Life in a garbage dump
Oh the controversy that arises when I’m dead tired and at such a late hour. If you think this post has something to do with my blog before, then you’re absolutely right!
It has to do with influences and I’ll use music as an example. In dot points to make it simple.
As leaders, we’re allowed to listen to secular music.
ALL secular music has a degree of ‘trash’ in it.
What we do as leaders, influences our peers.
So by listening to secular music, would that not indirectly tell our peers it’s ok to listen to it too? Since we listen to it... and obviously don’t condone listening to it. So that means that we are advertising the listening of trash into our peers. yes?
Now the other side of the coin... if we shelter our peers from any ‘trash’ that comes out of the world... would we not set them up for disaster when they ultimately do come across this sort of stuff. As they’ve been sheltered from it all their lives (whether that be swearing, sex etc) would that not extrapolate the influence it has on them on their later life. The example of single sex schools is an example of where this can occur.
So there’s the conflict, sheltering and acceptance, there’s bad points for both of them in my view. Is there a way around it? Can’t really explain myself further, need to sleep. I’ll add to it later on.
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Well I thought a lot about this last night and I hope I’m still considered a Christian at the end of this blog haha.
You often hear in church that we should not input trash into our lives. So what exactly is this trash? You’d have to argue that if any unchristian value, even to a minute degree, is present AND it does not condone it, it is trash. So hypothetically, if a ‘Christian worship song’ had a swear word in it, it would be considered trash.
And I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable when a speaker comes up to speak and proclaims that we should never listen/watch to trash and then after that Lord Of The Rings is shown. You might be asking... so what if LOTR is shown, it’s got some good principles in it. And yes, LOTR does have a lot of Christian principles in it BUT it also contains many ‘trashy’ elements to it. Hate, violence, killing, blood, beheadings, betrayal, evil scheming and the list goes on.
Not too long ago John Q was shown and once again, it had many good Christian values in that too BUT it also contained a lot of ‘trash’. Swearing, shooting, blood, violence, hostage taking (by the main character) and yes, the list goes on. So by definition, this very trash that many people oblige us to not watch is being ‘advertised’ on our very church screens.
Indeed, ‘trash’ is all around us. So are we to, by default, to shelter ourselves from pretty much any entertaining media. Because once again, pretty much anything secular is ‘trash’. In a lot of TV programs unchristian values are being strewn around in an acceptable manner. In music, especially the theme of love, there are a lot of trashy elements. You could even argue that due to the quantity of the theme of love (which isn’t unchristian in it’s basic sense) that is present in this music is so large, it could start affecting us. Games that we play also encourage unchristian values. I’ll list a few examples.
Neighbours - it’s just a large communicator of conflict, betrayal, hate etc.
Everybody Loves Raymond - plays on the hate between wife and mother in law to create comedy and also many of it’s comical elements are generated from unchristian values (jealousy, hate etc)
The Simpsons - shows a degenerative family
Mafia - contains lying and deceit
Monopoly - contains the element of being power hungry and ‘monopolising’ situations for personal gain.
Risk - contains world domination and scheming to achieve a goal, like Mafia to a very small degree
Adam’s Song (Blink 182) - contains depressing thoughts about suicide.
Love songs in general - emphasis on love and finding a partner.
Shakespearian plays - many plays contained swear words (albeit old swear words)
Hmmm just food for thought I guess. Kinda an extreme kind of thinking but it makes sense yeah?
"The less you talk, the more you're listened to." - Abigail Van Buren
It has to do with influences and I’ll use music as an example. In dot points to make it simple.
As leaders, we’re allowed to listen to secular music.
ALL secular music has a degree of ‘trash’ in it.
What we do as leaders, influences our peers.
So by listening to secular music, would that not indirectly tell our peers it’s ok to listen to it too? Since we listen to it... and obviously don’t condone listening to it. So that means that we are advertising the listening of trash into our peers. yes?
