Entertainment

Introduction.  Entertainment today brings unique challenges for the Christian seeking to live a pure and holy life and “keep oneself unspotted form the world” (Jas. 1:27). Since God asked us to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Eph. 5:11), just how close to the ungodliness of worldly television or a night at the movies can we allow ourselves to be?

A fundamental principle of life always comes into play. We learn by imitation! Just as our language, food, and clothing are strongly influenced by our parents and culture, so also are our temptations and sins. “Evil company corrupts good morals (ethics).” God was deeply concerned about the evil influences of the evil nations upon His people, Israel. He wanted them destroyed because He knew “they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods.”  Even Solomon could not withstand this influence: “when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God” (1Cor. 15:33 Deut. 7:4; 1Kings 11:4).

What does this have to do with entertainment? The true power of entertainment is our ability to vicariously feel the emotions of the actors. We laugh and cry with them, we feel anger and jealousy with them, and we love and hate with them. When our entertainment is filled with good wholesome characters doing righteous and honorable things, we feel these things with them. This is the good side of entertainment. Many of the early television shows were created with this in mind

Yet the other side is equally true. Violence, vengeance, and various lusts are also vicariously felt.  They lead to changes in how we view temptation and sin just working in our heart just as Solomon’s wives did to his. Hollywood has become skilled in seeking to change the views of the culture, and all too often seeks to “turn away your sons from following me.” They portray the Christian as ignorant and narrow minded while portraying the atheist or homosexual as a hero. In this way they change how our culture views such things. They make the victim a hero by having him kill those who wronged him, and teach our young people to imitate this. Pornography is destroying the lives of millions as powerful lusts change the way they think about fornication and adultery. Graphic violence has coarsened the culture and led to terrible consequences. The morals of movies and television have greatly impacted our culture. We are not the same people we were before these things were invented.

Warnings from the Book of Romans.  How a nation descends into “ungodliness and unrighteousness” is described in the first chapter of Romans. It began when those who knew God, “did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” This led to “a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.”  These debasing and unfitting things are:

• “sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.” (Rom. 1:18-32)

If we find ourselves minimizing any of the things in this list, we are simply revealing how debased our own mind has become. When we compare the emotions and deeds placed here to the content of our entertainment, what conclusions must be drawn? The answer is obvious when we consider the ratings given to define both television and movies. The ratings of G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 are based on the amount and intensity of many of the things above. The more violence, language, nudity, and sexual immorality a show contains, the more restrictions are placed upon them. These ratings are not devised by Christians, but by the world. When they describe negative content that restricts movies as: “strong language,” “graphic violence,” “nudity,” “sexual content” it cannot be denied that even the world sees the negative impact these things can have on children. Isn’t it obvious it will do the same thing to Christians?

Soap operas, crime dramas and other genres find and keep their audience by the amount of covetousness, strife, deceit and wickedness its characters are engaged in. It is a terrible indictment of the wickedness of our culture when directors seek to “push the envelope” to increase viewers. It should be the exact opposite. The more of these evil things they add the fewer people should want to watch them.

Conclusion.  Every Christian sets the boundaries of what they find acceptable and are not always open to criticism or instruction. But hear me out. What we must understand is that God has revealed how He sees these things. While some call it being sophisticated, actually, the more of these things we can tolerate, the more debased our mind appears to God. As Lot watched such things, his heart was tormented (2Pet. 2:6-9). Those of us who cannot watch such “garbage” agree with him.

• “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you."  “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.“  (2Cor. 6:17; 7:1)
• “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, ... who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.“ (Eph. 4:17-19)
• “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.“ (Col 3:1-3)