Media Culture vs. Christian Distinctiveness
One of the struggles Christians in all times face is the balancing act of trying to live in a culture without just accepting anything and everything the culture throws our way. In our modern and hyper-connected world, one of those balancing acts is dealing with the media and how much it can overtake our morals sensibilities.
From TV to internet to radio and beyond, we are inundated with entertainment. We can be amazed by athletic feats at all times, or we can listen to any song we want at any time. We can stream thousands of movies and TV shows for as long as we want. We can entertain ourselves nearly endlessly.
Now, it needs to be said, entertainment is not wrong in itself. It can provide an escape. It can cause us to want to build our own skills in athletics or music or some other endeavor. If wholesome, it can give us something to share and laugh (or cry) together over or cheer for. These are neat things, and that is great.
However, at some point, if we are not using Biblical guidance, we begin to accept whatever is put out there as entertainment, and we lose our distinctiveness as Christians. We can begin to celebrate the same people the world celebrates, with no thought as to the morality (or lack thereof) of what they have produced or how they live. And that is dangerous.
When we consider the latter portions of Romans 1, we read a litany of sins that, hopefully, we would all agree are awful. But the chapter ends with a warning that needs to set off alarm bells in our minds: “Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:32).
Could my buy-in to the world of entertainment not be seen as clear approval of those who are not only (often) living in awful sin, but are often putting immoral things out there as entertainment?
I continue to be amazed when I hear (or read) preachers reference movies or TV shows in sermons or articles with a glib comment like, “Now, I’m sure everyone has seen…”. For one thing, no they haven’t. But also, those words often then tie into a movie or show that is filled with bad language, sexual innuendo, or other sins. And here is a Gospel preacher using it to illustrate a sermon; assuming every Christian has put that stuff into their minds? Does anyone else see a problem with this?
Beyond that, though, how many Christians can hardly have a conversation without tying the subject to a TV show, movie, or other form of entertainment that has all sorts of immorality in it? Does that not say a great deal about what is filling our minds and how we are often just looking past sinful behavior in the name of entertainment?
We simply must be discerning. Just because it is produced for entertainment does not mean it has to be mindlessly consumed for our entertainment! We are always to guard our thoughts with Scripture. We are to keep our hearts pure. We are not to approve of those who do evil (much less, those who portray it as a form of entertainment).
Am I anti-movie or anti-TV or anti-music? Not at all. I like being entertained also. And I am also not perfect at this, to say the least!
But I dare not let my morals slide downward with the world just because the world things something is funny or interesting or anything else. Will that make me weird sometimes? I suppose so, but Christians are a “peculiar people!” Simply put, at times we will be different from the world, but that should be okay with us. After all, this world is not our home anyway.
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AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
