Straight From The Hart
By Joan Rowden Hart
Recently Milan and I were watching an interview on television related
to some current movies,and I made the statement about how shallow a
person’s intellect would have to be to find entertainment in such
mindless drivel,
and I wondered out loud, “Have people completely lost their brains nowadays?”
As I was thinking about this to a greater extent later on, I realized
that what we are dealing with in our culture today is indeed a
devolution of the mind. Those of you who are my age have only to
think back to the time we were growing up to understand how far we
have gone astray as a once civilized nation.
Things just don’t make sense anymore. They used to. But the farther
we progress in the habits and patterns of daily living, taking into
account our morals and values, (or the lack thereof) , our lifestyles
including what passes for entertainment and music, our family life
with marriage, (or the absence thereof), the way children are raised
with very little, if any, parental discipline, the way people dress,
(or don’t even bother to).....it is clear that as a society we are
regressing at a rapid pace.
And it is also clear that none of this is for the better, but is
actually destroying our society.
And the essence of it all is that things that once made sense and
worked for us are now considered old-fashioned and prudish and
backward. But we didn’t have the violence and rage and broken
families, and the loss of patriotism and pride in country, and the
lack of civility ,and the obscene language displayed and spoken
everywhere when things made sense.
A major issue now is gun control. It made sense once upon a time for
boys and even teachers to drive their pickups to school during hunting
season with their guns proudly displayed in the back window because
they went hunting either before school or intended to go afterward.
Nobody thought anything about it because although the guns were in the
vehicles, it wasn’t in the hearts of the kids to shoot up their
classrooms. Now the desire to kill is in the heart long before the
guns are in their hands.
What made the difference? For one thing, kids were not exposed at an
early age to bloody violence and senseless killings on television, and
other media, as they are now.
The reasoned argument that the violence they watch on television and
the movies and video games is partly to blame is drowned out by
celebrities and social experts who maintain that these games young
people fix their eyes and minds on has no bearing on what they do,
that it doesn’t have the capability to influence young impressionable
minds at all.
Yet these very same people and corporations will spend millions of
dollars to expose TV viewers to the latest gadget, food, beverage,
car, or electronic device on the Super Bowl ads in a few weeks to
create a market for them so people will go out and buy them. You
can’t have it both ways. Either what people see and think about
affects their behaviour or it doesn’t. The massive amounts spent on
television advertising tells us that it does.
The news coverage of the Connecticut shootings reported that the
autopsies of these little children seemed to show that the more they
moved to shield their bodies from the bullets or to try to get away,
the more their little bodies were riddled with shots. The shooter was
playing a video game with them as the moving targets just as he had
done throughout the days and nights in the basement of his mother’s
home.
Once upon a time It made sense to hang copies of the Ten Commandments
in every classroom because those words found their way into the
minds of children whether they realized it or not.
It made sense to stand and pledge our allegiance to the flag because
it taught us to respect our country and those who fought for our
freedom.
It made sense for couples to get married before they had children. It
just worked better that way and there are many of us today who are
living testimonies of that.
It made sense for television programming to inculcate values and
morals and a respect for authority. Even today there are Sunday
School lessons based on the Andy Griffith show to illustrate this. I
think once or twice I even mentioned an episode as an illustration of
a point I wanted to get across to my people in a sermon.
It made sense for families to get up on Sunday mornings and go to
church together. Milan and I always became concerned when a family we
were pastoring dropped out of the church because they were too busy
with work or sports because we knew that there was a 99% chance that
family would suffer a loss in their relationship with a spouse or
children once they got out of the habit of attending church, and it
happened almost every time.
It made sense when as a nation there was a profound respect for human
life. This week as we sadly observe the 40th anniversary of the Roe
v. Wade Court decision, the Center For Reproductive Rights has
released a YouTube video featuring actor Mehcad Brooks dressed in
evening wear in a setting with wine and roses, wherein he mocks those
opposed to abortion by “celebrating” in a “we’ve come a long way,
Baby” fashion, using the word baby over and over, taking a chilling
delight in the deaths of 55 million little human beings since that
decision.
These things that made sense caused no harm to anyone individually or
as a nation. They brought only good to us, so why have we forsaken
them over the years, and wouldn’t it make sense for the American
people to embrace them once again?
