As the World Turns my Stomach Churns

I read once
the Diversion Summary of the social planners
regarding entertainment and it said "Keep the public
entertainment below a sixth grade level" so believing I just
may be Smarter than a Fifth Grader (another game TV show)
I’ve tried to avoid the afternoon drivel on television such
as "As The World Turns," "General Hospital,"
and "The Guiding Light," the longest running program
which premiered on radio 70 years ago. But perhaps even before
reading the Diversion Summary of the socialists, I remember after
marrying back in the 50s and driving 300 miles to visit my
mother, on one occasion, we decided to visit an aunt in another
town. When we arrived, she was watching her favourite daytime
soap and no conversation was held until the show was over. And
when she couldn’t be home to watch it, she would call her
daughter-in-law who was equally addicted and she would fill her
mother-in-law in on the daily happenings. I notice our local
newspaper also does that. These programs are such a waste of time
so I never watched them.

And by the way, a second generation, 49 year-old rocket
scientist who admitted he was "terrible at math in
elementary school" flunked out of Are You Smarter Than a
Fifth Grader? On the second question for $2,000, he chose First
Grade Geography. The question was about the Great Lakes. He
"peaked" at the 5th grade student who he chose to help
him. The student got it wrong and the game was over! So the next
time someone says "You don’t have to be a rocket
scientist to…..", you can remember this guy. And P.S.
public school 5th graders are all poor spellers without their
computers and spell checks.

I don’t ever recall watching the Daytime Emmy Awards but
on June 15th I wanted to watch Bob Barker’s last The Price
is Right program that evening because he was retiring after 35
years and the 34th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards followed. I was
relaxed in my recliner that evening so I didn’t switch
stations. My stomach churned as I watched the mutual admiration
society trot onto the stage one after another to accept their
awards in a variety of categories. What a love fest! Ellen
Degenerous for the third year in a row walked off the stage with
trophies for best talk show and best talk show hostess. Always
gracious and a guy who does many good works, Dr. Phil McGraw,
idolized by his harem of women in his audience and whose program
precedes Ellen’s, couldn’t compete. But like those in
the medical profession who would be out of work if they found a
cure for cancer, Dr. Phil would be out of work if he ever
condemned sin on his program. Yes, I do peak at his program.
It’s coffee break time for me about then.

And now it’s being rumored as I draft this article that
Rosie O’Donnell, former co-anchor of The View, may be
chosen to replace Bob Barker. Is the world really ready for angry
Rosie on a family oriented program like The Price is Right?
Dennis Miller, another radio talk show host and a regular weekly
guest on the O’Reilly Factor on FOX says if Rosie is
chosen, they’ll have to change the program to The Price is
Left.

On that very day of the Emmys our local newspaper ran an AP
article about how the narcissistic "World’s wealthy
continue their years-long shopping spree for every higher price
tags." Of course, it was about New Yorkers where shoes with
status these days sell for $1,000 and $600 handbags have become
so bourgeois that the rich and famous wouldn’t want to be
seen with any bag costing less than $5,000. Heck, "It seems
while the rest of middle America seems to be losing ground, the
wealthy – making more than $350,000, with their insatiable
appetite for the most luxurious items has risen to gaudy
proportions (materialism) as the super rich seek new heights in
pampering, price tags and one-of-a-kind items that set them
apart," reports the article. Luxury sales worldwide last
year topped $150 billion, of which 30 percent came from the
U.S.

And then there is the news about the estimated $179 billion a
year that kids spend all on themselves for their $4 lattes, their
$1500 lap tops, $300 a month cell phone bills, trips to the
beauty parlor for pedicures and other fatuous items. But where do
they see it? They see it in Hollywood with all their foofaraw.
While some children are taught the work ethic and earn much of
their own spending money, due to the Child Labor Laws, they are
restricted on what they can do, at what age and what hours they
can work which means their working mothers still pick up a great
deal of the tab for them and illegals come to America to do the
jobs the children used to do.

When I read or hear about this extravagance, I can’t
help but wonder if these aren’t the last great signs of the
end of this present age as declared in Luke 17:28-30.
""Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did
eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they
built, but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire
and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall
it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed?"

But I shouldn’t be so quick to criticize the Hollywood
crowd. Let me be painfully honest. While they possess no special
talents or good looks that thousands of others also possess, the
successful ones just happened to be at the right place at the
right time or have someone like parents of Paris Hilton to
promote them. There are mothers who sacrifice the family’s
budget to help the children they believe to possess some special
talent to get recognized.

