| October 30, 2007 |
Vol 8, Issue 34 |
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 Get Ready to Lead!
"It's simple. We're just changing the world."
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Combatting the Spread of Cultural Pollution
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Greetings!...
As I've been traveling in the Philippines in the last few days I've had a number of conversations about the cultural pollution dumping out of American sewage pipes such as MTV and record companies, poisoning the moral reefs of virtually every nation on the planet.
The most embarrassing thing for me, as an American, is how MTV (and their ilk) represent such a huge foreign policy disaster.
I am told that MTV is the primary way teenage Asians learn English. Because of its formative influence, youth here in Asia assume that MTV represents what young Americans are really like--vulgar, perverse, stupid. These impressionable teens are simultaneously attracted and repelled by what they see, such that they end up immitating the behaviors (and language) while despising Americans for being such idiots.
And this idiocy plays right into the hands of those recruiting converts to radical Islam: "See, America is a Christian nation and this is what it produces. The fruit of Christianity is evil corruption."
So...how do we prepare our children to be "in the world but not of it," to engage the culture without becoming ensnared in its web?
In this issue I've asked my friend Dr. Ted Baehr from the Christian Film and Television Commission to weigh in on the issue. Dr. Baehr is on the cultural front lines in Hollywood, and he's made a tremendous difference in the film industry by persuading movie execs that family friendly films are good business.
Let's get ready for some cultural engagement!
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Dr. Ted Baehr on Reversing Cultural Collapse
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 The United States of America and Western Europe are on the edge of a cultural collapse brought about to a large degree by the mass media of entertainment along with public schools and other institutions of mass destruction of culture.
Many Christian parents are concerned about the influence of media violence on their children, but many of those who are concerned don't know what to do about the problem. The good news is that there are effective ways to teach your children to be media-wise.
Pillars of Media Wisdom
As the director of the TV Center at City University of New York, I helped develop some of the first media literacy courses in the late 1970s. Since then, years of research have produced a very clear understanding of the best way to teach media literacy. Specifically, there are five pillars of media wisdom that will help build the culture-wise family.
Pillar 1: Understand the influence of the media on your children.
In the wake of the Columbine High School massacre, CBS president Leslie Moonves put it quite bluntly: "Anyone who thinks the media has nothing to do with this is an idiot." The major medical associations have concluded that there is absolutely no doubt that those who are heavy viewers of violence demonstrate increased acceptance of aggressive attitudes and aggressive behavior.
Of course, media is only one part of the problem--a problem that could be summed up with the sage biblical injunction, "Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character'" (1 Cor. 15:33). As the results of thousands of studies on youth violence prove, watching media violence causes violence among children.
Bad company corrupts good character--whether that bad company is gangs, peer pressure or violent television programs.
Pillar 2: Ascertain your children's susceptibility at each stage of cognitive development.
Not only do children see the media differently at each stage of development, but also different children are susceptible to different stimuli. As the research of the National Institute of Mental Health revealed many years ago, some children want to copy media violence, some are susceptible to other media influences, some become afraid, and many become desensitized.
Just as an alcoholic would be inordinately tempted by a beer commercial, so certain types of media may tempt or influence your child at his or her specific stage of development.
Pillar 3: Teach your children how the media communicates its message.
Just as children spend the first 14 years of their lives learning grammar with respect to the written word, they also need to be taught the grammar of twenty-first-century mass media so that they can think critically about the messages being programmed for them.
Pillar 4: Help your children know the fundamentals of Christian faith.
Children need to be taught the fundamentals of Christian faith so that they can apply their beliefs and moral values to the culture and to the mass media of entertainment. Of course, parents typically have an easier time than teachers with this pillar because they can freely discuss their personal beliefs. Yet even so, it is interesting to note that cultural and media literacy and values education are two of the fastest growing areas in the academic community--a trend most likely due to the fact that educators are beginning to realize that something is amiss.
Pillar 5: Help your children learn how to ask the right questions.
