Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Thu, 27 Aug 1992 03:03:09 EST
From:         Kerry Stephenson <KSTE@PURCCVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Values and Popular Culture (part 3)

Hi all:

This is the last part of this posting.  If you have not yet read the
previous 2, please do so before reading this one.  After you finish,
please feel free to respond as you see fit, in public or in private.


This is something that I wrote about three months ago, and I just
came across it again in my files.  I'd like to get some response.

HOWEVER, it is long, so I will post it in parts.  PLEASE hold
all comments until you have read the entire piece (I'm not saying
it's seamless; I just hope it moves from beginning to end and
needs to be swallowed before we attempt to digest it.)  NOTE:
This (part 3) is the last part of this posting.

Thanks.

Love INC,
         --Kerry

                   Values and Popular Culture (part 3)
                           (copyright 1992)

   If these topics don't disgust, disturb, or alarm you, perhaps
you need to turn off the television and open the Bible.
   Our Lord did not die to give sin the right to take control of
culture.  Our Lord did not bleed so that we could sit idly by and
allow our children to be taught moral relativity.
   Our Lord died to enable us to live--and live righteously.  He
shed His blood so that we might know a better way.
   This ain't it.
   We should not be surprised at the allegations of an Anita
Hill or the elevation of the Clinton/Flowers mess to national
news.  Every day, dozens of talk shows systematically destroy the
sanctity of human relationships by poisoning the morality on which
they must be built.  As a nation, we have made marital faithfulness,
chastity, and personal decency questions to be debated, rather than
ideals to be maintained.  Why whould we expect our leaders to cling
to any higher values than we ourselves are willing to defend?
   So go ahead.  Take a look.  See what you think.
   Because that is the other half of the message.  It is, in fact,
the worst of times, morally speaking.  But it is also the best of
times.  We have the technology to reach out.  We have the ability
to change the culture that surrounds us, by example and with love.
We can make a difference.
    It is not enough to simply look away and hope it goes away.
Because it won't.  It is not enough to merely hope that somehow
these stories are exceptional, because they are the stories of your
nieghbors, and they could someday become the stories of your children.
  So, what do we do?
  What should the "Christian" response be to all of this?
  First, and foremost, we have to pray.  Pray for the decision-makers,
the guests (heaven knows the guests usually *need* prayer!), the hosts,
and the nation.  Pray for revival of moral values and Christian
virtues in American life.  Pray for those who don't know any better
than to believe what they are seeing because they have never seen
or heard the matchless Truth that we know personally.
  Second, we have to reach out to those around us.  Those people on
talk shows are our neighbors, in pain, and without Christ.  We have
to make our faith real to them, introduce them to the One who can
bring them out of the pigsty they are lying in and bring the
prodigals home to the Father that loves them in a relationship that
saves and heals.
  Third, we have to let the programmers know that we are no longer
going to watch the festival of perversion they provide.  We have to
make it clear that they are losing our viewership.  And we have to
let them know why.
   Finally, we have to bring something better.  It is not enough
to ignore the issues and hope they go away.  We have to show,
through our willingness to bring the gospel into every area of
human endeavor, that voyeurism is the way to death, not life.
We have to put our efforts into reaching and transforming men
and women who might otherwise become mere faces on the screen.
As unpleasant as the thought may be to the twentieth century
church, settled and complacent in its preaching to the choir,
we must make it clear that the church is a place where people
can come to be cleansed, comforted, and changed.
   The people that inhabit those television talk shows are looking
for an audience, desperate to be heard, crying out to be loved.
The talk shows give them a platform.  We must offer them a
Savior and a home.
   Jesus came to save sinners.  As His representatives, we must
provide the place of refuge where sinners can come to be redeemed.
   We have the privilege of living in the best of times in which
to act.  We have the burden of living in the worst of times to
watch.  The culture we live in demands our attention.  We must
do what we can to show them our love, introduce them to their
Savior, and call them home.
  Then, perhaps, instead of watching them writhing in their
sin and their pain, we can help them to spread a greater message
of hope, love, and redemption.

--This is the last installment.  All comments and criticisms
are welcome.

Love INC,
         --Kerry
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