transforming america, step 6--guard your home against secularism
I'm back from my trip to St. Louis--we saw the Cubs and Cardinals split two games on Saturday at beautiful Busch Stadium--so now it's back to work.
For the past couple of weeks, I have been posting my thoughts on what has to happen to transform America and to spark a spiritual rebirth of this great country. In my opinion, America is circling the drain of secular humanism, or secular progressivism, or modern liberalism, or cultural Marxism, or whatever you want to call the disease that is destroying our culture. I have identified 13 steps that those of us who call ourselves Christian conservatives need to take in order to stop the decline, and we have discussed 5 of those steps so far. Step 6 is to use God's armor to guard our homes against secularism. Ephesians 6:10-18 provides the blueprint:
And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.
Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.
Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, God's Word, and prayer are the armor and weapons God has provided us with for the struggle we face. And make no mistake, we face an immense struggle to keep the forces of dark secularism--the devil's forces--out of our homes. Paul calls this "a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels." Far too many modern Christians regard this struggle as an "afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours," but the reality is quite different and more than a little frightening. The question now becomes--How do we apply what Paul tells us here to our own homes?
We need to eliminate anything that contradicts truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and God's Word from our homes, and the best place to start is with most TV programming. Notice that I didn't say to throw out the TV. We Christians, many of us anyway, have got to get past the silly notion that the TV set is evil. It's not. The TV is neither good nor evil. It is simply an appliance that can be used for great good or tremendous evil. In my home we love our Walker Texas Ranger re-runs. We love Andy Griffith and Bonanza and Gunsmoke as well. Colts games, Cubs games, Packers games, Pacers games and Notre Dame games all are welcome on the TV. On the other hand, I have almost completely banned the Disney Channel from our household. 99.9% of everything on Disnet is pure garbage, and that's a shame. It's not the Disney of our youth. Unfortunately, the Disney Corporation has made the corporate decision to become the largest purveyor of cultural Marxism that we have in America. Spend just one evening watching the trash they are peddling and you will see a very obvious effort to promote homosexuality and hedonism, and an equally obvious effort to trash traditional Christian values, the traditional family, and gender distinctions. If you let your kids watch a lot of Disney you are poisoning them, and that's a fact! The bottom line is that you have to strictly limit what your kids watch on TV.
The same reasoning applies to all forms of electronic games and computers. All of that stuff can be fun, and even educational, but only in small doses, and only if you strictly monitor content. And I hope I don't have to point out the obvious dangers of the Internet, and the need for strict parental oversight in that area.
If your kids are spending more than 1 hour a day hooked into electronic gadgetry, including the TV, that's too much. Back on June 14 I posted links to a study that showed the effects that heavy TV watching had on the political and cultural opinions of people, and it isn't pretty. Go to the archives on the right sidebar and you will find the post From 6-14-07. The numbers don't lie--if you want your child to grow up to be a secular progressive/modern leftist/liberaliar/cultural Marxist, then the best way to start is to let them watch lots and lots of unregulated TV. Then they'll be sure to avoid any influence from truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and God's Word!
I'll close here with what I said back in June at the end of the above post:
So, what's the lesson here? What's "The Big Idea?"
First, strictly limit the amount of time the TV is on in your home.
Second, strictly regulate the content of the shows that are being watched. And don't automatically assume that the "kiddie channels" are OK for the kids. The absolute worst piece of liberaliar propaganda I have ever seen, other than Al Gore's sci-fi flick, was the movie Happy Feet. I never knew that an animated movie about penguins could be so flagrantly Marxist, and so openly hostile to Christianity! (personal note from my house--We naively watched that movie last week as a family. I stopped it halfway through. We had to watch 'Rocky' and 'Rocky II', plus a good 'Walker, Texas Ranger' episode, just to clear the liberal stench from the room!)
Third, spend time reading with your kids. Read the classics. Read the Bible. Read about the Founding Fathers, and great American heroes like Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. Read the Bible. Read about Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Read about the Pilgrims. Read the Bible. You get the idea.
Fourth, pray with your kids. Pray for wisdom, strength and courage so that you can model Christian conservatism for you kids, and so that they could grow to be strong Christian conservative American citizens.
In my opinion, we are one generation away from completely losing the America of our Fathers and from seeing America circle the same liberaliar, Marxist drain that has claimed Europe. One generation! By the same token, we are only one generation away from beating back the forces of cultural Marxism or secular progressivism or liberaliarism or whatever you want to call it, and reclaiming America for the cause of Christian conservatism. The battle starts in the home with the simple act of turning off the TV.
