How Much Hollywood Should We Let Into Our Home?
October/04/2009 10:37 PM Filed in: Culture
How would you react if someone were to break into your home and kidnap your children? You say, “Well, thankfully, that won’t happen. We live in a safe community where our doors are locked and the police are only a phone call away.”
What if I told you that children are being stolen, right from within their homes? The bodies of the children are left in the home but their hearts are lured away to serve a dark master.
Most surprisingly, many parents are in cahoots with these thieves. Who are these thieves that come to capture the hearts of our children and already rule the hearts of many adults? They are the media outlets that use music, movies and the web to re-educate our children.
What we watch doesn’t just entertain us, it shapes us. It shows us how to treat the opposite sex, how to dress, and how to define success. As one Hollywood script writer put it, “We want people to laugh at adultery, homosexuality and incest because laughing breaks down your resistance to it.”
Of course, many of us believe entertainment has no affect on our behavior. That’s foolish when you think of the billions of dollars spent on television ads every year. If commercials do not affect what we do, why is big money spent on them? Since what we watch is influential on our values and actions, we must be careful what we entertain ourselves with. For example, the largest group of consumers of internet pornography are 12 to 17-year-old children. How do you think that shapes the sexual lives of adolescents and teenagers? What kind of spouses and parents will they become?
If the situation is even half as bad as I have described, it is prudent for us to re-examine just how much Hollywood we let into our home. How can we help our children plough a straight furrow in a crooked world?
Clean up my act before I try to clean up my family’s - If we are concerned about the entertainment our children are consuming, we must begin by considering our own entertainment. Sin does not become more acceptable with age. We have all had the experience of watching a risque television program or movie, and if we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we can almost feel our love for God drain from our souls. If our entertainment isn’t something we would be comfortable watching with Christ in the Lazy-Boy next to us, we need to come before God asking for the strength to make a change. For many of us, this will not be easy. As Richard Price said in Movieline: “There is only one thing more powerful than dope and that is a movie”. Changing our entertainment will be hard; but a change in our family and the future of our children begins with us.
Talk with my children about what they are seeing and hearing - I need to know what my children are listening to. I need to watch what they watch and listen to what they listen to. To change our adolescent’s mind about entertainment, we need to know what is in their mind for entertainment. If we slap down rules without a relationship it will equal rebellion.
Take Practical Steps - for some of us, this may mean avoiding an unsupervised internet connection in our home. It may mean taking the television out of our children’s bedroom. It may be a decision to change our cable package. It may be a choice not to rent from the video store anything with an “R” rating (and maybe even PG-13)!
This weekend, instead of watching television or surfing the net, watch our children as they watch the television and surf the net. What are they told is funny? How are they told to act around the opposite sex? What are the commercials slipping into their value system? Take the time to lead a family change. May your home be a place where mom and dad set the values, not the thieves of Hollywood.
Published in the Dickinson County News, Spirit Lake, IA
Of course, many of us believe entertainment has no affect on our behavior. That’s foolish when you think of the billions of dollars spent on television ads every year. If commercials do not affect what we do, why is big money spent on them? Since what we watch is influential on our values and actions, we must be careful what we entertain ourselves with. For example, the largest group of consumers of internet pornography are 12 to 17-year-old children. How do you think that shapes the sexual lives of adolescents and teenagers? What kind of spouses and parents will they become?
If the situation is even half as bad as I have described, it is prudent for us to re-examine just how much Hollywood we let into our home. How can we help our children plough a straight furrow in a crooked world?
Clean up my act before I try to clean up my family’s - If we are concerned about the entertainment our children are consuming, we must begin by considering our own entertainment. Sin does not become more acceptable with age. We have all had the experience of watching a risque television program or movie, and if we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we can almost feel our love for God drain from our souls. If our entertainment isn’t something we would be comfortable watching with Christ in the Lazy-Boy next to us, we need to come before God asking for the strength to make a change. For many of us, this will not be easy. As Richard Price said in Movieline: “There is only one thing more powerful than dope and that is a movie”. Changing our entertainment will be hard; but a change in our family and the future of our children begins with us.
Talk with my children about what they are seeing and hearing - I need to know what my children are listening to. I need to watch what they watch and listen to what they listen to. To change our adolescent’s mind about entertainment, we need to know what is in their mind for entertainment. If we slap down rules without a relationship it will equal rebellion.
Take Practical Steps - for some of us, this may mean avoiding an unsupervised internet connection in our home. It may mean taking the television out of our children’s bedroom. It may be a decision to change our cable package. It may be a choice not to rent from the video store anything with an “R” rating (and maybe even PG-13)!
This weekend, instead of watching television or surfing the net, watch our children as they watch the television and surf the net. What are they told is funny? How are they told to act around the opposite sex? What are the commercials slipping into their value system? Take the time to lead a family change. May your home be a place where mom and dad set the values, not the thieves of Hollywood.
Published in the Dickinson County News, Spirit Lake, IA
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