03 Sep Recognize the Three Dangers of Electronic Media
We looked last week at the fact that “you are what we eat (mentally)!”
That automatically forces us to think about the world in which we live, and our relationship to it. We all tend to conform to culture around us. That’s the way we were created. It helps us tremendously if the culture around us is positive. It hurts us tremendously if the culture around us is negative.
When I grew up many years ago, if you conformed to the culture around you, you didn’t violate any of the 10 Commandments. Now, if you conform to the culture around you, you violate most of the 10 Commandments.
George Barna, a Christian pollster, for the last 30 years has recorded the inexorable decline of both belief and behavior in the Christian world in the United States. It parallels, of course, the inexorable decline of our culture which was founded on biblical principles, but which has eroded in the last 50 years to be a mere shadow of its former self.
Contrasting Views of the Future
In 1948, George Orwell wrote a dystopian novel titled 1984, in which he envisioned a very bad future for us based on the fact that everything we wanted was going to be withheld from us by a totalitarian government. “Big Brother is watching you!”
A few years earlier, Aldus Huxley had written a dystopian novel titled Brave New World, in which he envisioned a very bad future for us based on the fact that everything we wanted would be given to us! Nothing we wanted would be withheld from us! And because we did not have the strength of character to rise to the higher things that were available, we all began to sink the lowest.
Of these two contrasting visions of the future, the brave new world is the one that is presenting the most immediate danger to Christians in non-totalitarian countries. A quick review of cable television and movies reveals a preoccupation with unrestrained and perverted violence and sex, a preoccupation with the demonic and paranormal, and voyeuristic explorations into deviant and bizarre lifestyles. Cable television and movies are showing us the future, and it is not a pretty sight.
Because everything that affects culture also affects the Christians living in that culture, this retrogression is having its effect on the church in America. And because “we are what we eat, (mentally),” as we enter the brave new world of the 21stCentury, the church must learn new ways of standing against this downward trend if we are not to be neutralized by a mind-meld with modern culture.
Because of the presence, power and corruption of modern media, it may be generally more difficult to live the Christian life in the 21stCentury than at any other time in history. From music in elevators to monitors in gas pumps to smart phones, tablets, computers, electronic games, smart watches, to televisions everywhere in restaurants and televisions in our homes that often go on first thing in the morning and stay on until the last thing at night, our minds are awash in input from electronic media.
This constant presence of electronic media creates three serious problems.
- First, it gives the mind no down time, no solitude, no time for reflection, planning, evaluating, thinking. It keeps us from thinking about the higher things of life. The result is that it is very difficult to conceive of higher things, to rise above where we are at the moment. We get trapped in the present with little hope for the future because we give no thought to it.
- Second, the input that we receive is often godless. By godless, we mean two things. On the one hand, it may be an affront to the moral standards of God. The input may include violence, hatred, greed, and sexual immorality. On the other hand, even if the input is not an obvious affront to God, media typically represents life and values that do not include God or accurately reflect Him. So, even if a given program on television is not morally reprehensible, it still tends to teach us to think and live without God, because an accurate and authentic relationship with God is virtually never modeled. All we ever learn by example is how to live without Him.
- Third, electronic media is more powerful than other media. It impacts the mind more than spoken or written communication. Have you ever tried to read a book while the television is on? You usually wind up watching television. The power of electronic media is that it takes over the mind.
Therefore, because electronic media (1) keeps us from thinking about the higher things of life, (2) because much of the input is godless, and (3) because electronic media has a greater power over the mind than spoken or written communication, the typical mind in Western culture is held captive by electronic media and, as a result, is held captive to secular values and thinking. Unfortunately, this can be true of the Christian mind as well as the non-Christian mind.
Conclusion
In his iconic book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman wrote that the single most effective thing to neutralize the influence of modern media is to recognize what a powerful influence it is.
After we recognize the dangers of electronic media, our challenge is to (1) manage the type of and time spent with electronic media, (2) not be lulled into accepting a worldview that does not include God, and (3) counterbalance the power of electronic media with nurturing activities (Philippians 4:8) such as spiritual disciplines (church activities, absorbing Scripture, prayer, nurturing your relationship with the Lord, etc.), positive time with good friends, reading good books, time alone (especially in nature), nurturing hobbies, family activities, and any other things that nurture a strong inner life.
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