Précis:

Protecting children from harm from the mass media involves understanding: 1) the problem; 2) the susceptibility of children at each stage of cognitive development; 3) the mass media of entertainment; 4) your worldview and values; and, 4) media wisdom. 

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM 

Children on killing sprees… Increased risky behavior by children…. Children at war with their parents…. 

Daily, newspapers proclaim the greatest threat facing parents in the United States – the 77 million “baby kaboom” children born between 1979 and 1989, who are now entering their teenage years – more children than comprised the famous Baby Boom generation!

Many of these children (who are a reward from the Lord according to Psalm 127:3) were not raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord, or on OZZIE AND HARRIET or LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, but on NATURAL BORN KILLERS, HALLOWEEN and SCREAM.

The first signs of the moral character of many of the baby kaboomers who were raised on and by the mass media of entertainment may be the killings conducted over the last two years by the 17 adolescents and pre-adolescents in the USA. According to exhaustive research, the violent media of entertainment has set the moral agenda for the future.

To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt:  If you educate a man’s mind and not his heart, you will have an educated barbarian.

This is not to stay that all 77 million American children are educated barbarians. Studies show that most who watch the media merely become desensitized. A significant minority become frightened and paranoid. Regrettably, 7 to 11 percent of the adults and up to 31 percent of the teenagers say they want to copy what they see.

And, what do children see?

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Hollywood-based entertainment industry looks forward to the new wave of baby kaboom teenagers because the Hollywood executives have found that teenagers are most easily attracted to sex and violence and immoral behavior in movies and on television.

With the greater numbers comes greater influence. Teenagers are on their way to becoming America's cultural arbiters. Since the success of SCREAM last year, the entertainment industry has put dozens of teen horror projects in the pipeline. Networks are adding teen programs with plenty of sexual activity based on the popularity of programs such as DAWSON’S CREEK, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and PARTY OF FIVE.

Today's teenagers may be even more of a pop culture steamroller than their parents were. There will be as many of them as there were teenage boomers during the 1960s. They see far more movies than any other demographic group. While only 16% of the population, they buy 25% of the movie tickets. Raised by cable TV, they want constant stimulation.

American Teenagers:

• Teenagers spend $122 billion of their own and their parents' money each year, not including their influence on family purchases.

• In the last three months, 72% of teenagers age 12-19 have gone to the movies.

• Moviegoing is considered an "in" activity among 92% of teenagers, more than playing sports (89%), using the Internet (90%) or going to the beach (76%).

• In the last three months, 71% of teens purchased at least one full-length CD, 33% bought a CD single and 35% bought a full-length cassette.

• Moviegoing peaks in the teenage years. People age 12-20 make up 16% of the population, but buy 26% of movie tickets.

• Nearly 90% of 12- to 20-year-olds reported going to the movies "frequently" or "occasionally." Only 3%-4% said they never go to the movies.

• Los Angeles Times, Calendar 06/09/98 citing: Teenage Research Unlimited; Motion Picture Assn. of America; and, Nielsen Media Research.

Does it matter what children watch?

The evidence is now irrefutable that the mass media of entertainment influences the behavior and the cognitive and spiritual growth of children.

In 1971, the massive, six-volume work known as the "Surgeon General's Report" was published citing over 3,000 studies. By now, almost 30 years later, there are thousands of more studies of all types - inductive, deductive, laboratory, and field studies - focusing on a wide variety of theories for the influence of the mass media from observational learning theory to attitude change theory to release stream theory.

The research is so compelling that the New York Times and the London Times have both concluded that the evidence is irrefutable.

An UCLA-Gallup poll of the top 3000 executives in Hollywood showed that 87% felt that the violence in the media influences violence in society. A MTV poll showed that 92% of the children felt the same way. If these two groups truly believe what they have told the pollsters, then logical questions emerge:  Why do you continue to make salacious violence if you believe that it incites people to violence? And, why do you continue to watch the stuff if you believe that it incites people to violence?

Of course, many of us realize that people follow their values, not their beliefs. It would be fair to say that the opportunity to make money through violence, along with the lifestyle that that money provides, is a value that takes precedence over the belief of the top executives that the mass media of entertainment incites people to violence. And, the desire to be entertained, shocked, titillated, and excited is valued more highly, than the belief of the MTV-polled children that the mass media of entertainment can incite them to violence.

 

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHILDREN'S SUSCEPTIBILITY

The raison d’être

Getting to the reason for the powerful influence of the mass media of entertainment is very important.

Children go through different stages of cognitive development. Although there are many factors that are common to all ages of development, there are also unique distinctions.

Children often see the world and the media quite differently than adults.  Parents generally look at television programs semantically in terms of the meaning of what is said or what is happening.  Children see syntactically in terms of the action and special effects in the program. For instance, with regard to music, a mother will say to her child, "Did you hear the lyrics in that awful song?" And, the child will respond, "Ah Mom, I don't listen to the words. Did you hear the rhythm and the beat?"

Growing pains

Cognitive development is often directly impacted by the mass media, especially television. It is important to understand that cognition is not thinking; rather, thinking is part of cognition, and cognition itself is the process of knowing, which philosophers and theologians call epistemology. Cognitive development is similar to building a house step-by-step from a blueprint, or to adding colors to our mental palette, or to installing an operating system in a computer so that the computer can then do all the tasks, or thinking, that you direct it to do.

Each of these tasks must be done correctly and in the right order or the result will be a disaster. The human operating system develops over many years in a series of stages. Each stage has unique characteristics and each stage must develop properly.

For instance, once when I was teaching at an Ivy League graduate school, a women in the audience shrieked because her toddler had picked up a sharp instrument and was about to do what every toddler does with whatever they pick up, which is put it in his mouth. After quickly taking the sharp tool away from her toddler, the mother started to lecture him.

After the wave of concern in the room died down, I noted that toddlers are in the sensation stage of cognitive development, which merely means that they learn through their senses, and that taking the object away from her child was the right thing to do, but lecturing the toddler would have no effect because the toddler was not at that stage of development where he could understand the logic of her arguments. Thus, I noted toddlers have to be protected by their parents and cannot be expected to make wise decisions when they are presented with dangerous situations.

When you pass from one stage of development to another, you tend to forget what the previous stage was like. Thus, when my six-year-old boy, Robby, was frightened by a thunder storm, my eleven-year-old, Peirce, tried to get his younger brother to be quiet by telling him to "Shut up." When this compassionate request didn't work, my oldest told Robby that the reason for the thunderstorm was that God was angry at him. Of course, this only aggravated Robby’s fears.  I pointed out to Peirce that Robby was affected by the storm very differently than he was because Robby was in the imagination stage of development wherein his imagination was predominant, and he was trying to sort out the difference between fact and fiction.

I reminded Peirce about the time he had a friend stay over night when he was 9-years-old, and the friend had nightmares all night long. The next morning, I asked the young boy what was bothering him, and he said that his father had taken him to see the R-rated movie TOTAL RECALL, an extremely violent movie. The boy said that he didn't like the scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger shoots Sharon Stone, who is posing as his wife, and says, "Consider that a divorce."

When I called his father to tell him of the fears expressed by his son, he replied that his son was a man and that he took his son to a lot of R-rated movies. I noted that his son was in the imagination stage of cognitive development and was incapable of dealing with the violence in many R-rated movies. I said that taking him to see these films was like putting him on the front line of psychological and spiritual warfare just like sending children into battle without adequate training and before they are big enough to carry their weapons. After three months, the father called to say that I was right and that he could see that his son was disturbed by the movies to which he had taken him.

Trained to kill

Perhaps Lt. Col. David Grossman has done the most to help us understand the ability of the mass media of entertainment to influence younger media consumers to violence.

Lt. Col. Grossman spent almost a quarter of a century as an army psychologist, learning and studying how to enable people to kill. When he investigated the killings by the 15 pre-adolescents and adolescents last year, he found that there was a significant correlation between how the media had trained them to kill, and how the army trains its recruits to kill.

Lt. Col. Grossman points out that killing is unnatural. Killing requires training because there is a built-in aversion to killing one's own kind. Only sociopaths – who by definition don't have that resistance – lack this innate violence immune system.

Thus, children don't naturally kill. It is a learned skill, and they learn it from violence in the home and, most pervasively, from violence as entertainment in television, the movies, and interactive video games.

Even in war there is a reticence to killing your fellow man or woman. For instance, the average firing rate was incredibly low in Civil War battles. The killing potential of the average Civil War regiment was anywhere from five hundred to a thousand men per minute. The actual killing rate was only one or two men per minute per regiment. At the Battle of Gettysburg, of the 27,000 muskets picked up from the dead and dying after the battle, 90 percent were loaded. These men were willing to die for their beliefs but not kill for their beliefs.

During World War II, the U.S. Army discovered that only 15 to 20 percent of the individual riflemen could bring themselves to fire at an exposed enemy soldier. From the military perspective, a 15 percent firing rate among riflemen is like a 15 percent literacy rate among librarians.

When the military became aware of that, they systematically went about the process of trying to fix this "problem." So, by the Korean War, around 55 percent of the soldiers were willing to fire to kill, and by Vietnam, the rate rose to over 90 percent.

Lt. Col. Grossman notes that understanding how the military increases the killing rate of soldiers in combat is instructive, because our culture today is doing the same thing to our children. The training methods militaries use are desensitization, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and role modeling.

Desensitization

Lt. Col. Grossman points out that brutalization and desensitization are what happens at boot camp. From the moment you step off the bus, you are physically and verbally abused: countless pushups, endless hours at attention or running with heavy loads, while carefully trained professionals take turns screaming at you. This brutalization is designed to break down your existing mores and norms and to accept a new set of values that embrace destruction, violence and death as a way of life. In the end, you are desensitized to violence and accept it as a normal and essential survival skill in your brutal new world.

Something very similar to this desensitization toward violence is happening to our children through violence in the media – but instead of 18-year-olds, it begins at the age of 18 months when a child is first able to discern what is happening on television. Even though young children have some understanding of what it means to pretend, they are developmentally unable to distinguish clearly between fantasy and reality.

When young children see somebody shot, stabbed, raped, brutalized, degraded, or murdered on TV, to them it is as though it were actually happening. To have a child of three, four or five watch a "splatter" movie, learning to relate to a character for the first 90 minutes and then in the last 30 minutes watch helplessly as that new friend is hunted and brutally murdered, is the moral and psychological equivalent of introducing your child to a friend, letting her play with that friend, and then butchering that friend in front of your child's eyes. Regrettably, this happens to our children hundreds upon hundreds of times.

Classical conditioning

Lt. Col. Grossman shows that the Japanese were masters at using classical conditioning with their soldiers. Early in World War II, Chinese prisoners were placed in a ditch on their knees with their hands bound behind them. One by one, a select few Japanese soldiers would go into the ditch and bayonet "their" prisoner to death. Up on the bank, countless other young soldiers would cheer them on in their violence. Comparatively few soldiers actually killed in these situations, but by making the others watch and cheer, the Japanese were able to use these kinds of atrocities to classically condition a very large audience to associate pleasure with human death and suffering. Immediately afterwards, the soldiers who had been spectators were treated to sake, the best meal they had had in months, and to so-called comfort girls. The result? They learned to associate committing violent acts with pleasure.

Operant conditioning teaches you to kill, but classical conditioning is a subtle but powerful mechanism that teaches you to like it.

As Lt. Col. Grossman shows, our children watch vivid pictures of human suffering and death, and they learn to associate it with their favorite soft drink and candy bar, or their girlfriend's perfume.

After the Jonesboro shootings, one of the high-school teachers told how her students reacted when she told them about the shootings at the middle school. "They laughed," she said with dismay. A similar reaction happens all the time in movie theaters when there is bloody violence. The young people laugh and cheer and keep right on eating popcorn and drinking pop. We have raised a generation of barbarians who have learned to associate violence with pleasure, like the Romans cheering and snacking as the Christians were slaughtered in the Coliseum.

Operant conditioning

Lt. Col. Grossman states that the third method the military uses is operant conditioning, a very powerful procedure of stimulus-response, stimulus-response. A benign example is the use of flight simulators to train pilots. An airline pilot in training sits in front of a flight simulator for endless hours; when a particular warning light goes on, he is taught to react in a certain way. When another warning light goes on, a different reaction is required. Stimulus-response, stimulus-response, stimulus-response. One day the pilot is actually flying a jumbo jet; the plane is going down, and 300 people are screaming behind him. He is scared out of his wits; but he does the right thing. Why? Because he has been conditioned to respond reflexively to this particular crisis.

The military and law enforcement community have made killing a conditioned response. Whereas infantry training in World War II used bull's-eye targets, now soldiers learn to fire at realistic, man-shaped silhouettes that pop into their field of view. That is the stimulus. The trainees have only a split second to engage the target. The conditioned response is to shoot the target, and then it drops. Stimulus-response, stimulus-response, stimulus-response – soldiers or police officers experience hundreds of repetitions. Later, when soldiers are on the battlefield or a police officer is walking a beat and somebody pops up with a gun, they will shoot reflexively and shoot to kill. 75 to 80 percent of the shooting on the modern battlefield is the result of this kind of stimulus-response training.

Now, if you're a little troubled by that, how much more should we be troubled by the fact that every time a child plays an interactive point-and-shoot video game, he is learning the exact same conditioned reflex and motor skills.

