| The Influence Your Entertainment has on You |
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| Written by Carrie J Lang | |
| Tuesday, 28 February 2006 | |
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There has been a lot said these days about the influence the media has on us, but have you really ever thought about it? I can speak from experience. The music you listen to, the video games you play, the tv shows and movies you watch DO influence you whether you know it or not. The enemy (the devil himself) can use your favorite things to get into your head and make you think and act bad things. For instance, do you read magazines or watch music videos and sometimes think that your life would be better if you looked like the models or singers? Have you ever thought that you should act like them or look like them to get the opposite sex to like you? Or, do you find yourself acting out angrily toward your friends and family because that it what the music you listen to is about? What about your video games? Ever think it would be cool to really beat the living daylights out of someone like you do in some video games? Guess what, the devil is behind these thoughts and getting to you through your entertainment choices.? Now, I'm not saying that all secular (non-Christian) media is bad. I listen to a lot of hardcore/goth stuff (mostly Christian nowadays) myself and enjoy sci-fi and fantasy books and movies. As a matter of fact, youth group leaders at our church even host video game weekends...featuring non-demonic (non-blood and gore) and Christian video games like "Halo". But, when my conscience...(which is actually God, ofcourse) tells me that my choice of entertainment is harming my way of thinking and my relationship with Him, I turn it off and/or get rid of it. I have found that the more I mature in my relationship with God, the less my desire is to listen to music, watch movies, etc that lead me away from Him. Not only that, entertainment that I used to "tolerate" when it blasphemed God (such as Marilyn Manson, some of Type O Negative's material, and others) I find absolutely repulsive now. I have made a hobby of searching (mostly the internet) for music that glorifies (or at least does not blaspheme) God in the goth/metal genre. To my own surprise, there are a lot of EXCELLENT artists in the darker genres that ARE Christian! For example.....like 'the Cruxshadows'? Then Christians, 'The Last Dance', may just blow you away! Christians, 'Saviour Machine', are outstanding if you like gothic metal like 'Type O Negative' or 'Black Sabbath'. The list is endless. Like it says in the Bible, "Seek and ye shall find....". And not all of us are influenced in the same way, depending upon your age, personality, family, friends, and relationship with Christ (which is your greatest protection). What I am saying is "Beware". Listen to your conscience (God). Is the music you are listening to, book you're reading, movie you're watching, leading you to think that evil is cool? Are your entertainment choices glorifying the occult or making premarital or perverted sex sound like something everyone is or should be doing? Is it numbing you to violence and killing your compassion towards others? Then it is evil, influenced by the devil, and will probably lead you to sin and destruction if you are not aware of it's negative power. I'll even go so far as to give you a personal story.... I grew up in the '80's. I was really into heavy metal music when I was a teenager in high school. MTV was fairly new and I glued my self to the tv watching all of the "hairband" videos from 'Motley Crue', 'Poison', 'Guns and Roses', etc. The problem was, I had a fairly low self-esteem and didn't get a lot of attention from boys in high school. So, when I went off to college and got away from my family, I decided to change. The girls in the rock videos were always dressed sexy and seemed willing to do anything (sexual) to be with the band members in the videos so I felt I had to do the same. I started wearing a lot of tight clothing, low cut tops showing off my uh...clevage, etc. Compared to todays fashions, this may not be a big shocker but I evolved from stone washed jeans and baggy sweaters to spandex and leather which in itself isn't bad....it's the strategy behind wearing it that was bad: to purposely tempt men and get attention. I wanted to be popular and desired by the opposite sex. Plain and simple. However, it was empty gratification. I soon learned that being lusted over and being loved were two entirely different things. But I did get the attention and ended up becoming the VJ for "Metal Thunder" video (on college tv and satellite) and went to a lot of concerts and hung out with bands, dated musicians, partied a lot, etc. HERE'S THE PROBLEM: I ended up in a lot of bad situations (alcohol, sex, drugs, dangerous situations) over the next 5 years that I probably would not have been in had I not let the music and the videos and the magazines influence me so greatly. AND ALL THAT TIME I WAS STILL A CHRISTIAN! I went through a scare of possibly having AIDS, lived through a number of empty, guilt ridden one-night-stands. I subjected myself to date rape by becoming too intoxicated on a few occasions. I ran from the police more than once for under-age drinking and drugs (was caught once and sat in jail until my parents came and got me). I married an alcohol/drug addicted felon and divorced two years later. I humiliated myself, my family, and God. I had friends around me that died from cocaine over-doses and drunk driving. Think this couldn't happen to you? Well, here is where I started from: -Straight 'A' student, graduated 3rd in my high school class -accomplished artist at the age of 18 -Received a number of academic, athletic, and scholarship awards in high school (examples: in National Honor Society, DAR Citizen of the Year, Presidential Academic Fitness Award, Track team captian, yearbook editor,on prom court, in 4H, student council member, etc, etc) -Came from an almost perfect Christian family, parents still married. Grew up in the country outside a very small town So yeah, I wasn't what you'd really picture as being a troubled teen in a down and out situation. I ended up living in sin for that period in my life because of my pursuit of my own selfish pride, thinking that I knew better than God how to run my life for my own glory...not God's. Through it all, I ignored God's warnings and thought I could just believe in Jesus and live my life however I wanted. WRONG. Because I decided to live that portion of my life on my own terms, I now have a lot of emotional scars and guilt that would not be there had I made better decisions. My sin separated me from God during that time in my life as well as from the people who really loved me and cared for me. God still loved me and helped me to over come my sin in time but I have learned that God truly does know best because He loves us. Satan just tempts us with sin and pride to separate us from God and destroy us because he hates us and God and wants to see us destroy ourselves. Think about it. Biker Goth Trackback(0)
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