And with never, ever watching any cartoons about penguins!
For the past couple of weeks, I have been posting my thoughts on what has to happen to transform America and to spark a spiritual rebirth of this great country. In my opinion, America is circling the drain of secular humanism, or secular progressivism, or modern liberalism, or cultural Marxism, or whatever you want to call the disease that is destroying our culture. I have identified 13 steps that those of us who call ourselves Christian conservatives need to take in order to stop the decline, and we have discussed 5 of those steps so far. Step 6 is to use God's armor to guard our homes against secularism. Ephesians 6:10-18 provides the blueprint:
And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.
Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.
Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, God's Word, and prayer are the armor and weapons God has provided us with for the struggle we face. And make no mistake, we face an immense struggle to keep the forces of dark secularism--the devil's forces--out of our homes. Paul calls this "a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels." Far too many modern Christians regard this struggle as an "afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours," but the reality is quite different and more than a little frightening. The question now becomes--How do we apply what Paul tells us here to our own homes?
We need to eliminate anything that contradicts truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and God's Word from our homes, and the best place to start is with most TV programming. Notice that I didn't say to throw out the TV. We Christians, many of us anyway, have got to get past the silly notion that the TV set is evil. It's not. The TV is neither good nor evil. It is simply an appliance that can be used for great good or tremendous evil. In my home we love our Walker Texas Ranger re-runs. We love Andy Griffith and Bonanza and Gunsmoke as well. Colts games, Cubs games, Packers games, Pacers games and Notre Dame games all are welcome on the TV. On the other hand, I have almost completely banned the Disney Channel from our household. 99.9% of everything on Disnet is pure garbage, and that's a shame. It's not the Disney of our youth. Unfortunately, the Disney Corporation has made the corporate decision to become the largest purveyor of cultural Marxism that we have in America. Spend just one evening watching the trash they are peddling and you will see a very obvious effort to promote homosexuality and hedonism, and an equally obvious effort to trash traditional Christian values, the traditional family, and gender distinctions. If you let your kids watch a lot of Disney you are poisoning them, and that's a fact! The bottom line is that you have to strictly limit what your kids watch on TV.
The same reasoning applies to all forms of electronic games and computers. All of that stuff can be fun, and even educational, but only in small doses, and only if you strictly monitor content. And I hope I don't have to point out the obvious dangers of the Internet, and the need for strict parental oversight in that area.
If your kids are spending more than 1 hour a day hooked into electronic gadgetry, including the TV, that's too much. Back on June 14 I posted links to a study that showed the effects that heavy TV watching had on the political and cultural opinions of people, and it isn't pretty. Go to the archives on the right sidebar and you will find the post From 6-14-07. The numbers don't lie--if you want your child to grow up to be a secular progressive/modern leftist/liberaliar/cultural Marxist, then the best way to start is to let them watch lots and lots of unregulated TV. Then they'll be sure to avoid any influence from truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and God's Word!
I'll close here with what I said back in June at the end of the above post:
So, what's the lesson here? What's "The Big Idea?"
First, strictly limit the amount of time the TV is on in your home.
Second, strictly regulate the content of the shows that are being watched. And don't automatically assume that the "kiddie channels" are OK for the kids. The absolute worst piece of liberaliar propaganda I have ever seen, other than Al Gore's sci-fi flick, was the movie Happy Feet. I never knew that an animated movie about penguins could be so flagrantly Marxist, and so openly hostile to Christianity! (personal note from my house--We naively watched that movie last week as a family. I stopped it halfway through. We had to watch 'Rocky' and 'Rocky II', plus a good 'Walker, Texas Ranger' episode, just to clear the liberal stench from the room!)
Third, spend time reading with your kids. Read the classics. Read the Bible. Read about the Founding Fathers, and great American heroes like Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. Read the Bible. Read about Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Read about the Pilgrims. Read the Bible. You get the idea.
Fourth, pray with your kids. Pray for wisdom, strength and courage so that you can model Christian conservatism for you kids, and so that they could grow to be strong Christian conservative American citizens.
In my opinion, we are one generation away from completely losing the America of our Fathers and from seeing America circle the same liberaliar, Marxist drain that has claimed Europe. One generation! By the same token, we are only one generation away from beating back the forces of cultural Marxism or secular progressivism or liberaliarism or whatever you want to call it, and reclaiming America for the cause of Christian conservatism. The battle starts in the home with the simple act of turning off the TV.
And with never, ever watching any cartoons about penguins!
posted by hondo at 10:43 AM
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