What Is Happening to Entertainment?
Why are recent trends disturbing? How does it affect you?
“Mankind has always recognized the importance of entertainment and its value in rebuilding the bodies and souls of human beings. But it has always recognized that entertainment can be of a character either HELPFUL or HARMFUL to the human race.”—“Code of Production” by Motion Picture Industry
WHO of us has not at some time been refreshed by a wholesome form of entertainment? But have you not at times found your entertainment somewhat disappointing? Even the Production Code of the motion-picture industry warned of “harmful” entertainment that tends “to degrade human beings, or to lower their standards of life and living.”
Many have decried the ‘degrading’ effect of some of today’s movies, television shows and social life. For instance, while seeking entertainment, have you not found some of your moral standards challenged by such amusement?
As a case in point, one movie theater, brimming with average moviegoers, became vibrant with squeals of laughter, and eventually hearty cheers from the attentive audience. What was on the screen? A chilling scene where two men attack and rape a helpless woman in the presence of her defenseless husband. How tragic! Most of us recoil at the thought of such an act. Yet, obviously, those people considered it entertainment—an evidence of the degradation that had seeped into their standards of life.
So serious has the situation become today that many are asking: “What is happening to entertainment?” Movies that feature scenes of appalling violence and graphic sex are now box-office successes. They form the staple of today’s films. In one year, in the United States alone, over one billion movie tickets were sold.
VIOLENCE AND SEX
Film violence has made dramatic advances in recent years. One newspaper staff writer stated:
‘Justifiable homicide has been one of the more potent lures to movies and one of the easiest ways to manipulate audiences. This is manipulation of the simplest kind.
‘Audiences not only fall for it but participate gladly, even anticipating it. Over the years, we know long before we enter the theater that we will be crying for the blood of someone. We don’t know precisely whose, nor specifically why.
‘So what does this all say about moviegoers? Are they bloodthirsty descendants of the ancient Roman, hungry for bread and circuses?
‘For a couple of hours in movie after movie after movie, we are ardent, sometimes gleeful accomplices.’
The effects of some of these shocking films have been telling. Scores of persons, rather than being refreshed, have fainted or vomited in the theater. At least in one instance, a viewer died of a heart seizure during one gory scene. Some children have been carried out from the theater screaming hysterically.
Does this seem right to you? Should the sufferings and the explicit brutalizing of others be considered entertainment? Is it proper fare for Christians who are counseled by the Bible: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with the tender affections of compassion”?—Col. 3:12; see also Proverbs 17:5.
Coupled with this violence, explicit sexual acts are pictured on the screen. One country after another has noted the popularity of films that feature erotic material. However, some persons have become so disenchanted by what is flashed on today’s screen that they have done as thousands of Australian families, who “wiped the silver screen off their family outing list.”
The small screen, television, is only a few paces behind the sex and gore of the movies. Recent TV productions have included themes highlighting homosexuality, male and female prostitution, incest, rape, pre- and extra-marital sex. How many times have you turned on the TV at random only to find yourself flinching before a scene of sex or sharp violence?
ENTERTAINING SOCIAL GATHERINGS?
Tastes in entertainment vary. One poll found that a chief form of entertainment in America is participating in ‘social activities such as dancing and giving or attending parties.’
However, the situations that often accompany such occasions cause some to moan again: “What is happening to entertainment?” Many who wish to enjoy some relaxing association have found themselves in circumstances where they were confronted with temptations to compromise or lower their own standards of morality.
A report from South Africa indicates an increased concern about parties where allegedly “sex games” are featured. Those at the party freely engaged in sexual immorality as a part of some organized “game.” One local psychiatrist confirmed the allegations, saying: “I am treating several women who can’t live with themselves after taking part in communal sex games at parties.” Some who begrudgingly went along with the immorality at the parties admitted that it was a “prostitution of your own standards.”
Social get-togethers have increasingly been marred by the overdrinking of alcoholic beverages, so that the participants have come to be guilty of what the Bible describes as engaging in “excesses with wine, revelries, drinking matches.” (1 Pet. 4:3) This form of entertainment has contributed to epidemics of alcoholism in country after country. Especially has there been an upsurge of such activity among today’s youth. One survey found:
“Drinking teenagers . . . are socially and group oriented kids who do not like to be alone and want to be with friends in most of their social activities, and for them, drinking is very much a social activity.”
Have you found yourself distressed by what has gone on at social gatherings for recreation? Have you even felt subtle pressure to ‘prostitute your own standards’? Many persons sadly answer “yes.”
Certainly all movies, TV presentations and social gatherings are not like this. But the fact remains that many are. What can be done by you personally to prevent an erosion of moral principles that you hold dear? What should be a Christian’s attitude toward entertainment that is morally degrading? What alternatives are there for those who desire to please God? It is hoped that you will read with interest the articles that follow.