Pull the Plug

Thanksgiving day I turned on the TV at my in-laws. Immediately bored with the football game I began flipping through the channel. It has been almost a year since I flipped through channels and was shocked by many of the shows. The first one that caught my attention was “Divorce Court.” It saddened me. Divorce is a horrible and destructive event and people find entertainment in watching it play out in the courtroom. What have we become? As I flipped through the channels I realized that I would not watch or let my kids watch that vast majority of the of the shows on the 100 plus stations.
I made a comment to Dede about this and she mentioned an e-mail she got from a friend she grew up with. Here is the excerpt from the e-mail.
“November 14, 2008 at 7:30pm on Noggin channel, a channel for kids along with nick, cartoon network etc... A show that I never heard of before came on right after the kids and I watched ICarly. My daughters are 2,5,7 and the oldest two watched Icarly that night. Right when their favorite show ended a show I never heard of started at 7:30pm. It was called Degrassi I believe. I did not catch the introduction but even if there were a disclaimer it would not have mattered.

The first scene was 2 girls in the girls bathroom at their respective high school. The girls looked to be freshman at best. They find a purple dildo vibrator in the bathroom. They go into a stale to exam it and open a dialogue about the dildo, it's origins and use. The one girl is clueless, the other might know what it is used for. The older sister of one of the girls comes into the bathroom and proceeds to explain to them the use and application for a dildo vibrator citing," It is used for clean sex, you know everybody does it."

About the time I ran upstairs to tell Lori to watch this trash on our girls cartoon channel it had changed scenes to 2 boys about the same age. The 2 boys were playing boxing on Wii and one boy exclaims that he is not good and could the other boy who was much better show him how to punch. They stand up face to face and the one boy grabs the wrists of the other boy showing him how to position his fists. The boy holding the other boys wrists proceeds to pull the other boy to him and kiss him as I would kiss my wife.

The third scene goes back to the little girls where they have taken the dildo vibrator to the principal where he explains to them and other fellow students the benefits and uses of such sex toys.”
I looked up this show on the internet to see if I could get more details. The shows website had very little details about the episodes they were pretty benign. I was alarmed by the things I saw on Youtube not the shows website. There was promotion of homosexuality, masturbation, students cutting themselves and much more.
These things concern me greatly. If this were on TV in the seventies there would be public outcry. Today not much is said. Some people still speak up but no one listens. What is deemed acceptable by society in the form of entertainment is frightening. What is equally scary is how as “Christians” we accept the things on TV that were equally inappropriate 20, 10, 5 or even a year ago. We are initially offended then make it part of our lives. We allow pay to have these shows, their values and worldviews pumped into our homes daily hours on end. Our thinking, our life’s philosophy is being shaped by the people who control the media and the agendas behind them. Our thoughts, beliefs and actions are being controlled by the influences whose goals contradict what the Bible says.
Philippians 4:8 says “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. “
When as believers are we going to step up and pull the plug? We have every excuse in the world. We need to ask two questions who is raising your children? Who is raising your parents’ children? It all comes down to our heart. What do we love more.

I recieved this comment sometime back and have not had the chance to respond.

i think it's great that there is a television show teaching children about everyday life situations. some kids, like the girl claire in the show, was too shy to ask questions, so this can be their go to show for answers. this isnt the seventies anymore. questions need to be answered so children aren't making mistakes.

When I read this comment it supports my position on the need to pull the plug. As a society we are looking more and more to television for guidance. For many people it is their reality. As a parent is this where I want my son or daughter to go to get their "answers".