Lt. Col. Grossman says that he was an expert witness in a murder case in South Carolina offering mitigation for a boy who was facing the death penalty. He tried to explain to the jury that interactive video games had conditioned him to shoot a gun to kill. He had spent hundreds of dollars on video games learning to point and shoot, point and shoot. One day he and his buddy decided it would be fun to rob the local convenience store. They entered, and he pointed a snub-nosed .38 pistol at the clerk's head. The clerk turned to look at him, and the defendant shot reflexively from about six feet. The bullet hit the clerk right between the eyes - which is a pretty remarkable shot with that weapon at that range – and killed this father of two.

Afterward, Lt. Col. Grossman asked the boy what happened and why he did it. It clearly was not part of the plan to kill the guy – it was being videotaped from six different directions. He said, “I don't know. It was a mistake. It wasn't supposed to happen.”

One of the boys allegedly involved in the Jonesboro shootings (and they are just boys) had a fair amount of experience shooting real guns. The other one was a non-shooter and, to the best of our knowledge, had almost no experience shooting. Between them, those two boys fired 27 shots from a range of over 100 yards, and they hit 15 people. That's pretty remarkable shooting.

Lt. Col. Grossman says that he runs into these situations often – kids who have never picked up a gun in their lives pick up a real gun and are incredibly accurate. Why? Video games.

Role models

Lt. Col. Grossman notes that in the military, you are immediately confronted with a role model: your drill sergeant. He personifies violence and aggression. Along with military heroes, these violent role models have always been used to influence young, impressionable minds.

Today, the media are providing our children with role models, and this can be seen not just in the lawless sociopaths in movies and TV shows, but it can also be seen in the media-inspired, copycat aspects of the Jonesboro murders. This is the part of these  juvenile crimes that the TV networks would much rather not report.

When the pictures of teenage killers appear on TV, somewhere there is a potentially violent little boy who says to himself, “Well, I'll show all those people who have been mean to me. I know how to get my picture on TV too.”

Thus, Lt. Col. Grossman notes we get copycat, cluster murders that work their way across America like a virus spread by the six o'clock news. No matter what someone has done, if you put his picture on TV, you have made him a celebrity, and someone, somewhere, will emulate him.

The lineage of the Jonesboro shootings began at Pearl, Mississippi, fewer than six months before. In Pearl, a 16-year-old boy was accused of killing his mother and then going to his school and shooting nine students, two of whom died, including his ex-girlfriend. Two months later, this virus spread to Paducah, Kentucky, where a 14-year-old boy was arrested for killing three students and wounding five others.

A very important step in the spread of this copycat crime virus occurred in Stamps, Arkansas, 15 days after Pearl and just a little over 90 days before Jonesboro. In Stamps, a 14-year-old boy, who was angry at his schoolmates, hid in the woods and fired at children as they came out of school. Sound familiar? Only two children were injured in this crime, so most of the world didn't hear about it; but it got great regional coverage on TV, and two little boys in Jonesboro, Arkansas, probably did hear about it.

Is this a reasonable price to pay for the TV networks' “right” to turn juvenile defendants into celebrities and role models by playing up their pictures on TV?

 

UNDERSTANDING the MASS MEDIA

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?”   - James 4:1  (NIV)

The pen is mightier than the sword[1]

Contrary to common sense and the weight of evidence, for many years people in the audience accepted the fallacy that the media did not influence their behavior.  These people failed to make wise choices in their media consumption and, consequently, contributed to the support of degrading, unwholesome and often immoral media.

Of course, many of them wanted to believe the media myth because they lusted after the illicit, the emotive and the evocative much like media addicted children who argue the media don’t influence them while begging and whining for the latest trendy, media-hyped product or article of clothing.

Most people no longer believe the false disclaimers of the media spokespersons and now think the biggest problem facing our society is a breakdown of morality, which they attribute to the negative influence of the mass media.

After years of denial, even 87% of the top media executives now admit that the violence in the mass media contribute to the violence in society.[2]  And children, too, are aware of the ability of the entertainment media to influence their behavior.[3]

People throughout the world have a particular distrust and disdain for the negative influence of the explicit entertainment being produced by Hollywood.

While such awareness is important, awareness alone is not the answer to the problem.  It is, of course, the first step toward the answer.

The print media, more than any other, have consistently contributed to these exposés of the failings of the newer media.  The print media have been aided and abetted by politicians who have jumped on the “blame-the-media” bandwagon.  This carping has often created a climate of fear, anger and reaction.  Some communications about the problem have been so argumentative and biased that they have contributed to the problem rather the solution.

The answer is to go beyond complaining.  People must be helped to develop the media awareness and discernment skills to use the entertainment media without being abused by it.

A short cut is the longest distance

The next step toward a solution is to become informed about the influence the entertainment media have on our society, particularly with regard to violence, sexual activity and values, and to develop discernment and biblical critical thinking skills regarding such influence. Children, in particular, are motivated to change their media habits by an awareness of the influence of the entertainment media on these areas of their lives.

Once children understand the potential power of the mass media to negatively influence them, they will become your ally in the culture wars.  They will want to develop media awareness, discernment and the critical thinking  skills necessary to choose the good, reject the bad and overcome the negative images of the mass media of entertainment.

Why should we be concerned?

Throughout history people have understood the power of communication, art and entertainment to change lives and shape society.  Leaders have called people to action, philosophers have intoned ideas that shaped civilizations and prophets have proclaimed truths that transformed history.  From Moses’s demand of the Pharaoh to “Let my people go!” to the phrase “Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!” that ignited the flames of the French Revolution, communications have stirred people to action, to great sacrifice and even to great cruelty.

Christians, in particular, have understood the power of the word:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made.”  -  John 1:3 (NIV)

As his desire to lead, influence and inspire has grown, man has searched for new media to transmit his creations and communications to others  from cave drawings to hieroglyphics to the printing press to the Internet.  Every new medium of communications has brought hope and engendered fears.

Selling Murder

To illustrate the power of media, consider the work of Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who was the National Socialist (Nazi) propaganda minister from 1933 to 1945.  He exploited radio, press, cinema, and theater in Germany to destroy the Jews, evangelical Christians, handicapped Germans and other groups.  In 1994, the Discovery Channel aired SELLING MURDER, an important documentary investigating how Goebbels used mass media to influence the German people to accept the mass murder of human beings.

The documentary shows that at a time when a majority of German people rejected mercy killings (an euphemism for murder), Goebbels produced a movie called I ACCUSE, an emotive feature film about a beautiful, intelligent woman who is dying of an incurable disease and begs to be allowed to commit suicide. After the movie was released, a majority of German people said they had changed their minds and now supported mercy killings. After a few more of Goebbels’s films about invalids and handicapped people, the German people became strong believers in the efficacy of mass mercy killings.

While the attempted annihilation of Jews by the National Socialists is well documented, the atrocities did not stop with the Jewish race.  The main focus of SELLING MURDER is a group that has been somewhat overlooked: the mentally and physically ill of Germany.  In 1939, Hitler ordered the killing of the mentally and physically disabled, labeling them as "life unworthy of life."  His reasoning was that the cost of keeping them alive in asylums and hospitals was too great.  The real reason, however, stemmed from the government's determination to eliminate any threat to their idea of producing a superior race.

As an insight into the power of the mass media, historian Paul Johnson writes in his book MODERN TIMES,[4] "Hitler appears always to have approached politics in terms of visual images. Like Lenin and still more like Stalin, he was an outstanding practitioner of the Century's most radical vice: social engineering  the notion that human beings can be shoveled around like concrete. But in Hitler's case, there was always an artistic dimension to these Satanic schemes.  Hitler's artistic approach was absolutely central to his success.  [Historians all agree] the Germans were the best-educated nation in the world. To conquer their minds was very difficult. Their hearts, their sensibilities, were easy targets."

Indoctrination, with specific use of newsreel and films, was vital to Hitler's control of the new generation. Gerhard Rempel, in his book HITLER'S CHILDREN: THE HITLER YOUTH AND THE SS[5] wrote: "Each day began with a newsreel, followed by the various types of training.  On Sunday mornings, an ideological program was substituted for church services, and Sunday nights were set aside for motion pictures."

SELLING MURDER is must viewing for every moral person concerned about the use of the mass media of entertainment to influence societal behavior. Similarities between the National Socialist use of film and contemporary television programs about Dr. Kevorkian, abortion and euthanasia are frightening. Two weeks before this documentary ran on the Discovery Channel, a network television program examined the current practice of killing patients by doctors in the Netherlands. The rationalization for these wholesale murders of patients in the Netherlands were all too similar to the Nazi propaganda in SELLING MURDER.

Incite to riot

There are also numerous examples of media induced mass hysteria and violence that can be gleaned from newspapers and in television news reports.  Following the destructive looting and rioting in Los Angeles and around the country after the four policemen involved in the Rodney King case were first acquitted, a few media professionals admitted that their coverage of the Rodney King affair may have been partly responsible for inciting the riots.

For instance, Ed Turner, vice president of CNN (no relation to his boss, Ted Turner), admitted that TV as a whole played the most violent excerpts of the King beating too often. Another broadcaster equated TV’s preoccupation with the violence to snuff films (films of people actually being killed), which precipitated a wave of copycat crimes.

Glorifying gangs

Closely related to the riots are gang movies that have left a trail of tears and death.  Police have called some of these films “irresponsible” and “exploitive.”  Several people have been killed and wounded at the openings of films that exploit gang violence.

At the opening of filmmaker John Singleton’s movie BOYZ IN THE HOOD, 33 people were injured and two people died from gunshot wounds. When BOYZ IN THE HOOD was shown in one California prison, 14 people died in one night of race rioting in the prison.

When NEW JACK CITY opened, riots broke out in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Houston.  More than 1,500 teenagers rampaged through Westwood, Los Angeles.  A teenager was killed in Brooklyn where rival gangs fired more than 100 shots.

Violence broke out in at least eight states after the premiere of JUICE.  A girl caught in the cross fire of two rival street gangs died.  A man coming out of a theater showing the film was paralyzed from the neck down after he was shot. At one theater, two rival gangs had a shooting match in the lobby.

Some time later, copying a murder scene from JUICE, a teenager named Hicks, who killed a man for his tires, pleaded guilty to malice and armed robbery in what a prosecutor called a totally pointless murder.

"One of the co-defendants [Mr. Clegg] said he and Mr. Hicks [the killer] had seen the movie JUICE the weekend before this particular incident, and there was a sequence in it where a totally pointless murder was committed," Clegg said. "I'm told the words Mr. Hicks spoke at the time he fired the shot came from that movie: 'Oh, by the way, BAM!'"[6] 

Bizarre behavior

The impact of the mass media on gang violence and gun play has been discounted because, after all, the people involved in gangs have a predisposition toward violence. However, there are more peculiar and particular manifestations of the influence of the mass media that seem to point only to the media event itself as the source of the behavior in question.

For example, when the movie THE PROGRAM was first released,  several teenagers mimicked the stupid stunt pulled by the main characters in the movie by lying down in the middle of the road.  These copycat incidents resulted in two severe injuries and two deaths. Touchstone Pictures, a division of The Disney Company, quickly edited out the offensive scene.

 On the other hand

On the positive side of the influence of the entertainment media equation: the epic television program JESUS OF NAZARETH introduced millions of people throughout the world to Jesus Christ; A MAN CALLED PETER, about the preacher Peter Marshall, brought a flood of many young men into the pulpit; and, CHARIOTS OF FIRE brought many to Jesus and gave many more a sense of God's purpose in their life.

Child’s play?

It is clear to any parent with a baby that children learn to a large degree by mimicking the behavior of the adults around them, including those on television and in movies.[7]

One of the most famous examples was the connection that a judge in Liverpool, England, made between the horror movie CHILD’S PLAY 3 and the murder of a 2-year-old James Bulger by two 11-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.^[8] According to the judge, the horror movie CHILD’S PLAY 3 presents some horrifying parallels to the actual murder of little James Bulger, and the movie was viewed repeatedly by one of the killers just before the murder took place. The judge noted:

The horror movie depicts a baby doll who comes to life and gets blue paint splashed in its face.  There was blue paint on the dead child’s face.

The movie depicts a kidnapping.  James was abducted by the two older boys before they killed him.

The climax of the movie comes as two young boys murder the doll on a train, mutilating the doll’s face. James was first mutilated and bludgeoned by the two older boys and then left on a railroad track to be run over.

This story was widely publicized around the world, but the link to CHILD’S PLAY 3 seldom made the news.  Why were these facts overlooked or withheld by the mainstream media?  Why not ask your local paper or TV news department?  The answers could prove enlightening.

Beavis and Butt-Head

Television also influences young minds negatively.  The MTV's series BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD was blamed for giving a 5-year-old Austin Messner the idea to set a fire in his own home that killed his 2-year-old sister Jessica.[9] In western Ohio, three young girls set another fire while imitating a trick from the show.[10] In Sydney, Australia, three teenage girls set fire to a apartment complex after viewing the animated program.[11]

The cartoon comedy BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD features two teenagers who comment on rock videos and spend time burning and destroying things. The show also advocates disobedience, disrespect for all adults (especially parents) and promotes such fun ideas as "fire is cool." The program is totally offensive in nature and content, with no redeeming value whatsoever.

