Sunday, September 18, 2005

Garbage in, Garbage out?

I am sure many of you have heard this at least once in your life. If not let me explain, it is the flawed premise that if you are to partake in the evil fruits of the druid secular culture you are filling yourself with garbage and therefore will spew garbage as a result. I can remember a time when I took my rather large CD collection and got rid of it to have nothing but "Christian" music. Now not to say there is anything wrong with that, and before I get blasted for approving of explicit things, which I do not, let me explain my view.
The first real flaw with this is that there is no part of society that is not tainted by sin or sinners, including "Christian" entertainment. I was watching Mark Lowry speak and I have a new respect for him, because he spoke about the only difference between a "Christian Entertainer" and the audience was three feet. The three feet that the stage is raised above the audience. Other than that he suffers with the same sin the rest of us do.
The next flaw is who for certain knows what distinguishes clean "Christian" music from unclean "secular" music? Is "Left Behind" so much better than "The Hunt for Red October?" Because it is on a "Christian" label the Priest has blessed it with Holy Water it is ok? I guess POD is no longer saved cause they are on a secular label?
Truth of the matter is "garbage in, garbage out" operates under the premise that if I see and hear sin up close, I will want to participate in it? THE TRUTH IS SIN LOOKS ATTRACTIVE FROM A DISTANCE, the closer you get to it the more clearly you see it for what it really is. I was around alcoholism my entire life, growing up I watched it destroy lives, hurt and scar people for life. This was more than enough to convince me that getting trashed all the time and becoming an alcoholic is in no way fun or enjoyable.
God sent the Holy Spirit for discernment and that requires us to use it to filter out the culture of our time. We do this in both Christian and Non-Christian environments moving toward what is good and rejecting what is bad. In order to engage the culture we live in and be relevant to today we must watch films, listen to music, read books, watch TV, shop at the mall, and most importantly engage with others. Otherwise we can't begin to do the transforming work of the gospel in our culture and we become ineffective to the ones God has called us to Love.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

BMAC - I miss you, my friend. You sound like you are doing much better. Give me a call, I'd love to hear from you. Em