Now the other side of the coin... if we shelter our peers from any ‘trash’ that comes out of the world... would we not set them up for disaster when they ultimately do come across this sort of stuff. As they’ve been sheltered from it all their lives (whether that be swearing, sex etc) would that not extrapolate the influence it has on them on their later life. The example of single sex schools is an example of where this can occur.
So there’s the conflict, sheltering and acceptance, there’s bad points for both of them in my view. Is there a way around it? Can’t really explain myself further, need to sleep. I’ll add to it later on.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I thought a lot about this last night and I hope I’m still considered a Christian at the end of this blog haha.
You often hear in church that we should not input trash into our lives. So what exactly is this trash? You’d have to argue that if any unchristian value, even to a minute degree, is present AND it does not condone it, it is trash. So hypothetically, if a ‘Christian worship song’ had a swear word in it, it would be considered trash.
And I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable when a speaker comes up to speak and proclaims that we should never listen/watch to trash and then after that Lord Of The Rings is shown. You might be asking... so what if LOTR is shown, it’s got some good principles in it. And yes, LOTR does have a lot of Christian principles in it BUT it also contains many ‘trashy’ elements to it. Hate, violence, killing, blood, beheadings, betrayal, evil scheming and the list goes on.
Not too long ago John Q was shown and once again, it had many good Christian values in that too BUT it also contained a lot of ‘trash’. Swearing, shooting, blood, violence, hostage taking (by the main character) and yes, the list goes on. So by definition, this very trash that many people oblige us to not watch is being ‘advertised’ on our very church screens.
Indeed, ‘trash’ is all around us. So are we to, by default, to shelter ourselves from pretty much any entertaining media. Because once again, pretty much anything secular is ‘trash’. In a lot of TV programs unchristian values are being strewn around in an acceptable manner. In music, especially the theme of love, there are a lot of trashy elements. You could even argue that due to the quantity of the theme of love (which isn’t unchristian in it’s basic sense) that is present in this music is so large, it could start affecting us. Games that we play also encourage unchristian values. I’ll list a few examples.
Neighbours - it’s just a large communicator of conflict, betrayal, hate etc.
Everybody Loves Raymond - plays on the hate between wife and mother in law to create comedy and also many of it’s comical elements are generated from unchristian values (jealousy, hate etc)
The Simpsons - shows a degenerative family
Mafia - contains lying and deceit
Monopoly - contains the element of being power hungry and ‘monopolising’ situations for personal gain.
Risk - contains world domination and scheming to achieve a goal, like Mafia to a very small degree
Adam’s Song (Blink 182) - contains depressing thoughts about suicide.
Love songs in general - emphasis on love and finding a partner.
Shakespearian plays - many plays contained swear words (albeit old swear words)
Hmmm just food for thought I guess. Kinda an extreme kind of thinking but it makes sense yeah?
"The less you talk, the more you're listened to." - Abigail Van Buren
posted by Dazz at 2:10 am
6 Comments:
WHY WOULD A CHRISTIAN WORSHIP SONG HAVE A SWEAR WORD IN IT?.... DO YOU REALLY NEED TO SWEAR TO WORSHIP GOD?
I GUESS IT'S ALL ABOUT LEARNING THE CULTURE OF WHERE WE LIVE IN....
I HAVE BEEN SWITCHING FROM MAINSTREAM MUSIC, TO CHRISTIAN...AND THE OCCASIONAL CHINESE POP....
BUT BASICALLY I LISTEN FOR THE MUSIC AND THE CULTURE... I MEAN LOVE SONGS.... THIS IS HOW WE LEARN ABOUT EMOTIONS... HOW THEY ARE PORTRAYED.... AND SOME LOVE SONGS HAS A SUPER AWESOME TUNE...LIKE 'ALL MY LOVIN'.... AND REALLY THE LYRICS AREN'T THAT DEEP AS YOU DESCRIBED...
THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE A LIFE WITHOUT TRASH IS BECOME A MONK, AND GO INTO A ISOLATION TOWER....
