The recent shooting at a theater in Colorado is obviously very tragic and big news, rightly so, and many, Christians included, are coming out in droves with commentary, trying to understand, to figure out how such a thing could happen, why it would happen, asking themselves and others what would "drive a person" to do something like this. I think we all know the short answer. Sin.
The question which really needs asking ought to be, "What keeps the vast majority of people, ourselves included, from behaving exactly as that murderer did?". The answer is, but for the restraining hand of God, for His redemptive work in our lives, any one of us could be the shooter, but that's not what I’m ultimately addressing here.
The reason I'm posting about this at all is to say, I just don't get it. I just don't get the seeming interest in the movie itself amongst those who profess Christ. I don't understand the apparent high praise for a movie which, according to one relatively "liberal" Christian reviewer, contains the following:
"CAUTIONS:
Drugs/Alcohol: Some social drinking depicted, a couple of references to drugs.
Language/Profanity: Very little. A single use of bi---, he--,
Drugs/Alcohol: Some social drinking depicted, a couple of references to drugs.
Language/Profanity: Very little. A single use of bi---, he--,
plus an instance where God is paired with da--, and one misuse of Jesus's name.
Sex/Nudity: It's implied that Bruce and a woman sleep together, but nothing is shown aside from kissing. Catwoman is a little flirty and slips the occasional innuendo into the conversation.
Violence: This is where the bulk of the PG-13 rating comes from. The movie has a very intense, ominous tone throughout and doesn't shy away from violence. Numerous people, including law enforcement, are shot from both afar and close range. There are riots, fires, extended torture scenes, people being strangled and a scene where a bridge collapses with passengers trapped inside their vehicles. Bane makes veritable mincemeat of anyone in his way, even Batman."
Sex/Nudity: It's implied that Bruce and a woman sleep together, but nothing is shown aside from kissing. Catwoman is a little flirty and slips the occasional innuendo into the conversation.
Violence: This is where the bulk of the PG-13 rating comes from. The movie has a very intense, ominous tone throughout and doesn't shy away from violence. Numerous people, including law enforcement, are shot from both afar and close range. There are riots, fires, extended torture scenes, people being strangled and a scene where a bridge collapses with passengers trapped inside their vehicles. Bane makes veritable mincemeat of anyone in his way, even Batman."
Honestly, this is acceptable faire for Christian eyes, Christian minds? This is what we're supposed to be filling our thoughts with? This kind of "entertainment" is pleasing to the Lord? Really? Foul language, sexual innuendo, extended torture scenes, people being strangled? This is what Christians deem appropriate for themselves and for their children?
Viewing this kind of material is in direct opposition to Psalm 101:3 which reads, "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside...".
Also, the Word is clear, the eye is the gateway to the corruption of the body, as stated in Matthew 6:22-23, "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!".
Or what about Romans 1:32, where it speaks of those who, "knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."? Isn't that a pretty clear condemnation of taking pleasure in supporting or watching sinful behaviour or acts, even if "just" on the big (or little) screen?
Or how about Ephesians 5:11-12, surely it's clear when it states, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.". We're not even to "speak" of those things, let alone prop our feet up with a box of popcorn and watch in delight!
Viewing this kind of material is in direct opposition to Psalm 101:3 which reads, "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside...".
Also, the Word is clear, the eye is the gateway to the corruption of the body, as stated in Matthew 6:22-23, "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!".
Or what about Romans 1:32, where it speaks of those who, "knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."? Isn't that a pretty clear condemnation of taking pleasure in supporting or watching sinful behaviour or acts, even if "just" on the big (or little) screen?
Or how about Ephesians 5:11-12, surely it's clear when it states, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.". We're not even to "speak" of those things, let alone prop our feet up with a box of popcorn and watch in delight!
I can't help but ask, what's the matter with us? Why are we so tempted to be lured into viewing and reading things which surely contradict the stated Word, and why, when we do participate in these things, do we then actually try to defend ourselves, as if there is any defense in light of the clearly stated Word? We are so self-deceived.
I saw this quote the other day by Ravi Zacharias, and wondered if it isn't pertinent to this topic, particularly the last paragraph.
"In the 1950s kids lost their innocence. They were liberated from their parents by well-paying jobs, cars, and lyrics in music that gave rise to a new term --- the generation gap.
In the 1960s, kids lost their authority. It was a decade of protest --- church, state, and parents were all called into question and found wanting. Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.
In the 1970s, kids lost their love. It was the decade of me-ism dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self. Self-image, Self-esteem, Self-assertion… It made for a lonely world. Kids learned everything there was to know about sex and forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.
In the 1980s, kids lost their hope. Stripped of innocence, authority and love and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future.
In the 1990s kids lost their power to reason. Less and less were they taught the very basics of language, truth, and logic and they grew up with the irrationality of a postmodern world.
In the new millennium, kids woke up and found out that somewhere in the midst of all this change, they had lost their imagination. Violence and perversion entertained them till none could talk of killing innocents since none was innocent anymore." ~ Ravi Zacharias
In the 1960s, kids lost their authority. It was a decade of protest --- church, state, and parents were all called into question and found wanting. Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.
In the 1970s, kids lost their love. It was the decade of me-ism dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self. Self-image, Self-esteem, Self-assertion… It made for a lonely world. Kids learned everything there was to know about sex and forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.