In response to the uproar, one insider made the following cynical comments:

"I wouldn't be able to ignore the millions of dollars in sales... controversy sells."
 - Glenn Hendricks, vice president of licensing for OSP Publishing, producers of BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD T-shirts, posters and buttons. [12]

Natural born killers?

The Oliver Stone movie NATURAL BORN KILLERS has produced a slew of copycat murders.

Nathan K. Martinez, an unhappy 17-year-old obsessed with the movie NATURAL BORN KILLERS murdered his stepmother and his half-sister in their suburban home 15 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

In Georgia, Jason Lewis, a 15-year-old, murdered his parents, firing multiple shotgun blasts into their heads.  Letters found in his room indicated he worshipped Satan and, along with three friends, had formulated a plan to kill all their parents and to copy the cross-country swing of violence portrayed in NATURAL BORN KILLERS.

Christopher Smith, an 18-year-old, shouted at television cameras, "I'm a natural born killer!" echoing the words of actor Woody Harrelson in the movie NATURAL BORN KILLERS following his arrest for shooting to death an 82-year-old man.

In Toombs County, Georgia, four people in their 20s were charged with abducting and killing a man, stealing his truck and fleeing in it after watching the movie NATURAL BORN KILLERS 19 times.

One gruesome incident prompted novelist John Grisham to suggest that the survivors of these killing sprees should sue Stone.[13]

The incidence that incensed Grisham occurred in March of 1995 when two teenagers saw NATURAL BORN KILLERS in Oklahoma, then drove to Mississippi and killed Bill Savage in the same randomly violent way as the movie's protagonists do.  They then went to Louisiana and nearly killed a women in a convenience store (she is now a quadriplegic).  One of the two said the movie led directly to their actions.

Grisham lived near Savage and has written a passionate four page letter about the murder to a literary magazine.  He concluded his blistering attack on Stone's movie and on Hollywood's unwillingness to take responsibility for its product by suggesting:

"The last hope of imposing some sense on Hollywood will come through another great American tradition, the lawsuit. A case can be made that there exists a direct causal link between NATURAL BORN KILLERS and the death of Bill Savage.... It will take only one large verdict against the likes of Oliver Stone, and then the party will be over."[14]

Why do critics love these repellent movies?

In response to the critical acclaim movies like NATURAL BORN KILLERS and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS have received, the March 17, 1991 Sunday LOS ANGELES TIMES Calendar section  asked, "Why Do Critics Love These Repellent Movies?" [15] Stephen Farber responded that moviegoers looking for guidance are becoming alienated by the reviewers' penchant for grotesque violence.  He said it has become chic to praise a movie for being nihilistic, macabre, unsentimental.  He concludes that "in contemporary... criticism, there's no perspective, no sense of what is truly valuable, that critical discourse has sunk to a new low.

Lethal weapons

With TV sets turned on in the inner city for 11 hours a day and multiplying satellite, cable and broadcast channels, television “has become the closest and most constant companion for American children,” according to Mortimer B. Zuckerman writing in U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT.[16] In fact, Zuckerman continues:

“It has become the nation’s mom and pop, storyteller, baby sitter, preacher, and teacher. Our children watch an astonishing 5,000 hours by the first grade and 19,000 hours by the end of high school—more time than they spend in class. The question more and more concerning parents, psychologists and public officials is this: What is all this viewing doing  to them?”[17]

A 1992 report from the American Psychological Association states, “Television can cause aggressive behavior and can cultivate values favoring the use of aggression.” [18]

According to Dr. Victor Strasburger, chief of The American Academy of Pediatrics’ section on adolescents, “We are basically saying the controversy is over.  There is clearly a relationship between media violence and violence in society.”[19]

A report on four decades of entertainment TV from the media research team of Robert Lichter, Linda Lichter, Stanley Rothman and Daniel Amundson found about 50 crimes, including a dozen murders, in every hour of prime time television.  This indicates that our children may see from 800,000 to 1.5 million acts of violence and witness 192,000 to 360,000 murders on television by the time they are 17-years-old.[20] 

This contrasts radically with the generations of men and women who grew up without this flood of violent images from the entertainment media.  Lichter and his fellow authors wrote, “Since 1955 TV characters have been murdered at a rate 1,000 times higher than real-world victims."[21]  Michael Medved said if the same murder rate was applied to the general population, everyone in the United States would be killed in just 50 days.[22]

Survey show that 60% of the children in our society watch TV without any supervision and 40% have a TV set in their room. However, television is just a part of their entertainment diet. Radio, CDs, videos, video games, computer games, magazines, comics, the Internet, and much more constitute the rich media diet of  most American children. 

If you are over 40-years-old, you probably watch only six movies a year in theaters, most of which are family films.  Teenagers average watching 50, 80% of which are R-rated or PG-13.  They watch another 50 movies a year on video.[23]

Cigarette companies are no longer allowed to advertise on television because of the threat to human life and health that such advertisements pose.  Yet, television and movies advertise sex and violence day-after-day to the detriment of thousands of people who are maimed, raped or robbed by the deluded Ted Bundys of this world.

Just say no?

While the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and other authorities tell teenagers "Just say no to sex, delay the initiation of sex, be monogamous," Dr. Sevgi Aral says teenagers either do not hear the message, or simply do not act on it.^[24]  Statistics from the CDC show that more than half the young women between the ages of 15 to 19 years of age have had premarital sex.

The question that must be asked is: "Why aren't teens heeding the warnings of the CDC and other authorities?"  The answer is simple.  Teenagers are responding the message coming across in movies and TV shows.  "Sexuality is all important, and it's very glamorous," said Aral.

With all the pressure that the Federal Government has put on television executives to clean up the violence on TV, sex has replaced violence as television’s number one obsession. A study of prime time television conducted by U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT found that out of 58 programs monitored, almost half contained sexual acts or references to sex.  The magazine reported that a sexual act or reference occurred every four minutes on average in prime time programs. ^[25]

Perverse sex and violence are two of television’s most effective lures for capturing an audience.  Traditionally, conservatives have complained about excessive or perverse sex on television, while liberals have complained about violence.  Now both camps have joined in the battle to clean up both excessive sex and violence, though perverse sex is still a matter of debate.

Using the U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT findings, the average child who watches broadcast television sees 240,000 to 480,000 sexual acts or references to sex, including everything from touching to kissing to intercourse,^[26] by the time they are 17.  Since MTV averages 1,500 sex acts per hour,^[27] if we add some MTV and cable television to their mass media diet, children may see millions of sexual acts or references to sex by the time they are 17.  This does not include the sexual acts or references to sex they will see or hear in the other entertainment media.

Carnal knowledge

Television is an "important sex educator" which teaches children to “go for it,” according to the National Institute for Mental Health.[28]  On TV, "it's absolutely taken for granted that you date somebody a couple of times and sleep with them,"  said Michael Josephson, president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics.[29]  Contrary to real life, premarital fornication on TV outnumbers sex within marriage by eight to one according to the Media Research Center.[30]

What boggles the mind is that neither movie nor television characters are ever shown to reap the consequences of their actions.  The heroine rarely gets pregnant.  If she does, she conveniently obtains an abortion.  Nor do the involved parties come down with genital warts, herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis or AIDS.

The mass media must reverse its trend of portraying immoral sex as glamorous and desirable when, in fact, promiscuous sexual activity can be psychologically and physically ruinous and can even lead to death.  It is time to promote a ruthless new honesty in the media with their all powerful influence on our culture, especially on our young.

The Roman Coliseum

David Puttnam, former president of Columbia Pictures and the producer of CHARIOTS OF FIRE, in an interview with Bill Moyers on PBS TV, explained that once people are exposed to the spectacle of blood and sex, they want more and more as they become hardened to the titillation of the last violent or sexual act which they see.  Just as a drug addict who becomes less and less responsive to a drug keeps looking for the initial "ideal" rush, so those who are addicted to the sex and violence in films seek increasing doses of sex and violence to appease their lust. Since the days of the bloody sports in the Roman Coliseum people have demanded increasing decadence with each voyeuristic exposure to the violation of moral taboos.

The reel world

Many aspects of Hollywood’s virtual reality skewer our children’s attitudes and prompt them to imitate self-destructive or uncivil behavior.  Confusing the reel world with the real world can create fears and anxieties that are abnormal

The entertainment media, including entertainment television and movies, does not portray reality or real life but a particular and intentionally emotive perspective on reality.  Even reality programs and television news programs concentrate on the exploitable and the emotive

Hollywood often become boringly repetitious, recycling the same plots, ideas and characters to the point of nausea. In an analytical examination of the messages of the reel world, Dr. Robert Kubey pinpointed the primary messages of the media:^[31]

• Materialism.

• For everything there is a quick fix.

• Young is better.

• Open and unfilled time is not desirable; in fact it cannot be tolerated.

• Violence is acceptable.

• Religion is unacceptable.

• Sex is only good outside of marriage.

Is this the way we want our children to view the world? Is this the way we want the rest of the world to view us?  These messages are destructive of the civilization. Like cancer, they eat away at the fabric of our civilization.

No place to hide

We cannot hide from the mass media.  The mass media form an integral part of the fabric of contemporary society.  They reflect and shape our culture and our vision. The larger than life images of movies, the emotive beat of pop music, the seductive reality of television, the virtual reality of the Internet call us to appreciate our talents and take a stand for biblical principles or  seduce us into perversion and senseless violence.[32]

Movies and television have more influence on our society than all the preachers and ministries combined.  Every time excessive sex or violence is watched by someone in the community it has an effect on the community, even if you were not watching. According to studies by the Annenberg School of Communications, substantiated by the National Institute of Mental Health, television programs and films:

• directly affect a small percentage of the viewers who are susceptible to the message of the movie and will emulate that message in their own lives by copying the sexual, violent or immoral act modeled in the movie;

• adversely affect a larger proportion of the audience, causing them to fear the act in question; and,

• have no apparent effect on the largest portion of the audience, although there may be long term consequences of watching anti-social material.

Excessive sex and violence in music, television and film affects the community by affecting members of the community who go out and copy the immoral acts they hear and witness and by implanting fear in the community.

The point of this litany of problems with respect to different media and arts is simply to point out that there is no place to hide.  The media and the arts are pervasive in our society. Americans are in the midst of entertaining themselves to death.  Either denial or license will only allow the problems to continue to grow out of control.

“Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character."  - 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV)

 

UNDERSTANDING YOUR WORLDVIEW 

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  - Romans 12:2 (NIV)

"Pluralism destroys reason."  Ravi Zacharias

Definitions of different worldviews

Yale scholar Harold Bloom analyzes the emergence of a post-Christian America in his book, THE AMERICAN RELIGION, and says that the god we worship is ourselves.  He says the real religion of America is Gnosticism, an elitist heresy that combines mystical Greek and oriental philosophies and claims that a person needed special knowledge to get to the highest heaven.  Christianity posits that you need no special  knowledge because Jesus Christ offers salvation to all who believe in Him by faith, which is a gift from God.

Considering the plethora of worldviews presented in the mass media, it is important to have a basic knowledge of them and how they differ. The more you understand these worldviews and how they differ, the better your discernment in all areas of life, including the mass media. As you read about these worldviews, try to discern what they believe about the nature of reality which is their ontology and what they believe about how you know about reality which is their epistemology.

In practical terms, there are many “worldviews” but not all attempt to give answers to the major questions of life.  Those important worldviews views that have addressed comprehensive life issues would include:

Atheism

Atheism is the disbelief or denial of the existence of God or a Supreme intelligent Being.  Atheism is a ferocious system that leaves nothing above us to excite awe, nor around us to awaken tenderness. 

Because the atheist rejects any belief in the supernatural, he must view man as an evolutionary creature with no objective basis of morality.  Ethics can only be subjective and self-defined, leading to the survival of the “strong” and destruction of the weak.  Abortion, infanticide and euthanasia are usually common practice in an atheistic culture.

Deism

Deism is the belief or system of religious opinions of those who acknowledge the existence of a transcendent God, but deny revelation and the personal immanence of God.  Deism is the belief in natural religion only, or in those truths in doctrine and practice that man is to discover by the light of reason, independent and exclusive of any revelation from God.  Hence deism implies a disbelief in the Divine origin of the Scriptures. 

While a deist would believe that there is a God who started things out, the deist would also contend that God is no longer intimately involved with creation.  Therefore, there is no purpose in seeking God, or expecting Him to meet our daily needs.

Secular Humanism

Secular Humanism pertains to the present world, or to things not spiritual or holy.  Thus, it relates to things not immediately or primarily respecting the soul and the spirit, but only to the body and the physical world.  The secular concerns of life include making provision for the support of life, the preservation of health and the temporal prosperity of men and of states.  

Secular  power is that which superintends and governs the temporal affairs of men, the civil or political power; and, is distinguished from spiritual or ecclesiastical power. 

The humanist only looks to man for solutions to our problems.  There is no room for supernatural revelation or miracles as humanism is atheistic.  Humanism breeds despair and fatalism.

During the Renaissance, humanism was a cultural and intellectual movement that focused on human beings and their values, capacities and worth, and emphasized the rediscovery and study of the literature, art and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome.  Thus, humanism dealt with the humanities, a conscious return to classical ideals and forms, and a rejection of medieval religious authority.  Boccaccio, Erasmus, and Petrarch were the leading Renaissance humanists.

