Garbage
in…garbage out.
Above all else,
guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Put away
perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before
you. (Prov 4:23-25 NIV)
In September, a
national Rand Corp. survey of 1,792 adolescents concluded that teens
are impacted by what they watch on television. Significantly, teens
who watch a lot of sexually suggestive programs are almost twice as
likely to have sex earlier than those who don’t.
This is no
surprise to most parents. They have been complaining to the
entertainment industry and politicians for years and have been
rebuffed as a flock of Chicken Littles. Now parents have research
reaffirming common sense, but we must face the larger problem…our
collective cowardice in using the truth to guide our personal and
societal actions.
Periodically,
Americans are jolted to our senses. Last year, it was Janet’s bare
breast. Last month it was the Rand Corp. survey. And still…we
allow the barrage of filth free access to our children.
Feeding their
brains with pictures of vulgarity to the max, we teach our children
that vulgarity and promiscuity are just a “normal” part of life in
America. The changes in the life of teens that have followed this
cultural shift are shocking.
Prom night used
to be a special evening of corsages, pictures, and close dancing
that might end in a good night kiss. No longer. Now prom night has
become a universal expectation for “dates” to have sex…just
because. For younger teens, the “spin the bottle” game of the 50s
has evolved into the “rainbow party.”
Doctor Meg Meeker
in her book Epidemic tells of her teenage patient Allyson who
was traumatized when a friend took her to a rainbow party. “After
she arrived, several girls (all in the eighth grade) were given
different shades of lipstick and told to perform oral sex on
different boys to give them ‘rainbows.’”
These teens are
simply reenacting the sexual standards we set for them in the
culture at large. And television is the great cultural medium
shaking its “booty” at our children. Research confirms what we knew
all along…so…now what?
Now that we are
enlightened, now that our common sense is “informed” by social
research, what are we willing to do to create a society that teaches
our children healthy, respectful behavior based on sexuality that
honors restraint and propriety?
Michael Powell,
chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, performs
microscopic surgery on free television, working to enforce limits on
debauchery. But he works with one hand tied behind his back.
Under a separate
set of regulations, cable, satellite, radio and the Internet are
free to assault our children, forcing entry through our homes and
into their minds. Public libraries chafe at efforts to restrict use
of public funds to provide sexual material to patrons, including
children.
Pollution of our
culture leaves us no sanctuary or refuge; the stench wafts its way
uncontrolled across our nation. Entertainment continues to teach
our children that sex is an insatiable appetite with no limits.
Rapper Eminem
fuels a passion for lust married with hate and violence.
Abercrombie & Fitch promotes group sex in catalogues and stores
marketing clothes to teens. Wife swapping is reality television.
And cultural icon Nicole sexually seduces a ten-year-old on the big
screen “for the sake of art.”
What good is it
for us to have common sense and to have our good judgment confirmed
by research if we lack the courage to change? How will we change
what our children learn if we refuse to change what we feed them for
the mind?
Finally,
brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if
anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
(Phil 4:8 NIV)
Food for the
brain.
Food for the
heart.
Food for the
soul.
Garbage in...garbage out.
