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Withdrawing Consent Part II -- I won't be watching the Oscars
by Jim Babka
February 23, 2004A recent FoxNews story, critical of Mel Gibson's, "The Passion of Christ," closed with this gleeful remark.
What will be interesting is seeing how the annual Oscar party given by Gibson's agent, Ed Limato, at his palatial Beverly Hills home will be received two days after the movie's premiere. And then there are the Oscars, where Billy Crystal is no doubt thinking of clever ways to spoof the movie.
Christians these days are fond of disparaging the culture on their radio stations, and even occasionally from their pulpits. But in their homes, they're still supporting garbage – millions of Christians will watch the Oscars, and then complain about it the next time they get together with their Christian friends.
It's as if we share the culture's duty not to know the truth.
The duty not to know
We live in a culture full of people with a "duty NOT to know the difference between right and wrong – truth and error – for fear that they're being too judgmental." Something must fill the void created by our inability to be truth seekers. Without a clear moral compass, something or someone has to step in to provide guidance.
Society could choose the bravest, the most powerful, the richest, or the smartest class of people to do the job. But this is a culture obsessed with sex. So we choose celebrities.
Even our politicians have become celebrities. And the line between celebrity and statesman gets even blurrier as we're on our second celebrity governor.
Sex scandals, hair-styles, and other nonsensical standards are now more important than where a candidate stands on the issues. Few Republicans care that George W. Bush is growing government faster than any president since Roosevelt. Few Democrats care that John F. Kerry voted for War in Iraq and the Patriot Act.
Christian's are particularly scandalous in this area.
Bill Clinton lied about sex with an intern. He deserved all the trouble that came his way.
But George Bush lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction. His actions have resulted in the death of more than 10,000 Iraqi's, more than 500 Americans, and a bill to exceed more than $100 billion. And who knows how many new terrorists and financial backers of terrorist cells his policies have recruited?
But he's a man of character – a man of God (or so we're told).
I've had dozens of Christians, who upon learning I work in the political field (public policy, not campaigns these days), gush all over me about how fond they are of Bush. Some of these folks still enjoy a good Clinton joke – laughing at sinners caught in sin is entertaining indeed.
They too have given up on striving to love God with their entire mind (as the Great Commandment says). The great moral questions of the day are reduced to which celebrity – or politician – one likes.
So Christians will watch the Oscar's. They'll watch Hollywood gossip shows. Maybe they'll even snatch up a copy of People Magazine.
It's time for Christians – not America, but Christians in churches – to reform.
We don't need to "monitor" the world's behavior. We certainly don't need to increases the fines for misbehavior. Politicians (the Teddy Kennedy's and Newt Gingrich's of the world – philanderers each) are not going to pull us out of the moral morass with magical legislation.
Repairing Culture
Repairing a culture is hard work. It's so difficult because it begins with the person who recognizes the problem.
The problem, in oversimplified form, is this. We (American Christians overall) don't know how to think anymore – how to engage the culture.
Somewhere after the dawn of the Enlightenment we left the world of natural science and reason to secularists, while we tried to take theology and faith for ourselves. It was a bad bargain. God was the author of both the natural sciences and Biblical revelation.
Then Protestants allowed the State, controlled by the naturalists/materialists, to educate our children. Nearly all of the current generation of Christians believes that God fits into compartments (like Sunday morning) and not into things like our workday life.
But giving up six days of our week to those of the Broad Path wasn't enough. Many current Christians prefer a shallow (usually called "relevant") gospel, that avoids dealing with heavy theology and words like Sin.
As a result, the American Christians don't know why they believe, let alone what they believe. They lack a consistent Biblical worldview that they could articulate. At least, they don't live as if they do.
Instead, most of us accept the premises of this world. We apply God where it's convenient – where He's politically correct. We're content to compare ourselves with others and say, "I'm not doing so badly." This is the herd- mentality.
Even worse, most of us seek to avoid consequences – to slouch responsibility, after the fact. We (again, American Christians overall) use our feelings – instead of our minds – to make our decisions.
A herd-mentality and over reliance on feelings are two modes of thinking tailor-made for celebrity rule – ideally suited to a form of Christian nihilism.
Practicing what I preach
I'm not interested in feeding the celebrity monster. I'm not interested in contributing to the decline of culture.
That's why, even though I'm an Evangelical Protestant, I'm celebrating Lent this year. Less than two months ago, my wife and I cut off the cable TV in our home (football season is over). For Lent, I'm restricting myself to two hours of TV per week – and I'm only doing that because there are two shows that my wife and I enjoy watching together.
I call my approach to television "Withdrawing Consent." If every Christian in America withdrew consent from the Oscars, from Super Bowl halftime shows, and other culturally deficient music and TV, you could expect Hollywood to reform.
And is that really asking too much?
But that's not my central motivation. I won't be watching because I want a stronger walk in the Spirit. I don't want anything to get in the way of that. I'm interested in focusing my time only on those things that are pure, just, and of good report.
And that's why I won't be watching the Oscars.
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