Well, tonight is the finale of 24 and millions of people will be glued to their sets. This started out as a Conservative's dream where the bad guys were actually the bad guys. Rush Limbaugh hyped the show. Does he still? I don't know if there is nefarious goings on or not with those who develop the plots. I do believe that big money talks and when it appears that an audience can be doubled then that path is the one that will be taken.
We have had similar topics in America in the past. Black Sunday, made in 1979 and directed by John Frankenheimer was about a terrorist plot on the Super Bowl. Frankenheimer also directed The Manchurian Candidate in 1962. Television joined in in 1983 with The Day After as America experienced a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union, and there have been other films where the very existence of America was endangered by fanatics of one sort or another. Last year 24 gave us a nuclear explosion on an American city and this year saw a fire fight and explosions in the White House. I have no idea how this current 24 will end. Maybe Jack Bauer will die, maybe not.
My concern is not only with 24 but with the entire genre of movies, books, television and even computer games that saturates us with violence, and conditions us. I don't know in what way we are being conditioned. If this nation does sustain an attack, how will we view it...as an extension of how our entertainment programs us? Would we want it handled as a Jack Bauer would? Have we become so confused as to what is right and what is wrong, who is good and who is bad, that we would essentially be rendered incapacitated? All of this works against a normally functioning mind. This is one reason why I have mentioned a la carte cable television so many times in this blog. If we are ever given an opportunity to choose the cable stations, and only the stations, that we want in our homes, we not only can extricate ourselves from this influence but we can influence programming itself, for... big money talks. We are susceptible, as humans, we fall for charlatans, despots, celebrity, and deceivers and deceptions of all types. One Scripture verse covers this problem. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this wo
rld, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Paul follows this with a caveat I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (ESV) In a different cultural phenomenon, that caveat speaks to the blogger (me) who purports to give advice to another. Having said this. let me give a piece of advice that deals with Renewing Your Mind. It is R. C. Sproul's teaching ministry in books, tapes, and a radio broadcast that has been more effective than any other in renewing the mind of Christians today. You can find this at http://www.ligonier.org/
We have had similar topics in America in the past. Black Sunday, made in 1979 and directed by John Frankenheimer was about a terrorist plot on the Super Bowl. Frankenheimer also directed The Manchurian Candidate in 1962. Television joined in in 1983 with The Day After as America experienced a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union, and there have been other films where the very existence of America was endangered by fanatics of one sort or another. Last year 24 gave us a nuclear explosion on an American city and this year saw a fire fight and explosions in the White House. I have no idea how this current 24 will end. Maybe Jack Bauer will die, maybe not.
My concern is not only with 24 but with the entire genre of movies, books, television and even computer games that saturates us with violence, and conditions us. I don't know in what way we are being conditioned. If this nation does sustain an attack, how will we view it...as an extension of how our entertainment programs us? Would we want it handled as a Jack Bauer would? Have we become so confused as to what is right and what is wrong, who is good and who is bad, that we would essentially be rendered incapacitated? All of this works against a normally functioning mind. This is one reason why I have mentioned a la carte cable television so many times in this blog. If we are ever given an opportunity to choose the cable stations, and only the stations, that we want in our homes, we not only can extricate ourselves from this influence but we can influence programming itself, for... big money talks. We are susceptible, as humans, we fall for charlatans, despots, celebrity, and deceivers and deceptions of all types. One Scripture verse covers this problem. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this wo
rld, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Paul follows this with a caveat I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (ESV) In a different cultural phenomenon, that caveat speaks to the blogger (me) who purports to give advice to another. Having said this. let me give a piece of advice that deals with Renewing Your Mind. It is R. C. Sproul's teaching ministry in books, tapes, and a radio broadcast that has been more effective than any other in renewing the mind of Christians today. You can find this at http://www.ligonier.org/
