Moral Relativity on your Television set?

Do you remember in the olden days when you would watch a show on television or the movies? By the end of the show you felt good about cheering for the hero and when he achieved his goal (catching the bad guys), you felt good about what you have just seen.

Don't see that much on TV anymore, do you? The heroes of today's TV are closer to Hannibal Lector than they are the Lone Ranger. One example that comes to mind is Grissom on CSI Vegas who is almost insect like. Today's characters tend to hold humanist postmodernist views on society rather than Jesus Christ is Lord.

This leads me to an observation that most story lines on TV today are crafted with moral relativity. What's that mean? In the story characters are put in situations where the lines of right and wrong are blurred, the characters are almost always driven by emotion with very little logic so they settle for a wrong decision and the writer builds in sympathy for the character in support of this decision (ex. pro-choice, gay lifestyle, vigilante justice, transexuals as victims). Viewers are desensitized by repeatedly seeing these shows and tend to believe there are times when you have to do what you do whether or not the situation is wrong.

Many times I finish watching one of these shows I feel like something is wrong, I feel unsettled. A friend pointed this out with the recent movie, "No Country for Old Men." He was reminded that this movie had bothered him when he read an article about Javier Bardem, the main antagonist bad guy. Bardem said that he wasn't quite right while playing this character and it even followed him until he started his next role. What would have happened if he had taken a year off?

An example of this is "Forrest Gump" when his mom has sex with the principal so Forest can go to regular school because of his low IQ. Not being a believer at the time I first saw this, I found it funny but somewhat shocking and it bothered me (my conscience). This is an example of moral relativity because Forest wouldn't go through all the wild wonderful things that happened in his life if his mom hadn't made this sacrifice for him. They want you to believe the ends justify the means. Without a good sense of right or wrong, young viewers are being taught that there are no absolutes. Confusing, yes, but you see it all the time on TV and movies. Ultimately, the enemy uses this to chip away at people's faith in a power greater than themselves.

We, as Christians, should be careful what we view and watch because Hollyweird isn't thinking the things of God when they make their TV shows, movies, pornos, etc. Something Mark Cahill once said has really stuck with me to the effect that if it's not of God, it's of the devil. And we tend to have trouble with this because we struggle with not being of this world, do we not?

So my advice is TURN OFF THE TV!!!