When children know the right questions to ask, they can arrive at the right answers to the problems presented by the mass media of entertainment. For instance, if the hero in the movie your child is watching wins by murdering and mutilating his victims, will your children be able to question this hero's behavior, no matter how likable that character may be?
Educating the Heart
Theodore Roosevelt said that if we educate a man's mind but not his heart, we have an educated barbarian. Cultural and media wisdom involves educating the heart so that it will make the right decisions.
So, how can you protect the eyes of innocence of your children and grandchildren? How can you redeem the culture?
THE CULTURE-WISE FAMILY is available at most bookstores, on Amazon.com and at www.movieguide.org <http://www.movieguide.org>, or by calling 1-800-899-6684.
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Bizarre but True: What People Really Believe and Think
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- According to Cornell University, 9 out of 10 children abandon the values of their parents.
- According to USA Today, 83% of the youth leave the church, and
80% of the parents are very worried about their children and the
influence on them of the mass media of entertainment.
- A new study of 16- to 29-year-olds by the Barna Research Group
shows that America's youths are growing more resistant and skeptical to
Christianity than were people of the same age a decade ago.
- Currently only 16% of young non-Christians said they have a "good
impression" of Christianity and only 3% have a favorable view of
evangelicals, compared to 25% of young non-Christians viewing
evangelicals in the Baby Boomer generation.
- USA Today noted that 70 percent of Americans were unable to name the Ten Commandments.
- More Americans are familiar with the specific ingredients in a
McDonald's hamburger than know the individual commands that comprise
the Ten Commandments.
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Transforming Culture: What Works and What Doesn't
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 I've been reading T. S. Eliot's Notes Toward the Definition of Culture
this week. Eliot says that "culture is the one thing we cannot
deliberately aim at." People don't set out to build culture, per se;
they act in certain ways that result
in culture. This theory of culture says that the great masters of art,
for example, didn't set out to create masterpieces that would build
culture. Rather, they expressed their worldview through art, which in
turn built a culture we still admire today.
If the worldview of an age produces its culture, what does the pop
culture say about the depth and integrity of today's worldviews? What
does it say about what we think makes life worth living?
Reclaiming the culture is an important mission, but it begins with
reforms deep in the human spirit. Especially in the family. Eliot
states, "by far the most important channel of transmission of culture
remains the family: and when family life fails to play its part, we
must expect our culture to deteriorate."
Cultural transformation starts with making the family--not corporations, not the mass media--the decision-maker about wise choices.
In the short run, through the thousand little choices we make every day we must demonstrate to our children that we not only know the difference between the good and bad and the genuine and counterfeit, but that we prefer the genuine and good to the bad and counterfeit. This is called discernment, and Samuel Johnson said that it is the supreme end of education.
Notice that true discernment is two-fold: (1) stop imbibing the polluted culture and (2) turn from "amusement" (to "not think") to "recreation" (to be re-created in God's image).
Here's an even bigger challenge, for those willing to accept it. In the long run our children need to know how to produce art that
restores and builds rather than corrupts. And it wouldn't hurt for some
Christian capitalists to invest a few hundred million dollars to create
more positive entertainment options that youth will like better. Nobody
except Summer Redstone will cry if MTV goes out of business, the world
will thank us heartily.
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 From Jeff Myers: Make it a Great Week!
We've seen God work in mighty ways here in the Philippines over the last few days. In Iloilo we trained 164 Christian school teachers from 21 schools in how to mentor, coach and disciple the next generation of culture-shaping leaders. It was awesome to watch as these teachers gathered in groups and prepared strategic plans for making leader development a key objective of their schools. By the time you receive this we will, God-willing, have completed the training for several hundred more teachers in Davao and Baguio, and also conducted a 3-hour church version of Passing the Baton for Grace Christian Church in Manila. Thank you for your prayers for my family in my absence and that I'll truly be used by God to be a blessing to all nations of the earth.
--Jeff
Jeff Myers, Ph.D., President
Passing the Baton International, Inc.
P.S. One more week to use the 10% off coupon below.
Click here to e-mail me. Or here to visit our website. |
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