Gorging on filthy media pig-swill?
Is it as a result of the progressive sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in the believer, that we become more and more fed up, disillusioned and disgusted by the filth spewed out on our mass media entertainment outlets, or is it just that television and radio producers, continually ‘pushing the boundaries’ have in fact pushed them so far that we are being nauseated by their programme content?
For the Christian, a very great deal of discernment when watching or listening to entertainment programmes is essential. After all, we are reminded of the effect of what we watch and see on our spiritual well being by the Lord Jesus Himself. He said,
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:22-23
What we watch affects our spiritual wellbeing. And what we are being served up by the entertainment industry is little more than the merciless destruction of the soul, dressed up in the attractive garb of amusement, and pimped to the public by agenda driven media companies. It is the stirring of the basest instincts of the sinful fallen nature of mankind, for profit. Media prostitution. Let me illustrate the point…
On Thursday 9th January, I returned home from a long a stressful day, and decided that after tea I would sit for a couple of hours in an armchair and relax with my wife in front of the telly. What was I offered?
8pm. Emmerdale. A storyline about two lesbians who want to have a baby, and they are using the willing ex-husband of one of the lesbians to provide a sperm donation. Of course, in Emmerdale, this is all perfectly normal, natural and acceptable, and everyone is very supportive. Meanwhile a little girl, on the same subject has declared that ‘Jesus loves everybody’ and leads the lesbians in a prayer that she will be able to conceive…
8.30pm. Birds of a Feather. Classic sit-com revived because they have run out of ideas. Smutty, sexual innuendo throughout. The object of that innuendo, the ‘old slapper’ of the show is applying for a job in a supermarket, and is warned not to make a pass at the manager, for he is married… To Cyril.
9pm. Benedorm. Another smutty, pointless sit-com, too daft to even consider watching so change channel to BBC1 where…
9pm. Silent Witness. Ah yes. I love a good police drama, and anything involving forensics, and pathology, – this is just right up my street. But wait. The storyline is about a gay man, who has been charged with murdering his ‘lover’ – and as the story progresses, more gay men are being dispatched. And, when a solicitor is asked by a doctor why he wanted to help a convicted man secure an appeal, the solicitor replies, “Oh, I’ve found Jesus…” Stunned silence by the doctor, until she realises, that needless to say, he is joking. Found Jesus? Big laugh, really.
And there was me thinking that homosexuals were around 2-3% of the entire population! Yet there’s hardly a programme that doesn’t have a gay storyline. But we mustn’t complain. Christians (ahem) feature too. There’s always idiotic, sexually immoral Ashley and the new woman vicar in Emmerdale, or the gay affirming little girl, or the lesbian Christians in Corrie. There’s even the odd ‘hell fire and brimstone’ type clergyman, like the one in Wednesday’s Midsomer Murders, who, while preaching repentance, was surreptitiously bumping off people, including of course, the kindly gay professor, – a very sad happenstance for his young gay ‘lover’ who was heartbroken by losing ‘love interest’ – even though he was more than half the old professor’s age…
And so it goes on. And the gullible masses lap it up, and call it entertainment, and what their eyes are watching is reinforcing the darkness that already exists in their sin-cursed hearts and minds. It truly is A-musement, in the proper sense of the word, for the devil wants to keep us entertained by this filth, to prevent us from musing, – from thinking about what REALLY MATTERS, that one day this life is going to stop. It will end, and we will be placed in a grave, and our souls will stand before God in judgement, and we will still be clothed in our filthy sinful rags, for we will never have considered eternity, or Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross for sinners, or his offer of forgiveness to all who repent and trust him. And because our sins are unforgiven we will be lost forever, and the devil’s media pimps will have done their job well.
Like the prodigal son of the Bible, who found himself in a lost condition in a country far away from the father, trying to sustain life by eating the husks of food that the pigs rejected, may God open our eyes to this filthy scum that we are feeding our minds and our hearts with, may we be as revolted with it, as the prodigal was with his pig swill, and may we say as he said, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” Luke 15:18-19
We may be assured that for those who seek Him, He will never turn them away.
And for Christians…
And what of the christian, and the need for entertainment and relaxation? What are we to do? We need to relax, just like every other person does. Yet we must bear in mind Paul’s injunction…
Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Should we replace the TV output with videos? Books, music? Podcasts are also a great alternative, and with the wealth of ‘on demand’ programming we should be able to be more selective in our choice of entertainment. Or perhaps like generations gone by we should simply remove the ‘devil’s box’ from our homes.
Personally, I have stopped listening to Nolan (a tabloid style current affairs programme with a liberal agenda) and Sunday Sequence. Their editorial line is antiChristian. I rarely listen to the radio or TV news. I enjoy some of the Christian podcasts that emanate from the USA, (we have very little sound Christian broadcasting in the UK). I particularly like:
And of course for sermons, where better than
What do YOU do for wholesome, Christian entertainment?
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The Salty Scrivener 