In the 1980s, kids lost their hope. Stripped of innocence, authority and love and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future.
In the 1990s kids lost their power to reason. Less and less were they taught the very basics of language, truth, and logic and they grew up with the irrationality of a postmodern world.
In the new millennium, kids woke up and found out that somewhere in the midst of all this change, they had lost their imagination. Violence and perversion entertained them till none could talk of killing innocents since none was innocent anymore." ~ Ravi Zacharias
A month or so ago a young Chinese man in Canada was brutally murdered and dismembered in Montreal , with various body parts being mailed across Canada
In the aftermath, a local teacher asked his class of 16 year olds if they'd like to view the despicable film and the class voted overwhelmingly to watch it, so the teacher set it up in the classroom and showed it to them. When news of this broke, parents were rightly up in arms and the teacher actually lost his job, but what was most interesting to me were the comments by various students who were defending the teacher's decision and lobbying to have him reinstated.
One female student told a radio host that watching the video "wasn't that traumatic", because to her "it was just like watching actors acting the parts in a movie". That sentiment was echoed by other students over and over.
Think about that.
This was an actual killing and dismemberment of a human being, and by all accounts it was as gruesome (I would guess so!) and horrifying (could there be any doubt?!) as could possibly be. And yet, that female student and her peers claimed to not be overly bothered, if bothered at all, by what they'd just seen, because it was just like "a movie".
Think about that again.
In the review of the newest Batman movie posted above, we were told that there were "lengthy torture scenes". The young man who was murdered in Montreal endured "lengthy torture" according to news reports. So, isn't it possible, no, not even just possible, but LIKELY, that watching these types of scenes in movies like Batman, etc., will have an equally desensitizing effect upon our own children? Could we really claim to be surprised if our children, exposed to a real-life situation of torture, would be as equally non-plussed as the student above, as her classmates?
In fact, why are we even surprised by the shooting at the movie theater itself? Couldn't it be that the young man who perpetrated that heinous act may have simply been a step or two beyond the young lady quoted, desensitized to such a point that he came to believe that his actions were little more than role-playing, that it was no big deal to deliberately plan and perpetrate such carnage? Which actually brings us back to the questions so many have expressed, doesn't it, "How can this kind of thing happen?", "What would drive a young man to do this kind of thing?"
Honestly, who are we kidding?
What in the world are we doing sitting our children down in front of this kind of absolute and vile garbage? What are we doing sanctioning them doing so on their own? How is it that we aren't strenuously and diligently exhorting them to avoid that kind of "entertainment"? In fact, why aren’t we strenuously and diligently avoiding that kind of “entertainment” ourselves?!
And let's not forget video games. What in the world are we thinking when we allow video games into our homes which are as equally inclined to violence and degradation of human beings? We need to give our heads a serious shake if we can in any way, shape, or form, justify it.
In the aftermath, a local teacher asked his class of 16 year olds if they'd like to view the despicable film and the class voted overwhelmingly to watch it, so the teacher set it up in the classroom and showed it to them. When news of this broke, parents were rightly up in arms and the teacher actually lost his job, but what was most interesting to me were the comments by various students who were defending the teacher's decision and lobbying to have him reinstated.
One female student told a radio host that watching the video "wasn't that traumatic", because to her "it was just like watching actors acting the parts in a movie". That sentiment was echoed by other students over and over.
Think about that.
This was an actual killing and dismemberment of a human being, and by all accounts it was as gruesome (I would guess so!) and horrifying (could there be any doubt?!) as could possibly be. And yet, that female student and her peers claimed to not be overly bothered, if bothered at all, by what they'd just seen, because it was just like "a movie".
Think about that again.
In the review of the newest Batman movie posted above, we were told that there were "lengthy torture scenes". The young man who was murdered in Montreal endured "lengthy torture" according to news reports. So, isn't it possible, no, not even just possible, but LIKELY, that watching these types of scenes in movies like Batman, etc., will have an equally desensitizing effect upon our own children? Could we really claim to be surprised if our children, exposed to a real-life situation of torture, would be as equally non-plussed as the student above, as her classmates?
In fact, why are we even surprised by the shooting at the movie theater itself? Couldn't it be that the young man who perpetrated that heinous act may have simply been a step or two beyond the young lady quoted, desensitized to such a point that he came to believe that his actions were little more than role-playing, that it was no big deal to deliberately plan and perpetrate such carnage? Which actually brings us back to the questions so many have expressed, doesn't it, "How can this kind of thing happen?", "What would drive a young man to do this kind of thing?"
Honestly, who are we kidding?
What in the world are we doing sitting our children down in front of this kind of absolute and vile garbage? What are we doing sanctioning them doing so on their own? How is it that we aren't strenuously and diligently exhorting them to avoid that kind of "entertainment"? In fact, why aren’t we strenuously and diligently avoiding that kind of “entertainment” ourselves?!
And let's not forget video games. What in the world are we thinking when we allow video games into our homes which are as equally inclined to violence and degradation of human beings? We need to give our heads a serious shake if we can in any way, shape, or form, justify it.
And maybe that's the question there...what "IN THE WORLD" are we thinking? Has THE WORLD so influenced us that we aren't thinking at all, or aren't thinking biblically?
As I’ve said, I just don’t get it…
