Cleaning Up the Entertainment Industry

What happens where the literature and entertainment industries are basing their products strictly on what produces the most profit? The quality sinks to the lowest common denominator, which we are seeing today. That’s why Jesus calls us to be salt: we are to act as a preservative to prevent this kind of corruption in society, because God wants us to lead righteous lives. We as Christians are to work to eliminate corruption, not only in individual lives, but also in society so as to make it more upright and fair.

Christians are criticized for doing this, being told we are imposing our morals on an unwilling public. However, it is the media, the entertainment industry, the makers of games, and the publishing industry that are imposing their lack of decent values on the rest of us. Why are they doing this? Because it sells. Again, appealing to the lowest common denominator that gives them the best profit margin.

When a decent movie does come out, it often doesn’t last very long in the theaters. For example, I wanted to take the church youth group to see the Veggie Tales movie on last Friday evening. However, it was only showing in the afternoon, no longer in the evening, after only one week in the theater. And it’s playing in only one theater in this whole area. Why? Because people typically don’t support these kinds of movies.

So we as Christians should vote with our attendance, avoiding the bad movies and supporting the good ones. We have no right to complain about the entertainment industry when we don’t support the “good” movies, we allow our kids to buy and play inappropriate games (they do have sex and violence in them, in case you didn’t know), and we don’t monitor what they are watching on TV or doing on the Internet. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Since the entertainment industry is in business to make money, they’ll peddle the products that people will buy. So let’s take the kids to see Veggie Tales and other decent movies, and let’s stop supporting the trash that is polluting our kids’ minds.