by Denis Haack
Source: Pop Culture: Why Bother?
In a cover story in USA Weekend, movie critic Michael Medved invited readers to make a toll-free phone call, responding Yes or No to a simple statement: “Hollywood no longer reflects—or even respects—the values of most American families.” The response was overwhelming. USA Weekend’s phone lines were swamped, and hundreds called after the deadline complaining they had tried, but the lines had been busy. “The actual yes vote,” USA Weekend noted later, “would have been much higher had the thousands of backed-up calls gotten through.” The final tally was 54,453 Yes; 21,221 No. “Hollywood does have an anti-religious ax to grind, and they continue grinding it despite the fact that it makes no box-office sense,” Medved says. “We’re talking about a lemming mentality. We’re talking about suicidal behavior. It’s unfair to the stockholders, for goodness sake.”
The problem isn’t limited to the movies; a person can feel morally assaulted listening to some pop music or watching some television shows. Focus on the Family’s newsletter Plugged In, for example, can find little of worth on the CD Alice in Chains. “Several tracks use the ‘f’ word to punctuate strains of hopelessness and despair. With a vengeance, ‘Grind’ and ‘Sludge Factory’ take pleasure in the pain of others,” they say. “Other songs glorify drug use. ‘God Am’ is a bitter, blasphemous ‘prayer’ that blames the Almighty for the world’s problems.” And Plugged In concludes the review with a warning: “Dark. Brooding. Cold. Rolling Stone magazine said the band is ‘like a slashed wrist—stark, bloody and dramatic, but more indicative of a cry for help than a true desire to spiral into the void.’ Surely, their well-chronicled drug use isn’t helping. Teens should steer clear of Alice.”
To make matters worse, it isn’t simply the content that can be objectionable; the form of pop culture also has an impact that can be negative. “You won’t be surprised to learn that there is not a great deal of room on television for complexity,” ABC’s Nightline anchor Ted Koppel told the graduating class of Duke University. “We are nothing as an industry if not attuned to the appetites and limitations of our audience. We have learned, for example, that your attention span is brief. We should know. We helped make it that way.”
But all of this is obvious. Few are unaware of the problems associated with modern popular culture. Even if you don’t have a TV, never watch movies, and listen only to music composed by J. S. Bach, you have friends who mention how some movie or song or TV program assaulted their sensibilities or was less than admirable or edifying. Small wonder then, that some Christians conclude they should just steer clear of the whole sorry mess. Why not just skip popular culture altogether? Is it really worth the aggravation?
Why should Christians bother with pop culture? There are at least four reasons…
- Reason #1: Human Culture is a Good Gift of God
- Reason #2: Culture can Be a Window of Insight into a World View We Do Not Share
- Reason #3: Culture Can Provide Hints of Our Cultural Captivity
- Reason #4: Culture can serve as a point of contact for the gospel with people who do not yet know Christ.
Read the rest of the article: Pop Culture: Why Bother?