IT'S EVERYWHERE.... LOOK AT THE BUS STOP ADs... AS LONG AS WE CHRISTIANS KNOW HOW TO MODERATE IT... I THINK THEY CALL IT MATURITY....
IF WE AREN'T EXPOSED TO THIS, HOW WOULD WE KNOW WHAT'S RIGHT AND WHAT'S WRONG...
BUT I KINDA AGREE THAT WE HAVE TO BE CAREFUL WHAT WE DO....
I HAVE NEVER PLAYED MAFIA.... BUT JUST THE THOUGHT OF MANIPULATING PEOPLES.... MAKES SENSE WHY I'M NOT SO INTRESTED
TODAY'S MEDIA LIKES INVOLVE VIOLENCE AND DIRTY JOKES FOR ENTERTAINMENT....
THERE IS NO ESCAPE.... ALL YOU CAN DO IS MAKE YOUR OWN FILTERING SYSTEM....
what is wrong with totally abstaining from "trashy" elements..? if u do have a good idea of what is out there in the world and yet make a conscious decision to spend ur time on better, more productive efforts than merely watching TV or listening to secular music..? isn't that infinetely more powerful and pleasing than wasting time watching unproductive shows..? someone once said u will waste 8 years of ur life watching TV... i wonder what God thinks about that..?
just a thought.
is it really that hard to abstain from TV/secular culture..? to be in the world but not off it..?
or is that the ultimate sacrifice..?
*note: this doesn't necessarily express my own personal views, but dazz's blog demands both sides of the issue to be explored*
Oh yes I am fine, thx for asking though. There's always gonna be smiles with mah fries... cos fries taste nice... and tasty stuff makes me smile :) But yer, my last few blogs haven't been the most uplifting ones! I'll try to change that.
There's no inner conflict in my life regarding this issue... the fact remains, I'll still listen/watch secular stuff though now I'm making an effort to not advertise it in any way. This blog was just a few thoughts that arose in my mind.
And Jess that was just a hypotetical thing. I'm pretty sure there's no worship songs with swear words in it.
And what is a swear word... and who determines that a word is a swear wrod? Are words that replace swear words condsidered swear words? (like shieet) It gets really fuzzy!
Thanks for the comments guys.
YEAH I KINDA PICKED UP THAT IT WAS HYPOTHETICAL.... BUT IT WAS JUST NOT LOGICAL....WELL FOR ME ANYWAYS... :S
OH WELL... NICE TOPIC ANYWAYS... VERY MENTALLY STIMULATING...
i have found that U2's music is far more spiritually edifying and uplifting than alot of christian stuff out there. explain that.
just on a side note, how would u classify "christian" music and "non-Christian" music..?
what about bands that crossover (i.e. Switchfoot, Lifehouse etc etc)?? where do you stand on that? and what sort of example is that showing the rest of us about how to be in the world and yet not off the world..?
I read James 3: 9-12 but for some reason I get the impression that they're saying that you can't praise God and curse your brothers and sisters at the same time. Like if you curse men, you're not praising God... hmm that was my interpretation of it anyway.
"Anyways, I don't think that secular music serves any purpose in my growth in God. Let me know what you think."
That comment kinda confused me, you could put a lot of things we do in life as meaningless. Is the playing of sport, watching of sport on TV, reading books on gardening, painting landscapes etc worthless just becuase they do nothing to help your growth in God?
And worship isn't all about singing songs and being merry, I've always thought of it as a lifestyle. Which brings me to another question, can we worship God and listen to secular music? And also, as Tim said, I don't think that just because some secular songs aren't praising God you can put them down as being trash. There's songs out there which underline important issues in life, ones which although do not directly glorify God but instead show certain principles which are characteristic of what God wants in our lives.
I've been listening to secular music since I was born but there were and still are songs out there which I'll never listen to/try my best to avoid. But that still leaves the countless of other songs which don't either praise God nor condemn him. They're just songs which express the emotions of the artist(s). If a song doesn't make you stray from God yet it also doesn't make you any closer to him either, is that song considered trash?
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