Pantheism

Pantheism is the doctrine that the universe is god, or the system of theology in which it is maintained that the universe is the supreme god, as well as a belief in or worship of all gods. 

Logic and rationale are discarded by the pantheist.  Anything goes because nothing is supreme.  Ultimately, a pantheistic society embraces chaos as normal behavior in its attempts at attaining liberty. 

Furthermore, without a God who is good and determines the laws of nature, the pantheist sees the world around him as chaotic and threatening and is not likely to become an explorer or scientist.

Materialism

The doctrine that matter is the only true reality and that everything in the world, including thought, will and feeling, can be explained only in terms of matter. Thus, there is nothing beyond what we can observe.  Philosophy is a game of language.  Since matter is all there is, comfort, pleasure and wealth are the only or highest goals or values.

Materialism holds that matter is the final reality.  Democritus, Epicurus and the Stoic conceived of reality as material in nature. The theory was renewed and developed beginning in the 17th Century, especially by Hobbes. This worldview was developed further from the middle of the 19th Century, particularly in the form of Dialectical Materialism and Logical Positivism.

Marxist / Leninism

The political and economic ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which Marx called “the ultimate humanism,”[33] as applied by Vladimir Lenin. It is said that Lenin asked God to forgive him on his deathbed.

This system is based on the atheistic assumption that all human experience, behavior and history are the product of purely material forces acting upon the individual and should be planned and controlled by the state to achieve, eventually, a classless society with total equality of goods. 

Marx said that to achieve this classless society the dictatorship of the proletariat must: abolish private ownership of property (which God ordains in the Bible to protect the weak individual such as Naboth from the greedy ruler); abolish religion (which gives man the assurance of things hoped for); abolish the state or nation (which God established to regulate commerce and protect the family); and, to abolish the family (which God ordained as the basic unit of government, education and procreation).  In Communism, driven by the politics of envy and greed, what a man cannot do on his own to achieve equality of life, he looks to the state to make happen.

There are two Marxist refinements on Materialism: Dialectical Materialism, which views matter as the sole agent of change and all change as the product of a constant conflict between opposites arising from the internal contradictions inherent in all events, ideas and movements; and, Application of the principles of Dialectical Materialism to the study of history and sociology, which is called Historical Materialism.

Dialectical Materialism is the official philosophy of Communism. The obverse of Hegel's dialectical Idealism, it holds that men create social life solely in response to economic needs. Thus, all aspects of society reflect the economic structure.  Growth, change and development take place through a "struggle of opposites" process which individuals cannot influence. 

Historical Materialism regards material economic forces as the foundations on which social and political institutions and ideas are built.

This philosophy has many non-Communist advocates and has undermined morality in the United States and has led to a societal drive toward consensus and compromise even where right and wrong is at stake. 

Nihilism

According to this doctrine all values are meaningless and baseless, and nothing can be known or communicated. Nihilism is anextreme form of skepticism that denies all existence,rejects all distinctions in moral value and refutes all previous theories of morality. This worldview holds that the destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.

Nihilism started as a revolutionary movement in mid 19th century Russia which scorned authority and tradition and believed in materialism and radical change in government through terrorism and assassination.

Romanticism

Formalized by Jean Jacques Rousseau and derived from pantheism, this doctrine holds that God is immanent in nature and ourselves.  Therefore, self-fulfillment is the basis for morality, and whatever enriches self must be good, while whatever diminishes self must be bad. 

Romanticism exalts the senses and emotions over reason and intellect, admires the heroic and the individuality and imagination of the artist and is interested in the medieval, exotic, primitive, and nationalistic. 

This worldview is defined by a heightened interest in nature, an emphasis on emotion and imagination and rebellion against established social rules and conventions.  Today, romantic is often used in a derogatory sense and implies unrestrained sensuousness, vague imagery, lack of logical precision and escape from reality.

Romanticism inspired several streams in philosophy such as a return to occultism and the present New Age movement, National Socialism (Nazi), Fascism, and Communism. 

English literary Romantics like Lord Byron, John Keats and P.B. Shelley focused on the individual's highly personal response to life.  The Gothic Romantics like Sir Walter Scott became enamored of the cult of medievalism.  The German Romantics like Goethe, Schiller, the brothers Grimm, and Wagner eventually inspired Nietzsche and then Adolf Hitler.  In America Romanticism birthed Transcendentalism.

Existentialism

This doctrine is that there is no inherent meaning in life and that natural laws are meaningless.  Since meaning for an existentialist is a purely human phenomenon, humans can create meaning for themselves, but no one can provide meaning for someone else.

A 20th century philosophy, Existentialism centers on the individual and the individual's relationship to the universe or to God. 

Sòren Kierkegaard developed a Christian existentialism wherein concrete ethical and religious demands confront the individual, who is forced each time to make a commitment.  The necessity and seriousness of these decisions cause him dread and despair.

Jean Paul Sartre held that existence precedes essence, and that there is no God and no fixed human nature, so each person is totally free and entirely responsible for what he or she becomes and does. It is said that Sartre cried out to God on his deathbed. 

Camus, Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Buber and Karl Jaspers are often treated as existentialists.

An offshoot of Existentialism is contemporary Relativism, which holds that every meaning one chooses whether religion or worldview is equally valid.

Nominalism

This doctrine is that reality and god are concepts in name only, convenience of language and thought.  Everything is imaginary, which the Hindus call Maya (illusion).  Therefore, magical thinking can change this ephemeral reality.

Originally, Nominalism was a doctrine of the late Middle Ages that all universal or abstract terms are mere necessities of thought or conveniences of language and therefore exist as names only and have no realities corresponding to them. 

Realism

This doctrine is that universals have objective reality (ontology), as opposed to Nominalismand that material objects exist in themselves, apart from the mind's perception or consciousness of them (epistemology), as opposed to Idealism, which holds that reality exists only in the mind.

Orthodox Christians and Jews have a real ontology and epistemology.

Idealism

This doctrine is that the objects of perception are actually ideas of the perceiving mind and that it is impossible to know whether reality exists apart from the mind as opposed to Realism and Materialism.  Idealism attempts to account for all objects in nature and experience as representations of the mind and sometimes assigns to such representations a higher order of existence. 

Plato conceived a world in which eternal ideas constituted reality.  Modern Idealism refers the source of ideas to the individual's consciousness.  In Kant's Transcendental Idealism the world of human understanding opposed the world of things-in-themselves.  Later German Idealists like Hegel treated all reality as the creation of mind.

New age

New Age is a complex of recent spiritual and consciousness-raising beliefs and doctrines that cover a range of themes from a belief in Spiritualism and reincarnation to advocacy of holistic approaches to health and ecology.

Much of the New Age worldview is Neo-platonist,  which was a mystical philosophy based on the later doctrines of  Plato.  It was developed in the third century A.D. by Plotinus, who saw reality as one vast hierarchical order containing all the various levels and kinds of existence.  At the center is the god, an incomprehensible, all-sufficient unity that flows out in a radiating process called emanation, giving rise to the Divine Mind, or Logos. The Logos contains all intelligent forms of all individuals.

Later Neo-platonists incorporated such disparate elements as Eastern mysticism, divination, demonology and astrology.

Occultism

Occultism is a belief in occult powers and the possibility of bringing them under human control.  It includes spiritualism, sorcery, divination, astral body, spirit body, ethereal body, spirit manifestation, ectoplasm, telekinesis, poltergeists, spirit-rapping, automatic writing, spiritualistic apparatus, Ouija board, psychical research, Transcendentalism, esoteric, Cabbalism, reincarnation, theosophy, Rosicrucianism, alchemy, astrologer, fortune-teller and palmistry.  It implies having a secret or hidden meaning.

God’s word is clear about Occultism:

“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or  sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.” Deuteronomy 18:10-12 (NIV).

 

Biblical Theism

Theism is the realization that the Creator God created the universe. Therefore, we can explore and study (science) because we know that the universe was made according to a plan and is not haphazard.  Unlike the pagan belief in many gods that causes fear and uncertainty about the nature of the world, biblical theists understand that the world has order.  So they can develop science and technology.  Furthermore, biblical theism realizes that God reveals himself and His order in the universe (Romans 1) so the universe is knowable.  The biblical theist also understands that God is good and that man has been given stewardship over the earth. Finally, the theist knows that he has fallen short of God’s glory, but that God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ to reconcile man to God and bring us into the fullness of His Kingdom.

Biblical theism gives man the liberty to pursue knowledge and understanding, the assurance that good will triumph, and the opportunity to enter into the Grace of a relationship with our Creator and be delivered from the alienation, confusion and demons of our fallen condition.

Christian worldview

The Bible provides the definitive answer to the meaning of the Christian worldview, which is biblical theism.  God has revealed Himself in creation so that no person can say, “I didn’t know there was a God” because:

• “...that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”  Romans 1:19, 20.

• He chose to reveal Himself most completely in written word.  For this reason, ultimately, the Christian worldview and the biblical worldview are synonymous.

• Other Scriptures that provide the basis of a Christian worldview (viewing all things in life through the lens of Scripture) include:

• “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD.  ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8,9);

• “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is  his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2); and,

• “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” (II Corinthians 10:5)

These Scriptures help us see how critically important it is that we think as God thinks to the degree granted by Him.  This is a fundamental meaning of the Christian worldview.

Other questions that must be answered to more fully understand every worldview:

• What is the origin of man?

• How was man created?

• Is there purpose in life?

• Why do I exist?

• Why is there evil in the world?

• Does God care about my suffering?

• Is there an after-life?

• Are all religions that believe in God valid?

• Will there be an end to life on earth as we know it?

Most people ask themselves these or similar questions while thinking about God.

How your theology shapes your worldview[34]

Here are some key doctrinal questions for you to use to evaluate different worldviews. These doctrinal questions are adapted from those asked by Michael S. Horton in an article in MOVIEGUIDE ®.

1. The doctrine of God

Does God have all power and authority over the universe, or is history a battle between good and evil forces (dualism)? 

Is this world rational and ordered?  What is justice, goodness, truth, beauty?  How are these reflections of God's character? 

What is the significance of the affirmation that "the Word became flesh" for our view of our humanness and the importance of this world? 

Is God the separate, sovereign, creator of the universe as in theism?  Or is God part of the universe as in pantheism, polytheism and monism?

2. The doctrine of man

Is man a product of chance?  Are we part of God or distinct creations of God? What distinguishes humans from the rest of creation? 

What is the “image of God”?  Do people still possess that image even if they aren't Christians?  What does this mean for the arena of life we share in common with non-Christians (work and play, etc.)? 

Are humans basically good or evil?  How are we dead in our sins?  How are we cut off from God?  What does original sin mean? 

What does this mean for government and law?  How do we balance liberty and justice?  Can we expect to build an ideal society?

3. The doctrine of salvation

Is salvation eternal or temporal? 

Do people really need saving?  From what? 

Of what does the Christian doctrine of salvation consist?  Is salvation the work of God entirely?

How can man save himself?  If man can save himself, why did Jesus Christ need to die on the cross and be resurrected?

4. The doctrine of the Church

Are we saved from the world, or saved in the world?  Is the church a community that is separated from the world or to God in the world? 

Is the church a community of only those who are truly saved, or is it a mixed body of Christians and hypocrites who will only be sorted out on the last day? 

How important are the earthly sacraments of bread, wine and water in our Christian experience? 

What are my responsibilities to the church as well as to my calling?

5. The doctrine of history and the future

Is God's history of salvation, from Genesis to Revelation, a story of escape from this world and normal human history, or a story of providence and redemption in real time and space history? 

Are we wasting our time getting involved in this world when it is going to pass away at our Lord's return?

6. The doctrine of the nature of reality  ontology

Do we live in a real world – ontological realism?

Or, do we live in a great thought or imaginary world that can be shaped by magical thinking – ontological nominalism?

7. The doctrine of knowledge – epistemology

Can we know that something exists such as a tree falling in the forest – epistemological realism?

Or, can we never know with certainty anything and so must make believe that reality exists – epistemological nominalism?

 

MEDIA WISDOM

“They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.”  - Ezekiel 44:23.

Describing the elephant

To teach discernment, you must understand that many parents primarily look at the entertainment media semantically in terms of the amount of sex, violence, nudity, and profanity, while many children just look at the entertainment media syntactically in terms of the rhythm, action, adventure and special effects.  So parents and children talk at each other about the entertainment media, not to each other.

Children are not immune to the messages of the mass media, but it is the syntactical elements of those messages influence them.  Try asking a younger child what he or she is watching on television.  Quite often he or she will say, “I don’t know.”  Ask the child what the program is about and often he or she will repeat, “I don’t know.”

However, pay attention to the child’s actions, and you will often see him or her mimicking the behavior he or she is watching.   Or, later he or she will mimic the behavior or ask for a product that was advertised with the program.

Thumbs up

One set of keys to media literacy is to teach your children to analyze the mass media product by deciphering, decoding and detecting meaning in the mass media communication and then to compare and evaluate that meaning with a biblical worldview so as to understand and discern.  Once they learn the right questions to ask, you can help your children broaden their perspective and develop discernment by having them review, critique and report on the mass media they see and hear.

One of the most important keys to developing the biblical discernment needed to choose the right entertainment is asking the right questions.  The entertainment media are loaded with messages.  Learning how to discover these messages helps you appreciate the movies and television programs you watch, the games you play, the music you listen to and the mass media information sources upon which you rely.

