Editorial on the Influence of Media

Everything we like doing has some link back to sex. We like watching movies—they talk about and even show sex in movies. We like music—they talk about sex.

We like videos—they show sex. Everywhere we go, everywhere we look, sex is all around us. It's in ads, on TV, the internet, even billboards. That's why sex is on our minds all the time."— American Teenager, 2008.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average American child grows up in a home with an average of 3.6 CD or tape players, 3.5 TVs, 3.3 radios, 2.9 VCRs/DVD players, 2.1 video game consoles, and 1.5 computers (2005). Add to this that more than half of American teens own cellular phones that have multimedia functions, and they listen to an average of 1.75 to 2 hours of music every single day. It's no secret that young and old alike are inundated with all types of media. This intense saturation has caused many people to become bloated by, or addicted to, worldly media. So, just how healthy is the diet with which we are flooding our minds?

Robert Pittman is the founder and chairman of the music video station MTV. He once observed, "At MTV we don't shoot for the 14-year olds, we own them." If statistics are a good indicator, he's not too far off. In their book Dancing in the Dark, Schultze et al. recorded some of the sayings of MTV "Chairman Bob." In their book, they quoted Pittman who boldly proclaimed, "The only people who can understand the new way to use that television set are the people who grew up with it. They [talking about this younger generation] ... will accept almost anything over that screen" (1991, p. 192, emp. added). It's no secret that what's coming across that screen, according to recent research, has more violence, sex, and immorality than ever in the history of modern programming. When is the last time you truly evaluated just how far-reaching the tentacles of media stretch into your own home?

In Matthew chapter six, we read, "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness" (verses 22-23, emp. added). We recognize that our eyes (and other senses) play an enormous role on our perception of the world. Unfortunately, for many, the lamp has become soot stained or broken due to the increased consumption of worldly media.

In this issue, we want to challenge Christian families: turn off the garbage and hold yourself to a higher standard! Rid your home of immorality. Become proactive with the media your children are watching or listening to. We know that the current generation has the ability to turn things around for good. We believe that our combined efforts will send messages to the media that we want wholesome programming. In 1 John 2:15-16 we read, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world."

The time has come for New Testament Christians to raise the bar for themselves and change their diets! Why not cut down on your media intake and spend time with humans? Is vulgar media available for consumption? Absolutely. But we don't have to consume it! As you read this issue, we would remind you of Paul's words to the Christians in Galatia: "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Galatians 6:7). What harvest will be forth coming from the seeds of media being sown in your home? As always, we pray you will think on these things.

"Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome." TS. Eliot

Brad Harrub and Jim Palmer, Co-editors, Think Magazine