There are certain topics that get me very fired up. I know my friends and family think I am extreme and hate television. I do not hate television, I hate the amount of time it takes away from people’s lives. I hate what it does to families, children, and our culture. I know this is lengthy and most of you are sick of hearing about it from me...so only read this entire thing if you really love me. :) (just kidding!)I think entertainment is a great thing. Unfortunately, I think our society approaches entertainment just like they approach the rest of life: entertainment=consumption. That one word “consume” sums up the purpose of entertainment in the lives of many. We cheapen our lives when we limit our definition of entertainment to, “a painless activity that gratifies and satisfies me.” There is so much more to entertainment.
Entertainment is simply occupying your mind with something enjoyable, amusing, or even pleasurable. In a dark world filled with evil, we need space in our life and our minds to enjoy the earth that God has given us. Entertainment can be playing with children, drinking coffee with friends, fellowship with community, sitting around a campfire, hiking through the Adirondacks, reading a great book...anything that glorifies God and allows us to enjoy him more can be entertainment (by that definition, I have no problem with any media that does that).
It is interesting when I begin to explain my views on media, that people automatically jump to the conclusion that I am extreme and find no value in entertainment. I think this just sheds light on the fact that their definition of entertainment is narrow. This post was inspired by a recent 24 episode I watched. Trying to prove that I was not an enemy of television, I decided to pick a show to watch that Vermon is watching. I thought it would be a fun compromise, since he often does things with me that I know he never thought of doing pre-dennae. I had watched every episode this season, until a week ago, when I felt the violence really crossed the line.
Now, I do think that violence is okay to portray through art, music, movies, etc. I think it should be done in a way that draws people towards a resolution. It needs to be something that sickens and outrages people at the evil in this world and compels and pushes them forward toward being a vanguard of social change. I think there is something wrong when violence is nothing more then, “a painless activity that gratifies and satisfies me.”
The argument has been made, “just because I watch a violent show does not mean I am going to be more violent.” I agree. It does not mean that. Just because I watch a movie with graphic sexual content, does not mean I am going to have premarital sex. The point I am trying to make is not how you, personally, are effected by meaningless acts of violence. Jack Bauer killed a terrorist. The writer of the show could have portrayed it in a way where it gave the audience a healthy sense of justice. But instead, men and women all across America thought or said, “ooohh…Jack is so awesome!” as he brutally an inhumanely killed a man in a five minute killing scene that ended with the terrorist’s neck snapping as his body hung from a metal chain. And our society doesn’t even flinch when it's over and spends the next day at the water cooler talking about the great episode.
The fact is violence is real. I work with women and children all day, every day that have lived a reality that is the entertainment of so many. I have kids that have seen bodies hang from beams just like that scene that millions watched for pure entertainment. Bloody, beaten bodies is not out of the norm for some of my six, seven, and eight year old children, but it also is not entertainment to them. It is a frightening nightmare that they don’t know if they will survive. I am not being dramatic, I am not being extreme, I am being honest. We live in a violent and disgusting world in which evil triumphs when good men sit idle.
If you think that this is my soapbox just because I am around it all day, then I challenge you to move your life to a place where you can see the world for what it really is. You don't have to be around hungry people to be passionate about feeding the hungry and not wasting food. You don't have to be around illiterate families to be passionate about educating children. You don't have to be around alcoholics or drug attics, marriages that are dissolving, oppressed women, slaves, families breaking because of debt, races being wiped out by genocide, or children who are abused to be passionate about seeing those social ills resolved.
Our lives need to be a little more black and white if we want to start to see change happen. Deciding not to endorse meaningless violence on television is not about legalism, it is about being sick and tired of a society and culture that embraces a culture of violence.
I believe that there are hundreds, maybe thousands of social ills that could be alleviated if Christians would reject the definition of entertainment as, “a painless activity that gratifies and satisfies me" and make entertainment a very small part of their life instead of the focus. If you are still reading (then you get 100 extra points and must be a REALLY good and dear friend of mine! :) ) Take some time to read these stats: http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_vlent.shtml In my experience, people don’t really care about stats because all they care about is that they are not affected by it, but my challenge is to stop thinking about yourself and how you are effected and start thinking about society and culture as a whole and take a stand against violence.
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