Asking the right questions about the entertainment media requires media literacy and a working knowledge of how the medium in question communicates and entertains.  Developing discernment requires comparing the messages you discover from the questions you ask with the standards and principles presented by a Christian worldview.

There are two types of questions presented:

• Ascertainment questions  which help us isolate elements, evidence, meaning, point-of-view, and worldview in a particular mass media product.

• Discernment questions – which help us to compare the answers to our ascertainment questions with the biblical standard.

We will look briefly at those elements that make up powerful, dramatic entertainment.  This analysis will be framed as a series of questions to guide you to ask the right questions about the entertainment product you, your children and friends view.  These questions will help you look beneath the surface of an entertainment product to determine whether you and God’s Word written[35] agree with the messages the media product communicates.

This is a call to action, including active viewing and listening.  It is beneficial to discern the subtle ways in which seemingly innocuous material molds our thinking through explaining its elements to others.  This is especially important for Christian parents to consider. 

For the reasons stated in the introduction, I will focus on movies and videos, but the principles apply and are easily adapted to other media. Stimulating children to interact with their entertainment media experience rather than simply absorbing it is crucial.

But, first

On the way to the THEATRE and before the video brainstorm with your child for prior knowledge about the story or content matter.  This gives you an opportunity to share a short description of the movie’s plot and characters.  Before the film begins you can encourage children to imagine the characters and what could happen.  If the child’s thinking is activated prior to the passive activity of watching, they can engage in the story and learn from the plot on the screen.

Prior to viewing, to facilitate active viewing:

• Talk about the title, images and ideas about the plot.

• Predict the character types and action in the film.

• Ask what your children know that they can bring  to the film.

• Use MOVIEGUIDE’s “In Brief” as an introduction to the film.

• If viewing a video, plan to stop the video for predictions of a character’s actions or plot twists,  but too much stopping is not recommended as it may disrupt the rhythm of the film.

HINT: Set the timer so that if you or older children see something worth discussing in the video, you can easily return to that section after the movie.

Elemental And Evidentiary Questions

The first set of questions we will ask are known as elemental and evidentiary questions because they deal with elements of the mass media product that are easily ascertained.  Most of these questions help us to find out the facts of the mass media product about which most thinking people will agree.  It should be clear after reviewing these questions that there are many other questions that we can and should ask in order to be media literate and discerning to choose the good and reject the bad.

These are key questions to ask your child after watching a movie.  They’re sure to help launch an animated discussion.  It is important to set a tone that supports the child’s responses and creative impressions of the story.

Ascertainment question: Who is the hero?

Usually the easiest question for anyone, including children, to answer about a movie, television program, computer game, stage play, book or story is: Who is the hero or heroine?  Of course, when we are confronted by some modern literature wherein the reader has to realize that he is the hero (or the hero doesn’t exist), or if we probe beyond the character’s name to find out his characteristics, then this question becomes much more complex.

Many dramatists[36] talk not about the main character in the story whom most people would consider the hero, but rather about the character who forces the action, whom the dramatists call the protagonist. From a dramatist’s point-of-view the villain, such as Judas in the Passion story, can be the protagonist if he forces the action, whereas the hero, Jesus, may be the antagonist because he opposes the protagonist.  Even so our main character, in this case Jesus, remains the hero because he triumphs over his opponent(s).

For our purposes, we can conclude that in most cases, especially as far as popular entertainment is concerned, the hero is the main character who is the focus of the story.  Using this insight, most children can find the hero in most entertainment media product.

However, knowing the name of the hero is not enough to be discerning.  To understand who the hero is we must analyze the hero's bone structure. The bone structure of any character is the combination of all the characteristics that make up the character.  In analyzing a character's bone structure we need to look at the following: his physical characteristics; his background; his psychological characteristics; and his religious characteristics.

As a guide to the impact a hero has on a story, the following reminder of the archetypal story genre are helpful:

• In the mythic story, such as THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, God triumphs, or the hero triumphs because of an act of God.

• In the heroic story, such as HIGH NOON, the hero triumphs because he or she is superior.

• In the high ironic story, such as FORREST GUMP, the hero triumphs because of an quirk of fate or circumstances.

• In the low ironic story, such as DEATH OF A SALESMAN, the hero fails because of a quirk of fate or circumstances.

• In the demonic story, which includes not only many horror films but also psychological movies and political films such as THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, the hero is hopelessly overwhelmed by evil.

The next movie, television program, story, or game with which you interact, locate the hero or heroine and describe his or her character traits.

Discernment question: What kind of a role model is the hero?

After locating the hero or heroine in the entertainment product and identifying his or her character traits, you need to discern whether or not he or she is a worthy role model. It is not safe to assume that the heroes of today's movies are the positive role models we want for our impressionable children.  Even where the premise is positive and the morals in the entertainment product reflect a Christian worldview, we must ask the question: Is the hero compatible with the biblical role model?

Comparing three of action star Sylvester Stallone's characters  ROCKY, RAMBO and COBRA (one of his lesser known, later characters)  illustrates the different messages that a hero can communicate through his or her character traits in movies with basically the same premise:

• ROCKY is an ironic hero who loves his family, prays and tries to do the right thing, although he is reduced to using brute force to prove his worth and win in our complex modern society.  Rocky's use of force in the boxing ring is mitigated by the fact that he prays before each fight, demonstrating his reliance on God and not on his own prowess. (Note that in ROCKY IV, Rocky steps out of character and pursues vengeance for its own sake.)

• RAMBO is a haunted man who strikes out at the country (USA) that abandoned him to die in Vietnam and tries to rescue his buddies who have suffered a similar fate.  Rambo has lost faith in everyone and ends up by asking why the rug of faith was pulled out from under him by the country he loved.  He uses brute force to triumph out of anger and frustration.

• COBRA is a killing machine who sets himself up as judge and jury.  He is the ultimate humanist, a product of  Ayn Rand, Nietzsche and Hobbes, who exhibits the solipsistic heresy of titanism.

THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST pushed the desecration of the hero one step further.  Never before in history had moviemakers declared war on Jesus.  Here are excerpts from notes taken by Evelyn Dokovic of Morality in Media at a screening of THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST:[37]

• “Judas berates Jesus for making crosses that are used by the Romans to kill Jews.  As they talk, Jesus indicates that he is struggling.  (Viewer observation:  Jesus is weak, confused, fearful, doesn't know who he is, from time to time falls on the ground in a faint after hearing voices.  He doesn't know if the voices come from God or the devil.)

• “Jesus seems to be helping them crucify the man.  He revives and says he wants God to hate him. He makes crosses because he wants God to hate him.

• “The viewer sees a bare-breasted woman sitting at a well.  Jesus proceeds on his way to Mary Magdalene's house.  He has to wait in line to get in.  When he does the room is filled with men sitting down, watching Mary have sex with a customer.  Jesus sits down and watches, too.

• “Jesus says: 'I'm a liar, a hypocrite, I'm afraid of everything.  Do you want to know who my God is?  They're fear.  Lucifer is inside me.  He tells me I am not a man, but the Son of Man, more the Son of God, more than that, God.'

• “Jesus is walking with his wives (bigamy) and children, and stops to listen to a preacher  St. Paul.  He is telling the people that Jesus of Nazareth  was the Son of God, that he was tortured and crucified for our sins, and that three days later He rose from the dead.

• “Jesus screams: 'Liar.'  Jesus tells Paul that he is Jesus, asks why he is telling these lies.  Jesus says: 'I was saved.  I have children.'  Paul tells him to look around him and see how unhappy the people are.  Their only hope is the resurrected Jesus.  Paul says: 'They need God.  If I have to crucify you, I'll crucify you.  If I have to resurrect you, I'll resurrect you.  My Jesus is more important than you are.  I'm glad I met you.  Now I can forget about you.’"

This hero is evil and this movie is blasphemy.  To think that Jesus, the Word, who was in the beginning, through Whom all things were made, who is God, was lusting in His holy heart for one of His creations is grotesque and horrifying (see John 1).  This film desecrates the sinless Lamb of God who cleansed us through His death and resurrection.  THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST is the ultimate desecration of the hero, even though the premise says that good triumphs over evil.

 Subsidiary discernment questions:

• If the hero is not a moral character, how would the story change if the hero was a moral character?

• How would you tell the story from another character’s viewpoint?

• Do you know anyone like the hero?

• Is there a character in the Bible who is like the hero?  Who is it?  What is their story?

Ascertainment question: Who is the villain?

As in the case of the hero, you need to identify the villain and his character traits.  In most entertainment product the villain is easy to identify, but there are exceptions.

To identify the villain, it is helpful to recall the four basic plots:

• Man against man.

• Man against nature.

• Man against himself.

• Man against the supernatural or the sub-natural.

In the remake of CAPE FEAR, the villain does not say he is a Christian, but does have Bible verses tattooed on his body and spouts contemporary Christian code words in a malevolent manner. Therefore, you need to look at all the attributes of character to see if he is supposed to be a Christian.

Once you have identified the villain, you should list his character traits in the same manner that you did with the hero.  You will want to list physical characteristics, background, psychological characteristics, and religious characteristics.

Since the demise of the motion picture and television codes, there have been many media products portraying those who are moral as prudes, nerds, kooks, and psychopaths.  One of the first was MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969), which portrayed a street preacher as a sleazy homosexual who leads the hero into homosexual prostitution.  The movie CRIMINAL LAW (1989) went further by portraying pro-lifers, who do not think that babies should be murdered in their mothers' wombs, as psychopathic killers.

In SHIRLEY VALENTINE, the working husband is the villain, while the heroine is the wife who runs off with her bisexual friend to have a series of adulterous affairs in Greece.  In DANCES WITH WOLVES, the villains are the American settlers and the U.S. Cavalry.  The heroes are the Indians.  In THE BEAR, the villains are the hunters and the heroes are the bears.  In OLD GRINGO, the Americans are the bad guys and the Mexicans are the good guys.

In contrast, in the 1996 film adaptation of RICHARD III, the archetypal villain is truly evil, so much so that his mother tells him that he has abandoned God.

Discernment question: What kind of a message does the character of the villain communicate?

We need to analyze the character of the villain to determine whether he, she or them are being used to attack a religious, biblical worldview.  If they are being so used, we may want to protest this anti-Christian bigotry and, perhaps, even boycott the movie in question.

 Ascertainment question: How much violence is there in the mass media product?

Violence in the entertainment media is a critical problem because of its influence on children and susceptible individuals, so it is important to know how much violence is in a mass media product. Many contemporary movies and television programs push the limits of violence.

Looking at the content of some movies will help you to understand the severity of the situation:

In FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE there were:

• Multiple grotesque murders and violence in dream sequences.

• A wooden rod rammed through man's ear.

• The deforming and exploding of a character's head.

• A man impaled on bed of nails.

• Blood dripping or gushing from doors, ceilings and a television set.

• Stabbings and slashings.

• Amputation of fingers and ears.

• Recurrent intense depictions of child abuse and molestations by parents.

In PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS the content included:

• Sadistic violence, including a woman bound by wrists inside a torture chamber.

• People hit with cement blocks.

• A tongue cut out.

• Chasing a girl with meat cleaver.

• Impaled a knife in a woman's stomach.

• A pit bull attack on intruders.

• Body mutilation.

• A gory corpse hanging on rack.

• Electric shock.

• A man shot and hurled down stairs.

• The forcing of a child into boiling water.

• Punching a man in the groin.

• Pouring gasoline inside an inhabited chamber and setting it aflame.

• A sword impaled into a dog.

• Poking a man in the eye.

• Crude references to genitals.

• Sexual jokes.

• A child likened to a prostitute.

• Talk of "tricks"; tarot cards and voodoo dolls that embody the souls of victims

• Crack and drug addicts.

• Distortion of the 23rd Psalm.

• Breaking and entering.

• Sadomasochistic dress.

• Cannibalism.

Something must be done to curb this level of violence in movies.  The most effective stand you can make is to know before you go by reading MOVIEGUIDE and then to avoid movies with such abhorrent material.  Since teenagers are the most likely to attend these types of movies, it is important to help them understand why they need to make godly choices before they use any of the modern mass media.

 Discernment question: How is the violence presented in the mass media product?

The emotive heart of drama is conflict and the ultimate conflict ends in violence.  The Bible is full of violence and the Gospel story has one of the most violent scenes imaginable: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The presentation of violence in the entertainment media is not always bad and is sometimes necessary.  It is, however, critical to protect young children from such violence and to identify how it is presented in the entertainment product so you can discern whether it is necessary and furthers the good and the true.

Ron Maxwell, director of GETTYSBURG, said that while violence was essential to the storyline of the movie, he purposely avoided porno-violence with its excessive blood, guts and gore.  His discretion made GETTYSBURG a better movie that could reach a broader audience.

 Discernment question: How is love portrayed?

The beauty of God's love is wonderful, yet most movies reduce love to one night sexual relationships, tedious ordeals, eternal battles or homosexual coupling.  This desecration of love should be an anathema to His people.