And while I’m on the subject of Hollywood, allow me to
pass on information I recently discovered. Did you know that from
1933 to 1966, a period of 33 years, every Hollywood script was
read and reviewed by representatives from the Catholic church,
the Southern Baptist Church and the Protestant Film Office?
"The job of these individuals was to evaluate a movie in
terms of the Motion Picture code," writes Christian film
critic Ted Baehr and recording artist and music legend Pat Boone
in their book "The Culture-Wise Family" and "if
the film passed the Code, it received the Motion Picture Code
Seal and was distributed. If it did not pass, theatres would not
screen it." The reviewers made sure that the script did not
contain material that was subversive in any one of a number of
ways. For instance, the Motion Picture Code ensured that scripts
upheld the value of human life, that sin and wrongdoing were not
justified, that brutality, indecent exposure, and sexual
relationships would not violate standards of common
decency.

However, in 1966 the churches withdrew from the entertainment
industry and all manner of misfortune followed. Now, I’m
the last to believe only the Christians have some type of a
corner on morality because the Ted Haggards of the world pretty
much put that idea to rest; however, I find it interesting when
the churches went AWOL, the wholesome and inspiring influence of
Christianity on the culture of Hollywood, films began to feature
ever more provocative acts of violence, sex, and inhumanity, and
there has been a corresponding rise of the same in the wider
culture. "Since 1966" Baehr and Boone note,
"violent crime has increased in the United States by 560
percent, illegitimate births have increased 419 percent, divorce
rates have quadrupled, the percentage of children living in
single-parent homes has tripled, the teenage suicide rate has
increased more than 300 percent and SAT scores have dropped by
almost 80 points. Rapes, murders, and gang violence have become
common occurrences." While not all of this can be laid at
the feet of Hollywood film studios, the authors note: "It is
clear that the mass media has had a significant influence on
people." (1) I’m reminded about what one pastor said
when asked what his church did during Hitler’s regime as
they heard the railroad cars pass the church to the concentration
camps. He replied, "We just sang a little louder."

And that is basically what is happening today. While
"Mega churches" have sprung up, they play their guitars
and beat their drums like pagans conjuring up demons. They have
numerous body piercings and tattoos and sing loudly with
amplified music manufactured in hell. Baehr and Boone say,
"What the church is serving is a shallow and unsalted
gospel. Although the message is being delivered with deep
compassion for lost sinners and with a burden for a hurting
culture, it lacks comprehensive truth to shape the minds of
believers and redirect their behavior." In short, the
authors believe that Christians have been too timid to really and
directly confront the problems afflicting the culture, and they
exhort readers to take an active stance in confronting evil as
many of the martyrs did throughout church history. "Early
Church converts were not martyred for believing in Jesus in their
private thoughts but for challenging the secular anti-Christian
authorities of their day," they write, calling on
today’s Christians to do the same.[1]
However, with the new "hate" legislation being promoted
in our state legislatures and in Washington, D.C., pastors will
become even more timid fearful of imprisonment and fines.

The Old Rugged Cross and the authorized King James bible which
had sufficed Christianity up until the 20th century was different
from the new broken satanic cross often seen at left-wing
demonstrations and the new revised, user-friendly bibles used by
so many churches that emasculate the basic tenets of Christianity
watering it down making repentance of sins irrelevant and worldly
things pleasurable. – hedonism.

Never have there been more dramatic signs and fulfillment of
Bible prophecy than at this present time and yet the people of
the world are wandering deeper into the darkness of deception and
apathy. Will an economic collapse cause them to once again turn
to the Lord? Or will it be perhaps WWIII? Luke 21:25 says in the
last days there would be "upon the earth distress of nations
with perplexity." That word "perplexity" is taken
from the Greek word, "aporia," which means unable to
find a way out. One only has to turn on the news or read the
newspaper to see that this earth is a powder keg.

Yes, rampant hedonism is destroying our world. The public
appears to be reverting to a form of barbarism. Rather than
becoming more civilized, as may be expected of a mature
civilization, we appear to be descending into a culture lacking
in morality, common decency and respect for our fellow citizens.
The "new in-your-face morality" is not new but the old
Gnosticism. Conflict resolution, hate legislation and
"zero" tolerance only have made civilization more
defiant. Without the Lord, the heart can be very wicked.

Footnotes:

1, June 11, 2007 New American P. 33 and 34