. By relentlessly calling good evil and evil
good (Isaiah 5:20) the entertainment industry has convinced many that the stuff
the Bible calls sin is nothing more than another lifestyle choice.
Entertainment has demolished
the concept of shame~
When a person is
constantly exposed to something that something, no matter how strange it is,
will eventually be accepted and feel normal. For a very long time our culture
has been exposed to a lot of questionable behavior and that behavior is now
seen as standard. Because weird has morphed into the new normal, weird no
longer feels uncomfortable and shame is a forgotten notion. Contrary to popular
belief, shame is not necessarily a bad thing. Shame is like the warning light
on a car. It is simply an indicator of an underlying problem that needs to be
addressed. When we stop feeling shame, problems go unaddressed and moral
breakdown is inevitable.
The entertainment
industry has redefined our role models~
We used to admire
people for achievement and integrity. Thanks to reality television and the
music industry we now venerate people for the ability to draw attention to
themselves and make lots of money. The methods they use are rarely called into
question and that has helped to create a nation of narcissists. Narcissists
make terrible role models and our culture is crumbling from a lack of healthy
men and women for kids to look up to.
Most of us assume
that if something does not cause immediate death or quantifiable damage after
the first exposure then it’s not really dangerous. Experience teaches us that some
of the most harmful things in the physical world do not kill us quickly. They
sicken us and kill us slowly. Sometimes we are completely ignorant of the
reason why we are sick.
I do not believe that
entertainment is the only reason our culture is collapsing in on itself. Nor do
I believe that every kid who sees a hip-hop video will grow into a baggy-pants-clad
criminal. There are many complex issues besieging our culture: the breakdown of
the family, the increased use of drugs and alcohol, relativism, lack of
accountability in government, and an educational system that is more inclined
to propagandize children than teach them have all contributed to the decline. I
believe the entertainment we choose can aid in the decline by exposing us to corrupt
philosophies and breaking down our natural resistance to dysfunction.
I do not believe in
boycotts but I do believe in tuning out and turning off anything sketchy. If
Christians were willing to walk away from questionable entertainment choices
the industry would be forced to take notice and we would be a healthier,
happier, more productive culture for it.
I
will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes~ Psalm 101:3 NASB
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