THE SCARLET LETTER contends that adulterous love is honorable.  KIDS suggests that promiscuous sex posing as love is acceptable among young teenage children.  WAR OF THE ROSES suggests that marriage is war.  SKIN DEEP starts out with the hero sleeping with one woman after another. The movie RUTHLESS PEOPLE has the husband trying to murder his wife, while the wife is trying to blackmail the husband.  DESERT HEARTS has a woman who is getting a divorce find out that lesbian love is better than heterosexual love.  ACCIDENTAL TOURIST proves the despicable premise that self-indulgence is more important than love.  NAKED LUNCH, THE INCREDIBLY TRUE ADVENTURE OF 2 GIRLS IN LOVE, BOUND, PHILADELPHIA, and BIRDCAGE present homosexual lust as love.

Many horror movies capture an audience by luring them with the thought of forbidden lust, such as necrophilia (fornication with the dead) and bestiality (fornication with animals).

However, horror films are not the only films that extol forbidden fruit. The comedy SPLASH lifts up bestiality in a humorous way by having the hero fall in love with a mermaid.  Bestiality is not funny and is condemned by God.

Many movies suggest, or even promote, the idea of sex with a child.

The most memorable and most profitable movies are usually carefully crafted character studies which portray love in a wholesome, biblical, up-lifting light, such as TENDER MERCIES and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. 

Ascertainment question: How much sex is in the mass media product?

In 1995, there were 36 movies produced that had excessive sexual content.  These films earned on average less than $1 million at the box office. Two of the biggest budget Hollywood sex films, SHOWGIRLS and STRIPTEASE, bombed at the box office and lost millions of dollars despite mammoth advertising campaigns. In 1996, the average box office for the six movies with strong homosexual content was a pitiful $705,302. Since the average Hollywood movie costs $54 million to produce and market, one has to wonder why the industry continues to try to force such product on the public.  Movies with strong Christian content in 1995 earned on average 2,400% more at the box office than movies with excessive sexual content.

An example of the excess of sexual content in some Hollywood movies is the critically acclaimed movie NAKED LUNCH.  This disgusting movie contained: 12 obscenities and six profanities; a woman shooting insecticide into her breast; grotesque giant bugs with talking anuses; a woman ripping open her body; women shot in the head; "mugwump" monsters with dripping and squirting phalluses on their heads; graphic fornication; adultery; reference to sexually transmitted diseases and fellatio; transvestitism; homosexual kissing; lesbian and homosexual copulation; male and female nudity; surrealistic and overt depictions of genitalia; witchcraft; graphic drug use; drug-induced hallucinations; and, alcohol consumption.

Many such movies garner the applause of the secular critics and film festivals around the world, but do not get much of an audience.

Discernment question: How is the family portrayed?

Contemporary movies that build up the family, such as the pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage, pro-fatherhood FATHER OF THE BRIDE, are rare.          

Instead, today's movies tend to lift up homosexuality, promote free love, tear down marriage, portray motherhood as psychopathic, and show husbands and dads as irresponsible. These types of movies attack the basic building block of our society: the family.

The content of two anti-family movies with family MPAA ratings is very instructive:

In ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES (PG-13), the content includes:

• children dropping a cannonball on their baby sibling, dropping a guillotine blade on their baby sibling, dropping their baby sibling from roof of house, burning summer camp, and starting to burn a girl at the stake;

• a nurse trying to electrocute her husband, trying to bomb her husband and trying to electrocute the family;

• extreme graphic violence in a scene at a camp;

• sadomasochism, sadism and perverse sex and fornication are suggested;

• occult references throughout the movie; and,

• blasphemy and mocking of Christianity.

In THE BRADY BUNCH (PG), there is:

• frequent sexual innuendo;

• an older woman flirts with young boys;

• a lesbian girl has a crush on unsuspecting friend; and,

• the family's non-religious, clean-living morality is mocked.

The Bible is very clear about the importance of the family.  The family is the focal point of God's economy and governance. God created the family and ordained it as basic unit of government along with self-government, the church and civil government. The family is much more important than the state.

Ascertainment questions: Is religion, the church, people of faith, and/or Christians in the mass media product?

Being able to identify religion, the Church, people of faith and/or Christians in the entertainment media product is an extremely important aspect of discerning viewing.  Religion is alive and well in the entertainment media, especially on prime time network  fiction television, but it is not the predominantly Christian faith of our founding fathers. It is, instead, a cacophony of ill-conceived religions such as materialism, consumerism, eroticism, hedonism, naturalism, humanism, cynicism, stoicism, the cult of violence (that used to pay homage to the war-god Mars), and a multitude of other modern variations on pagan practices.  These religions, many of which can trace their roots back to long discredited ancient cults, have their rituals, beliefs, values, signs, significations, metaphysics, cosmologies, ontologies, epistemologies, and ultimate meanings played out with ritualistic regularity on programs, commercials and music videos.  On any given night on television we may find happy Hollywood stars touting the virtues of astrology and Madonna embracing a religious statue that comes alive.

Many in Hollywood recognize the religious significance of their work. Joe Eszterhas, author of the sleazy movie SHOWGIRLS, claimed that his pornographic film was a religious experience.

Theocentric religions are under-represented in the mass media and especially on prime time entertainment television, though there has been a significant increase in their presence in the last few years in popular programs such as TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL and even DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN. In fact, there has been an increase in television programs which focus on Christianity and Jesus Christ such as CHRISTY, 7^th HEAVEN and even some episodes of WALKER: TEXAS RANGER and other popular series.

Discernment question(s): How are religion, Christians and the church portrayed?

All too often in contemporary movies, religion, individual believers and the Church are portrayed as evil, weak, insincere, obsequious, rotten or foolish.

Though it had nothing to do with the premise, a series of morning prayer meetings were inserted into the mediocre movie HEAD OFFICE, which caricatured Christians as neo-Nazis who prayed for world conquest with German accents. In Woody Allen’s movie HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, Christianity, Roman Catholicism and even Hinduism are mocked.

As Christians, we may think mocking other religions is funny, but the truth is that mocking false doctrines is a sign of hubris and not of a godly desire to lift up the Truth, who is Jesus the Christ.  Furthermore, as history has constantly proven, mockery will lead to disaster. For example, Hitler began his campaign against the Jews by mocking them in grotesque cartoons.

The good news is that there are more and more movies which lift up Jesus Christ and commend the church, such as DEAD MAN WALKING and PREACHER’S WIFE.

Ascertainment question: How Is the world or the environment in which the story takes place portrayed?

The environment in which a story, song or entertainment event takes place has an immense impact on the audience.  Because every communication excludes what it does not include, its omissions create powerful secondary messages in the mind of the audience.  Editing, close-ups, reverse shots, and other camera techniques can distort the meaning of a scene and the way we look at the world.

To understand how  the media influence by excluding material, look through viewfinder of a camera and note how you can completely changed the mode and the message of a scene by what you include and what you exclude within the frame of the picture.  Let your children do the same and you will help them to develop a critical media literacy skill.

One college student wanted to become an anthropologist because of a beautiful picture of a temple in Bali. When I recognized the location and told the student that the temple was surrounded by a gas station and urban blight, his perspective changed.

Research has shown that the background environment of an entertainment media product has a tremendous impact on the worldview of the children. 

It is important that we are aware of how the media product is portraying the world so we can counter any misconceptions the product might create.

Since a camera excludes everything beyond its field of view, television journalism is technically biased in its reporting, yet the viewer interprets what he or she sees as the truth.  The camera is typically used to implode the subject matter by focusing tightly around one aspect that makes the shot appear larger than life.  This distorts the real world environment.

In other words, the camera does lie.

The entertainment industry often distorts the way we look at the world.  The next time you watch a movie or television pay close attention to how the world or environment in which the story takes place is portrayed. Although the environment in which the story is set may not be the focus of your attention as you watch or listen to most media product, the environment will send you distinct messages that influence how you look at the world and the subject matter of the entertainment product.

Subsidiary ascertainment question:  How is language used in the mass media product?

Closely related to the environmental ascertainment and discernment question is the question of how language is used in a mass media product.  A definitive study by Professor Timothy Jay on  “Cursing in America”[38]found that only 7% of American people curse on the job and only 12% in their leisure time, yet many movies and television programs would lead us to believe that Americans cursed all the time because they are so full of  profanity and obscenity.  It may be rare to hear cursing in your local grocery store or mall, but turn on your TV, radio or go to the movies and you will hear a constant barrage of cursing.

One school of Marxist thought considered language as a weapon with which to attack the bourgeois society in which we live.[39]  Playwright David Mamet belongs to this school. 

In the years MOVIEGUIDE has been tracking language in movies, we have found that the more foul language included in a movie the worse it will do at the box office.

Subsidiary ascertainment question: What special effects were used to create the setting and environment of the entertainment product?

This question helps de-mystify the entertainment media product so that children can see that it is pretend  that it is all created.  Children can be unsettled by even seemingly innocent things in a entertainment media product, so it is important to emphasize that some movies, television programs and other mass media product are fantasy.

If your child is very young, you might ask questions like:

• How do you think they made that character fly without getting hurt?

• What pretend things were the characters doing?

A lot of young children want to duplicate what they see, so it is wise to point out  what is not real.

Discernment question: How are government and business portrayed?

This question belongs as a subset of the question "how is the world portrayed," but because so many movies attack republican governments and promote socialism and communism, it behooves us to pay close attention to the way a movie portrays government. Furthermore, to really analyze what worldview is being foisted upon us by a motion picture, we should also ask in conjunction with this question, how is private enterprise portrayed in the movie.

The Lichter, Rothman and Lichter studies show[40]the vast majority of those involved in the entertainment industry believe in socialism, which believes that the state, not God, is the savior of the mankind.

At the very root of socialism and communism is a negation of God's Law, the Ten Commandments, particularly: the First, since the state is being elevated to a position higher than God; the Eighth, because the redistribution of property by the state is stealing from those less powerful than the state who are forced to give up their property against their will; and, the Tenth, because the whole premise of socialism and communism is based on the politics of envy or coveting that which belongs to someone else.  A movie that lifts up the state as savior and attacks the individual and his God given rights is, in fact, promoting a very anti-Christian worldview.

SALVADOR is a particularly coarse example of a movie aimed at promoting the goals of socialist revolutionaries. The rebels are a nice bunch of young people with no weapons except their good cause, and the hero makes it clear that he hates all authority, especially American.

Another extreme example is REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS, a fascist fantasy wherein mystical, humanistic violence is used to defend the Big Brother State from unscrupulous free enterprise capitalists. The savior is an ancient Korean marshal arts master who can walk on water.  Regrettably, this savior is dedicated to serving Big Brother and death. Many people become infected by the virus of the corrupt mystic statism in such movies, so we need to be aware of these deceptions and be prepared to rebuke them.

The opposite view, that the state is always the villain, as represented in the movies JFK and NIXON, is also wrong.  In a similar vein, FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY suggests that the United States government was immoral for creating and employing the atomic bomb to end World War II. INDEPENDANCE DAY, for all its many good points, goes in the opposite direction and suggests that internationalism is the key to harmony and world peace.

Statism, in whatever form it takes  whether fascism, communism or national socialism  is a punishment for rejecting God and seeking salvation from men.  This is the key to the impoverishment of every totalitarian state, including the former Soviet Union with all its natural wealth.  Salvation can never be found in the state, but tyranny can.

FORREST GUMP and BRAVEHEART are two very successful examples of movies that adhere to a biblical view. FORREST GUMP shows the foolishness of the self-appointed revolutionaries; while BRAVEHEART demonstrates the principle of Lex Rex which holds that even the king has no right to violate God’s Law.

Asking how government and private enterprise are portrayed will help us to cut through the hidden political agendas that are in too many films.

Discernment question:  How is history treated in the media product?

Any familiarity with world history will convince us that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.  When the media revises the past to suit their worldview, it is a very serious issue for the future of our civilization.

Much revisionism has been devoted to whitewashing the holocaust.  Those who deal in this area of revisionism are anxious to remove the memory of the holocaust from the annals of history by claiming that the gas chambers could not have killed so many people and that the death camps were actually work camps with good sanitary conditions.

While SCHINDLER’S LIST accurately portrays the horror of the holocaust, THE ENGLISH PATIENT white-washes the real history of its Nazi hero, extols adultery and promotes euthenasia.

Any thinking person understands the threat of revising history to remove the memory of holocaust, but few object to the wholesale revision of history that supports our republican democracy and Christian heritage. Historian Catherine Millard has chronicled the removing of Christian quotes and information from our national monuments by the U.S. Park Service and the removal of  the Christian writings of our Founding Fathers from the Library of Congress in her book THE REWRITING OF AMERICA’S HISTORY (Horizon).  Reading her book gives a frightening look at how the revisionists are trying to remove any trace of Christianity from our society.

Worldview Questions

 We move out of the evidentiary world toward the philosophical foundations and perspectives that the mass media feed us over the impulse waves.  In order to discern meaningful biblical agendas, we need first to distinguish between the differing worldviews and man’s relation between himself, his world and his God.

The term discernment has a much deeper meaning than identifying discrepancies between “good” and “bad” viewing, which is to see the differences between the two elements and to make an educated decision.  We are here to build discernment, and discernment involves our entire process of thinking, feeling and knowing so that we are able to recognize a pieces of media or information as moral, ethical and holy or as information that does not follow the laws of God and His plan for our lives.