By Joan Rowden Hart
Recently Milan and I were watching an interview on television related
to some current movies,and I made the statement about how shallow a
person’s intellect would have to be to find entertainment in such
mindless drivel,
and I wondered out loud, “Have people completely lost their brains nowadays?”
As I was thinking about this to a greater extent later on, I realized
that what we are dealing with in our culture today is indeed a
devolution of the mind. Those of you who are my age have only to
think back to the time we were growing up to understand how far we
have gone astray as a once civilized nation.
Things just don’t make sense anymore. They used to. But the farther
we progress in the habits and patterns of daily living, taking into
account our morals and values, (or the lack thereof) , our lifestyles
including what passes for entertainment and music, our family life
with marriage, (or the absence thereof), the way children are raised
with very little, if any, parental discipline, the way people dress,
(or don’t even bother to).....it is clear that as a society we are
regressing at a rapid pace.
And it is also clear that none of this is for the better, but is
actually destroying our society.
And the essence of it all is that things that once made sense and
worked for us are now considered old-fashioned and prudish and
backward. But we didn’t have the violence and rage and broken
families, and the loss of patriotism and pride in country, and the
lack of civility ,and the obscene language displayed and spoken
everywhere when things made sense.
A major issue now is gun control. It made sense once upon a time for
boys and even teachers to drive their pickups to school during hunting
season with their guns proudly displayed in the back window because
they went hunting either before school or intended to go afterward.
Nobody thought anything about it because although the guns were in the
vehicles, it wasn’t in the hearts of the kids to shoot up their
classrooms. Now the desire to kill is in the heart long before the
guns are in their hands.
What made the difference? For one thing, kids were not exposed at an
early age to bloody violence and senseless killings on television, and
other media, as they are now.
The reasoned argument that the violence they watch on television and
the movies and video games is partly to blame is drowned out by
celebrities and social experts who maintain that these games young
people fix their eyes and minds on has no bearing on what they do,
that it doesn’t have the capability to influence young impressionable
minds at all.
Yet these very same people and corporations will spend millions of
dollars to expose TV viewers to the latest gadget, food, beverage,
car, or electronic device on the Super Bowl ads in a few weeks to
create a market for them so people will go out and buy them. You
can’t have it both ways. Either what people see and think about
affects their behaviour or it doesn’t. The massive amounts spent on
television advertising tells us that it does.
The news coverage of the Connecticut shootings reported that the
autopsies of these little children seemed to show that the more they
moved to shield their bodies from the bullets or to try to get away,
the more their little bodies were riddled with shots. The shooter was
playing a video game with them as the moving targets just as he had
done throughout the days and nights in the basement of his mother’s
home.
Once upon a time It made sense to hang copies of the Ten Commandments
in every classroom because those words found their way into the
minds of children whether they realized it or not.
It made sense to stand and pledge our allegiance to the flag because
it taught us to respect our country and those who fought for our
freedom.
It made sense for couples to get married before they had children. It
just worked better that way and there are many of us today who are
living testimonies of that.
It made sense for television programming to inculcate values and
morals and a respect for authority. Even today there are Sunday
School lessons based on the Andy Griffith show to illustrate this. I
think once or twice I even mentioned an episode as an illustration of
a point I wanted to get across to my people in a sermon.
It made sense for families to get up on Sunday mornings and go to
church together. Milan and I always became concerned when a family we
were pastoring dropped out of the church because they were too busy
with work or sports because we knew that there was a 99% chance that
family would suffer a loss in their relationship with a spouse or
children once they got out of the habit of attending church, and it
happened almost every time.
It made sense when as a nation there was a profound respect for human
life. This week as we sadly observe the 40th anniversary of the Roe
v. Wade Court decision, the Center For Reproductive Rights has
released a YouTube video featuring actor Mehcad Brooks dressed in
evening wear in a setting with wine and roses, wherein he mocks those
opposed to abortion by “celebrating” in a “we’ve come a long way,
Baby” fashion, using the word baby over and over, taking a chilling
delight in the deaths of 55 million little human beings since that
decision.
These things that made sense caused no harm to anyone individually or
as a nation. They brought only good to us, so why have we forsaken
them over the years, and wouldn’t it make sense for the American
people to embrace them once again?
Comments