President’s Update message, June 2007
There was a time in American history when the primary centers of learning were three in number: the school, the church, and the home. If your child was placed in a Christian school, if he was involved in a good church program, and given the fact that you supervised what was taking place at home, you could rest assured that your bases were covered.
Today, however, there is a fourth center of learning: the world of popular entertainment personified in a chorus of “voices”. These voices include the music industry, television and film industries, advertising, comic books, video games, internet, and the news media. Even though they come wrapped in the innocent package called entertainment, all are capable of transmitting values, morals, ideologies, and attitudes about life in bigger-than-life terms.
Even the American Medical Association has voiced concerns about the pulse of popular media. They concluded that certain types of music and film “may present a real threat to the physical health and emotional well-being of especially vulnerable children and adolescents.” Of greatest potential harm was media that advocated drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, satanic worship, sexual exploitation, and racism. The AMA report cited evidence that these themes may be associated with social isolation or may lead to “active participation in, or passive acceptance of, destructive behaviors” among adolescents.
While parents are hard at work to provide for their families, due to a lack of energy many spend little time with the kids. By default, this void allows the popular entertainment culture to serve as chief babysitter. Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council observed: “What are we saying to our children if we allow them to spend more time watching television by the time they are six than they will spend talking with their fathers the rest of their lives?”
In many respects, we find ourselves in a situation much like that of the people of Israel in the Old Testament. The Lord, speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, said of His chosen people: “They have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean.” (Ezekiel 22:26). They failed to equip their families with proper discernment skills and an appreciation for righteousness.
You may be thinking “Oh, but my family is different. I do restrict what the kids watch and listen to.” But there is a world of difference between restricting access to unwholesome material (which is an important fist step) and teaching kids to think for themselves.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of building a huge cage around our kids to protect them. We give them a long “don’t watch, don’t listen to” list. Unfortunately, when children outgrow the cage we’ve designed for them, or when they are not directly under our supervision, they don’t have the tools to make good choices on their own.
Our goal as parents, teachers, and pastors should be summed up by this simple phrase: Learn to discern. Using Proverbs 3:21 (NIV) as our mandate – “My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight.”