Therefore, the second set of questions that we will ask are known as worldview questions because they deal with the underlying elements of the mass media product that must be ascertained by looking at the dynamic interfaces between the evidentiary elements.  These elements help us to understand the philosophical and theological messages that the mass media product is communicating and are critical to making discerning decisions.

Ascertainment question: What is the premise of the movie?

If you understand the premise of the entertainment product, then you understand the ultimate message the product is communicating to the audience.  The premise drives the story to its conclusion.  Whether or not the audience is conscious of the premise, it implants its message in the minds of the audience.

The storyline logically proves the premise.  If the premise of the mass media product is "good triumphs over evil," then the storyline has to tell in a logical manner how the good hero triumphed over the evil villain or the story will fail to capture the audience.

Without a clear-cut premise, no idea is strong enough to carry a story through to a logical conclusion.[41]  If there is no clear-cut premise, the characters will not live. A badly worded, or false premise will force the mass media-maker[42]to fill space with irrelevant material. A mass media product with more than one premise is confused because it is trying to go in more than one direction.  A premise that says too much is ambiguous and, therefore, says nothing. A premise that does not take a position is ambivalent and, therefore, says nothing.

In most cases, a mass media-maker will not be able to produce a successful entertainment product based on a premise that he or she does not believe.  No one premise expresses the totality of universal truth, and every premise is limiting.  For example, poverty does not always lead to crime, but if the mass media-maker has chosen the premise that poverty leads to crime, it does, and he or she must prove it.

Here are some sample premises:

• God’s love triumphs over death (DEAD MAN WALKING)

• Great faith triumphs over death (LADY JANE)

• Love conquers death (ROMEO AND JULIET).

• Great faith triumphs over despotism (BRAVEHEART)

• Ruthless ambition destroys itself (MACBETH)

• Strength defeats evil (RAMBO)

• Cunning defeats evil (ALIEN)

• God triumphs over self-centeredness (THE PREACHER’S WIFE)

• God's call triumphs over bondage (TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL)

The premise can be found by analyzing the story.  In DRIVING MISS DAISY, an elderly woman has alienated all those around her. Motivated by his Christian faith, her black chauffeur gives his life to help her, ignoring her cruelty and demeaning barbs. In the end, she recognizes that he is her only friend. This heart warming story has the incredibly powerful premise that:  Christian virtues bring reconciliation and love into an old woman’s life.

Finding the premise will help your children develop cause and effect thinking, which is so important in understanding a story.  Another way of finding the premise is to ask: Why did the story end the way it did?

 Discernment question: Does the premise agree with, or conflict with, a biblical worldview?

Once you find the premise, you need to evaluate whether or not the premise is consistent with a biblical worldview.  If the premise of the media product does not square with a biblical worldview, then you need to question the message the product is leaving in the minds of the audience.

The premise of RAMBO has led to senseless violence and bullying because too many impressionable viewers end up believing that might makes right, since Rambo demonstrates that strength, not goodness, triumphs over evil.  The eternal truth is that God's love alone secures the victory over the forces of evil which the classic movie BEN HUR clearly demonstrates.

Ascertainment question: How is the premise solved?

It is quite possible that the premise can agree with the biblical worldview, but the way that premise is solved may be anti-Christian, immoral or evil.  If that is the situation, then the media product is not acceptable viewing for Christians.

In many movies good triumphs over evil but only by means of a magic.  So while the premise ("good triumphs over evil") agrees with the biblical worldview, the method by which the premise is solved (magic) is anti-biblical.  These movies are suspect for anyone who does not understand that all magic is evil.  If the magic were a literary device to point away from the manipulation of the supernatural for personal gain toward Jesus and God's grace, as in THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, then there would be a redemptive aspect to the story that would make the movie acceptable.

The premise can be perfectly biblical, while the solution is immoral or demonic.

Subsidiary ascertainment question:  What is the plot of the media product? What was the mass media product about?

Part and parcel of identifying the premise is to identify the plot.  To do so you need to identify the five “W’s”: who, what, where, when and why.  Always attempt to identify in the film as many of these as you think need to be answered. Often, it is a good idea to try to do this in one or two sentences.

Identifying the plot will help you to identify the premise and help your children to understand stories.  Asking this straightforward question helps you find out whether your children understand a movie’s main ideas.  This question will also prompt children to recall details and incidents in sequence, which are two important thinking skills. Concerned about question formation techniques and the taxonomy of thought, education specialists stress the importance of asking questions deeply and not widely to explore knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Subsidiary discernment question: What image/sounds would you say best summarizes the media product?

A sound-image schema can help you discover recurring themes and underlying principles in the media product.  Ask you children to state one sound or image that relates to the story and discuss different suggestions from the family. 

The subconscious sounds and images recite themselves over and over in the mind like an unwanted mantra. (Of course, no Christian wants any mantra, especially one placed in our minds by a media product.) 

Children constantly repeat songs from commercials such as McDonald’s advertisements. Ask them to think about the songs and what they mean. Most children will come to the conclusion that they do not want to be singing songs that manipulate them.

If these ideas are presented into the conscious, only then can we make decisions about their appropriateness in our hearts and head.  We can choose to accept the song and dance or demand that the negative images leave in the name of God.

Ascertainment question:  What are the moral statements in the media product? and
Discernment question:  Do the moral statements agree or conflict with a biblical worldview?

Besides having a premise that drives the story to its logical conclusion, many media products make one or more moral statements.  BATMAN FOREVER has the premise, "Cunning intelligence (as represented by Batman) triumphs over evil," and the biblically sound moral statements that  “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8 [KJV]);  “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18  [KJV]); and “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19 [NIV]).

Sometimes the premise of a media product is anti-Christian while the moral agrees with a biblical worldview.  The premise of LABYRINTH that "a strong will defeats evil" is contrary to the biblical worldview; however, the primary moral statement of LABYRINTH is that "possessions are worthless when compared to the value of the life of another human being" agrees with God's Word written.

Ascertainment question: How is evil portrayed? and
Discernment question: How does the portrayal of evil in the media product compare with the biblical view of evil?

Heretical doctrine can most often be traced to an incorrect view of evil, as is the case with humanism that sees man as basically good and minimizes evil and sin, or New Age religions that see evil as simply an illusion, or occultism and Satanism that view evil as strong as, if not stronger than, the ultimate good who is God.  It is critical to an orthodox Christian worldview that evil be presented for what it is – real, not illusory or imaginary, and that it is clear that Jesus won the victory over evil on the cross.

SWEET LIBERTY is the archetypal humanist view of evil: neither God nor evil is a factor; everything is OK in the right context; and, man's actions don't have consequences.  THE CRAFT portrays evil as having tremendous power and says that the teenage heroine can only succeed by participating in the occult power wherein the evil witches also draw their strength.  The STAR WARS movies show evil as being simply the other side of the good, with the Force, the god of STAR WARS, being ambiguous and ambivalent.  AGNES OF GOD distorted the Gospel by making evil good and by portraying the nun Agnes as a spiritist who talks to departed spirits and who worships the powers of the air.  All of these movies demean the reality of our sinful situation and negate the Truth of God, His sovereign goodness and His victory on the cross.

However, there are many movies that take a biblical view of evil and good, from classics such as THE SOUND OF MUSIC to more recent movies such as FIRST KNIGHT, which has one of the best portraits of a biblical view of good and evil ever presented in a movie.

Ascertainment question:  How is reality portrayed? and
Discernment question:  How does the presentation of reality in the media product compare to the biblical norm?

The question as to how reality is presented in the media product is the classic ontological question (ontology is the study of the nature of being, reality or existence): that is, how is the very nature of being, which is reality, presented in the mass media product.

For Christians and Jews the biblical view toward reality is that we live in a real world, created by the real God, wherein there are real problems, pain and suffering that we can not ignore or wish away.  For those of us who are Christians, the creator God has saved us from real evil, sin and death through the real death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Christ, who was really God and really man.  Any other ontology, or view of the nature of being, denies the Gospel.

Classical Buddhism considers reality to be an illusion and the ultimate reality to be non-being, which means that there is no evil and no need for redemption.

In Christian Science, the sinful, fallen world as we know it is only mortal mind, while reality is divine mind, which is similar to the good universal consciousness of New Age religions.

In like manner, Hinduism and many New Age and pagan religions see reality as an illusion or Maya.  The ultimate reality for these nominalists (which means that the things in the world are only names not real things) is merely a fiction and not the real creation of a real theistic, separate God of the Bible.  This nominalistic ontology denies the reality of sin and the need for salvation.

A nominalist premise blurs the line between imagination and reality.  Evil is real and denying its reality by saying that it is only a dream or an illusion denies the need for Jesus's death on the cross to save us from our sins and from sin itself.

Hindus ignore the sick and hurting people around them because they believe that such sickness is Maya and nothing is real.  Therefore, Hindu holy men will pass a dying street urchin, with the explanation that his suffering is only an illusion and his karma, while Mother Teresa will pick the child up and take it to a hospital.

A Universalist worldview suggests that Jesus is not the only way to salvation.  If that were the case, then it was futile for Jesus to suffer a vicious death on the cross.  The Universalist worldview makes a mockery of the reality of His suffering, death and resurrection, and reduces Jesus to a liar or a madman, rather than the “Way, the Truth and the Light” (as C.S. Lewis so aptly noted).

Another branch of the New Age and pagan religions see the world as made up of many gods and spiritual forces, a polytheistic ontology that sees reality as a cacophony of a myriad spiritual forces.

While Christians and Jews believe we live in a real world, they do not subscribe to the materialistic view of humanists and communists  that all that exists is the material world and the spiritual world is merely an invention of deluded minds.

Christians and Jews have explored the world and the laws of the universe and thereby have developed civilization.  Pagans remained in a barbaric fear of venturing forth into the unknown and were unable to develop scientifically.

Every movie has an ontology whether the producer, writer, director knows it or not.  The funny, poignant movie GROUNDHOG DAY presents a nominalistic ontology that is contrary to the word of God, though it has a moral conclusion that makes it worth watching.  Movies with magical thinking, such as ALADDIN, usually have a nominalistic ontology.  However, it is interesting that the movie THE LION KING has a real ontology where there are real consequences for young Simba’s actions, real death and real solutions that require taking responsibility.

Subsidiary ascertainment and discernment question:  How does the media product present knowledge and how does that presentation compare with the biblical norm?

How do we know that anything exists?  This question is often phrased:  How do you know that a tree fell in the forest if no one, including yourself, sees it?

Christians and Jews believe in a real epistemology, which means that they know because God tells them.  He has told us that His laws govern all creation, including the forest, so we know that the life and death of trees occurs because trees are subject to His laws.

Many media products, especially horror films, posit that you cannot know and therefore are trapped in an unpredictable and frightening world.  Other media products, such as Sartre’s famous play NO EXIT, take an existentialist perspective that you cannot know so life is essentially meaningless.

In GROUNDHOG DAY, there is the unique combination of ontological nominalism and epistemological realism.  So even though the days repeat themselves in a very unreal fashion, the hero knows that they repeat themselves and can adjust his actions accordingly, which, by the way, no one else can, so the other people are trapped in the nominalistic universe.

Subsidiary ascertainment and discernment question:  What is the cosmology of the media product and how does that presentation compare with the biblical norm?

Christians and Jews believe God created the universe, therefore the universe is governed by His Laws of creation. Since He has informed us that He is good, we can trust those laws of creation and explore the universe with confidence.

In contrast, many media product have an evolutionary cosmology, which means that nothing is certain and everything is ultimately pointless.  Thus, you need to understand the cosmology of a media product to make discerning entertainment choices.

Ultimate ascertainment question and discernment question:  What is the worldview of the media product and how does it compare with a biblical worldview?

Developing a biblical worldview involves much more than a particular perspective or filter over a lens.  Your worldview defines your approach to all areas of thought, including:  mass media, education, politics, religion, law, and government.  It is the task of the viewer to examine the messages and assumptions that the entertainment industry imparts and to ask the kind of questions that pierce through thinking that is inconsistent with biblical principles.  Parents have this opportunity to teach their children how to probe beneath these assumptions to test their truth or validity against the Word of God. 

When looking at a media product, ask the basic philosophical questions, such as:

• What is the nature of reality?

• What can we know about reality?

• What is the nature and purpose of humanity?

• How do we decide what is good or evil?

• In what does a human find value?

• What is the relationship of the individual to God?  To self?  To nature?

• Is truth relative or the same regardless of the era or culture?

• How does the hero live his life justly?

Every media product is a reflection and a projection of the broader culture in which we live.  The entertainment industry often regards the problematic elements in their media product as a problematic elements of our society as a whole.

The entertainment industry evades criticism by appealing to the First Amendment and by claiming that we cannot judge a media product out of the context of our culture.  Clearly, these are specious evasions. We need to judge the righteous judgment and view the world through God’s Word, not God’s Word through the eyes of the world.  We need to be media literate and familiar with a biblical worldview and then compare the worldviews of the media product we encounter with that biblical worldview.

Ascertainment question:  Is there any redeeming value?

A media product can have many of the above mentioned worldviews going against it and still be redemptive.  NOTHING IN COMMON starts out focusing on the story of an egocentric young advertising executive who pushes everyone around and plays with every woman he meets, but ends with him giving up his job and his fast life to take care of his sick father.  He makes a decision for love that costs him everything in the world's eyes, but gives him back his father and a new appreciation of life.

