What are our high places? In posing that question, I’m not necessarily asking what are the most important issues facing the church today (though I think the issues I’m going to highlight are important), but what are the areas of obedience that we are almost all missing. And just to be clear about a couple things: I don’t claim to be the only one pointing out these blind spots, nor do I pretend to be the example of perfect obedience in any of these areas.
With that off my chest, let’s move on to number two.
2. Worldliness in entertainment. The good folks from Sovereign Grace have already sounded the alarm on this one. So worldliness isn’t exactly a total blind spot. But when it comes to the entertainment choices of the vast majority of Christians in the vast majority of our churches my strong impression is that there is little difference between what we take in and what the rest of the world goes to for a good time.
Let me get my caveats out of the way up front. 1) I know that some people really like movies and “get them” in a way I may not. I understand that. 2) I know we cannot make an absolute rule about entertainment that proscribes the choices for all Christians. This is an area of Christian liberty.
But, Christian liberty only goes so far. Did Christ die so we can watch actors french kiss and grope each other or have sexual intercourse (even if their characters are married and “they don’t show everything”)? Did Christ die so we can hear people take the Lord’s name in vain a bazillion times in 90 minutes? Did Christ die so we can have the liberty to laugh at gay jokes? I’m not saying movies and TV shows that depict sin are automatically wrong? But what if they depict sin as fetching? Or as funny? Or what if they present sin as dark and gruesome and blow-out-your brains evil, but never lift you out of the cesspool of sin?
I know that movies can be art. I’m not against Christians in Hollywood, nor against Christians going to the movies. I’ve seen plenty of movies myself. But, seriously, how much of what is out there is really serious art? I remember reading Adventures in Missing the Point by Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo. In one chapter after McLaren was going on about the importance of engaging the culture, Campolo responded with something like, “True, but let’s be honest. Most of the culture out there isn’t worth engaging. It’s cheap, tawdry garbage.” (Feel free to look up the exact quote for yourself.) In other words, is our “incarnational” ministry really making great inroads for the gospel by familiarizing ourselves with the stuff that makes 16 year old boys laugh and your grandmother squirm? What happened to not even a hint of sexual immorality (Eph. 5:3)? What about the whole “whatever is lovely, whatever is pure…” thing (Phil 4:8)? And while we’re at it, how does being entertained by the world’s lasciviousness fit with the injunction to not even speak about the things the world does in secret (Eph. 5:12)?
I may have a more sensitive conscience than some. And perhaps my sensibilities are not refined enough to enjoy the art that’s out there. But I can’t help but look back on all the entertainment I’ve consumed and think “Has all of this been anywhere close to a net positive in my spiritual maturity?” Certainly not. It’s also worth thinking about how Christians just two generations ago (let alone two millennia ago) would have viewed (or not viewed!) the stuff we watch. As conservative Christians we like to complain about the decline in values in our country and how things that would have never been tolerated 30 years ago are now completely mainstream. And it’s true: our culture tolerates more sex, more violence, more crude humor, more foul language, more cleavage, and more sexual deviancy in it’s entertainment than ever before. But wouldn’t our grandparents say the same thing about what we have come to tolerate as Christians? We are so used to settling for sex that isn’t that graphic, and language that isn’t too bad, and visual stimulation that isn’t so much that we have become blind to our own worldliness.
