1976 was a pretty great year. It was the year of bicentennial celebration of our nation’s independence. Peter Frampton put out his unforgettable “Frampton Comes Alive” album. And I watched my first episode of Saturday Night Live (SNL) while spending the night at my friend’s house.
SNL was called NBC’s Saturday Night, featuring The Not Ready for Primetime Players. My friend and I laughed at the comedic genius of people like John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Gilda Radner. But I had a nagging little feeling of guilt because I was not allowed to watch this type of show at home.
I laughed anyways.
Those characters, Belushi, Aykroyd, then later Bill Murray, went on to do films that attained for them stardom and noteworthiness among the greatest comedians of all time.
But they also seared my conscience.
I went from watching the inane and seemingly innocent sketches of SNL, to watching the movies starring the people from SNL. Movies like National Lampoon’s, Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Stripes, and Caddy Shack, just to name a few. While these movies are really funny, and are classics which most people have seen and wouldn’t question their content, they are all “R” rated.
Jump forward to 2010. The Golden Globe Best Comedy Film Award went to “The Hang Over,” starring Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, and Bradley Cooper. Everyone has told me it’s hilarious. I was about to watch it when I read a little review warning about the language in it. The review went on to tell how much bad language was actually used:
91x – F-bomb
41x – “S” word
13x – “hell”
14x – “ass”
9 – references to the male anatomy
12 – references to the female anatomy
100 – references to sex
31x – taking God’s name in vain
I decided not to watch it. But lots of people have. Lots of Christians even. To which I have one question, how can you call yourself a Christian and listen to your savior’s precious name being used in filthy language 31 times, let alone all the other spoken trash???
You may think I’m overdoing it a little. But think about how something that was once a little risky to you (i.e. watching something, doing something, go somewhere) is now hardly a consideration. This process is actually what Paul describes when he says,
“…having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2)
And it’s not just a personal issue, it’s a cultural one too. Think about how degraded our entertainment has become…or maybe it seems normal to you. For a lot of people, even Christians, they see nothing wrong with watching or listening to shows, movies, music, that would’ve highly offended people twenty years ago, but now it’s mainstream.
This world’s culture will deaden our spiritual nerve endings if we’re not careful. Listen to these words,
“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Romans 12:2, MSG)
I pray nothing I’ve said slaps of legalism, but I do pray that we become more on guard for the subtle poisoning that can happen when feeling like something’s wrong gives way to not even noticing.
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