Surprisingly, his boss lets him leave work to take care of his father with the insight that "there has been only one perfect son," or so he had been told.  Therefore, NOTHING IN COMMON tells the story of a man who has been moved by the power of love from selfishness to selfless giving  a very redemptive message.

It is very rare that a film can have a redemptive element that will transcend the negative elements.  Some children's films such as THE DIRT BIKE KID do transcend their negative parts because those parts are treated lightly, with deference and a lack of conviction as storytelling devices, while the redemptive element of love, courage or integrity is emphasized.  If a motion picture does transcend its parts because of some redemptive element, then we need to be aware of the good and the bad in the movie so that we can discuss it honestly and rebut any negative elements that may be detrimental to our Christian worldview, or the worldview of those we hold dear who see the film.

Reflection Questions

Reflection question: Would you be embarrassed to sit through the movie with your parents, your children or Jesus?

When we are alone, or with a friend, we often deceive ourselves regarding the true nature of a movie (or television program).  If we ignore the faults in a movie we are watching, then we will slowly be conditioned to condone, if not accept, a non-Christian point of view.

There are many other questions which we could ask to help evaluate a motion picture, but they may be boiled down to: How would we like our loved ones to be inundated by the messages being communicated by the movie?

Reflection question: What was your favorite part?  Why did you like that part so much?

Here you’re guiding children to think about how the mass media product relates to real life.  Most important, you’re boosting a child’s self-esteem.  Any time you ask children their opinion, you build their confidence tremendously.

Reflection question: If you were an actor in this movie, what character would you be?

Children usually love to think about the character they feel most like, or would most like to be.  Your child’s responses, of course, can give you insights into his or her wishes and concerns.  Children are prone to accept role models and to accept the underlying belief systems that these models exercise and demonstrate.  In this discussion, a parent can expose worldviews and value systems that are inconsistent and even dangerous.

Subsidiary reflection question: Would you do just what that character did, or do you think you would have done things differently?

This question gets children thinking about the plausibility of characters’ actions.  It’s important to invite your child to consider whether a character’s action was the right choice  because sometimes mass media product makers manipulate a character’s choice just to make the entertainment product more exciting.  Children should know that kind of thing goes on in Hollywood.

Reflection question: What did you like about the hero/heroine?  What things were important to the hero/heroine?  Are those things important to you?

Get children to explore the association between the character and their own lives.  Children become aware of why they like a character  because the character made them feel good or because he or she did something they could do.  Mass media product made for children oftentimes communicate positive values of honesty, loyalty and so on.  So hopefully, your child will respond to your questions with answers like, “Well, she was a good friend to him and believed in him no matter what,”  conveying to you that your child is picking up on values.  Together, you can also discuss a full range of solutions to the problem this character faced and possible remedies for their future problems with biblical guidance.

Reflection question: What feelings did you have as you watched or listened to this media product?  When did you feel sad, mad or scared?  What part of the media product made the feeling change?

Can your child identify what he is feeling?  Does the child realize that it is the media product and the storyline that is making them feel that way?  It is important for parents to explore this because children need to put a name to their feelings  especially younger children who might not know from where their feelings are coming.  Asking children questions such as these after seeing a movie helps them identify the source of their emotions.

There are many other questions which we could ask to help evaluate a mass media product, but they all boil down to how we would like our loved ones to be inundated by the messages being communicated by the mass media. If we care about others and about the Lord Jesus, we will take a stand against anything being communicated that undermines a biblical worldview and mocks our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Anything less than standing on His Word written denies our relationship with Him.

Media Literacy

The definition of media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, interpret, and create media messages. 

The ability to access must include everything from owning media delivery devices (TV, radio, computer VCR, etc.) to understanding how to turn them on and use them to deliver messages.  One cannot “access” a VCR if one does not know how to plug in the various wires and set it to tape, then playback.

Analyzing includes being able to comprehend not only the storyline or language of a program, but also how it may have been put together.  Understanding the media requires some exposure to and comprehension of the way it was made.

Interpretation requires that we have a basis for both the story and the agenda, which may be part of its underlying message.  If the program is sponsored by the XYZ company, one can assume they expect their views to be promoted, probably not only in the advertisements but also in the story. Some networks (particularly FOX) have stated that the programs they produce are intended to appeal to the “real world” of singles who live together, adults who accept a standard of divorce and homosexual viewers.  They try to stretch the bounds of acceptable programming every season.

Creating the media helps everyone understand what to look for in the media we watch.  When teenagers use a video camera to make a 10-minute film, the camera angles, script, actors/actresses, sets, and scenery all become important decisions.

Who are you?

A good place to start building the wholesome pattern of media consumption is documenting what we do.  A diary of a week’s media use is a great place to begin.  Log the amount of time each family member watches TV, what is watched and the reaction.  All forms of media should be logged.  Keep track of radio, video games, CD and tape use (even in the car), computer on-line time, and what the computer user was exploring.  Don’t be overwhelmed by the log, but do understand, all of this is media input.  Someone else has control over what you are during the time you are consuming this media.  It would also not be a bad idea to note what and for how long each family member reads.

When you have begun to be aware of  how you use the media, you can begin to make conscious choices.  Many households turn the TV on the minute everyone comes home, especially to keep the children occupied while supper is prepared.  This is a difficult habit to break, so pay close attention to the programs chosen during this time.

Most news programs are not fit for children under 10.  From 5 to 7 p.m., most stations are broadcasting the news, so another choice is advised.  Discuss and predetermine the channel choice.  This way whoever turns on the TV doesn’t immediately see the latest murder or airplane crash.  Attention to details like channel pre-selection or a schedule taped to the set can save your children nightmares. Before going to a movie you probably talk about what film to see and where it is playing.  Do the same with TV.

Television is designed to capture our attention and deliver that attention to advertisers.  Everything about a TV show, from the choice of actors and actresses to where the commercial breaks are, is designed for the most impact on viewership.  If a station can document that it has a large percent of the viewing audience, it can charge more for commercial time during that show.

Wisdom

There are three necessary steps in teaching media-wisdom to your children:

• We must inform children of other worldviews and philosophies and enhance their biblical education to reinforce Christian Theism.

• We must prepare them to think about and reject the subtle messages of the media.

• We must teach and model a godly disciplined lifestyle.

• The church must battle the prevalent secular mindset and worldview by training students to think and live biblically.

As wise viewers, we need to understand:

1. the medium of the entertainment industry;

2. the cognitive processes of the viewer; and,

3. the values orientation that supports our understanding of  both the medium and the viewer (ourselves). 

If the mass media runs counter to the our worldview it should be refuted. If the medium portrays appropriate familial relationships, even avenues toward salvation, it should be commended.

Raise King's kids not Natural Born Killers

Parents need to help them become children of the King of Kings, not “natural born killers” and residents of the infamous cable TV program “South Park.”

THE MEDIA-WISE FAMILY, is 90% solution oriented to do just that – help you help your children to become your ally by learning how to be media-wise.

One 15-year-old told me he could discern between good and evil, so he felt that it was okay for him to watch horror movies such as SCREAM and HALLOWEEN. I replied that he needed to be motivated by wisdom to choose the good and reject the bad.

THE MEDIA-WISE FAMILY gives parents the ability to win the culture wars where it counts – in their homes.

For further information about MOVIEGUIDE or THE MEDIA-WISE FAMILY, please call (770) 825-0084, or write:  MOVIEGUIDE, 2510-G Las Posas Road, Suite 502, Camarillo, CA  93010, USA.

For more information, call or write: 

MOVIEGUIDE ®  &
The Christian Film and Television Commission
2510-G Las Posas Road #502
Camarillo, CA 93010

(800) 899-6684

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind"  - 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV).

Endnotes

[1] Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, Richelieu (1839), act II, sc. ii. [2] According to a 1994 UCLA Center for Communication Policy/U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT survey mailed to 6,300 decision-makers in the entertainment industry, receiving a 13.76% response. [3] See chapter 2. [4] Johnson, Paul, MODERN TIMES: The world fRom the Twenties to the Nineties revised edition (New York, N.Y. : Harper Perennial, 1992), p. 130. [5] Rempel, Paul, HITLER'S CHILDREN: THE HITLER YOUTH AND THE SS (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1989) p.76. [6]  Associated Press 7/7/92. [7]  Several studies have been done in this regard which we will cite in Chapter 4. [8]  The New York Guardian, 12/93. [9]  Spillman, Susan, “Film Scene To Be Cut After Fatal Imitation” USA Today, 10/20/93, Edition: FINAL  Section: NEWS  Page: 01A. [10] DeBross DeBross, Jim, “Did show cost girl's life?: Fatal fire is blamed on `Beavis & Butt-head,'" DAYTON DAILY NEWS, SUNDAY, 10/31/93, Edition: CITY  Section: NEWS  Page: 1A. [11]  Ibid. and Jubera, Drew, “Viewer  Caution  Advised  TV  Industry  Warned  To  Clean  Up  Violence  In Programming Or Face A Crackdown Through Legislation” The Atlanta Journal, 10/21/93. [12]  The Hollywood Reporter, 10/25/93. [13]  Grisham, John, “Unnatural Killers,” MOVIEGUIDE ® Volume XI#18: 960826. [14]  Ibid. [15]  Farber, Stephen, "Why Do Critics Love These Repellent Movies?" LOS ANGELES TIMES, Sunday, March 17, 1991: Calendar section  [16]  Zuckerman, Mortimer B., “Do You Despair At The Sight Of The Youngster In A Trance In Front Of The Television Set? You Are Not Alone.”  U.S. News & World Report, August 2, 1993 v115 n5 p64(1). [17]  Ibid. [18] American Psychological Association, 1992 Report: “Big World, Small Screen: the role of television in American society” (Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1992) quoted by Chicago Associated Press, June 9-11, 1995. [19]  Ibid. [20]  Impoco, Jim, “TV’s Frisky Family Values,” U.S. News & World Report, April 15, 1996, pp. 58-62. [21]  Ibid.   [22]  Medved, Michael, “Hollywood’s 3 Big Lies,” MOVIEGUIDE ® Volume XI#01: 960101, January A, reprinted from Reader’s Digest, October, 1995. [23]  Teenage Research Institute, Wheaton, IL, as reported in MOVIEGUIDE ® Volume IX#3&4: 940207 [24] MOVIEGUIDE ® Volume VI#24: 911206 & Volume VI#23: 911122. See also “Research Issues in Human Behavior and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the AIDS Era,” editors: Wasserheit, Judith N., Aral, Sevgi O.  and Holmes, King K.  (American Society for Microbiology Press: 1991). [25] Impoco, Jim, “TV’s Frisky Family Values,” U.S. News & World Report, April 15, 1996, pp. 58-62, quoting, in part, a study by the renowned media research team of Robert Lichter, Linda Lichter, Stanley Rothman, and Daniel Amundson. The U.S. NEWS poll of the general public was of 1,000 American adults conducted by Celinda Lake of Lake Research and Ed Goeas of the Tarrance Group March 16-18, 1996.  The margin of error for the study was plus or minus 3.1.  The poll of the Hollywood leaders was a mailed survey that went to 6,059 persons and for which there were 570 responses.  Among those who helped at the UCLA Center for Communication Policy on the Hollywood poll are Jeffrey Cole, Michael Suman, Phoebe Schramm, Marde Gregory, James Reynolds, Scott David and Jeff Shore.  Percentages listed in each of the surveys may not add up to 100 because some respondents answered "Don't Know." [26] NYPD BLUE was famous for its premiere episode on September 23, 1993 containing a bedroom scene with partially covered intercourse and then full nudity after the act. [27] U.S. News & World Report, supra. [28]  Ibid.   [29]  Ibid.   [30]  Ibid.   [31] Kubey, Robert, “Media Use and Its Implications for the Quality of Family Life” (Paper delivered at the NFF Media Workshop. Nov. 1990). [32] John Hinckley claimed that TAXI DRIVER caused him to shoot President Ronald Reagan. [33] Marx, Karl, THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO, supra. [34] Adapted from an article written by Horton, Michael S., MY FATHER'S WORLD, MOVIEGUIDE Volume VII#22: 921116. [35] God's Word is Jesus Christ (John 1). God's Word written is the Bible. God's Word written was used often by the Reformers to emphasize the relation between God the Father, God the Son and His Holy Scripture. [36] Such as Lajos Egri, who wrote the definitive text about scriptwriting, THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING,which is must reading for anyone interested in scriptwriting. THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING is the text used at USC, UCLA and other premiere film and television schools. [37] Dokovic, Evelyn, Morality in Media newsletter, August, 1988. [38] Jay, Timothy, CURSING IN AMERICA (Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1992). [39] The famous Marxist, Professor Marcuse at the Sorbonne, advocated using language as a weapon. He inspired many of the most renowned Communist revolutionaries in the 20th Century. Even Jane Fonda studied with him. [40] See Lichter, S. Robert, Rothman, Stanley & Lichter, Linda, The Media Elite (Maryland: Adler & Adler, 1986). Also, see Wildmon, Donald, The Home Invaders (Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1985) pp. 18-23 for an excellent analysis of the Lichter Rothman studies. [41] Egri, Lajos, The Art of Dramatic Writing, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946, 1960), p.6. [42]` Note that movie-maker is being used here to refer to all those people who are responsible for authoring a movie, including the screenwriter, the director, the producer, the executive producer, et al.