by We’re at a unique point in time. Profound statement it is not, but never before in history have we had as much as we do now and as little as we do now both at the same time.
The latest time that this concept struck me when I was at home over the weekend and I looked at some of the conveniences that we have.
- Television:
Never before could we watch a war unfold, see things happening thousands of miles away, have selections of everything from preachers teaching the Word to worldly men and women showing all manner of depravity. - Movies: Never before could we have movies that we could play on demand in digital quality, filtering out language, violence, and sex if we so choose. Never before have characters in the Bible been popularly portrayed as tomatoes, cucumbers and Asparagus.
- Electricity: The thing that takes a power outage for us to truly appreciate.
- The Internet: A place where you’re reading this post– one in millions of entries on multitude of topics ranging from the sublime to the depraved.
I could go on, as I’m sure you have multiple ideas running through your head now.
Is it possible, that with all of these conveniences (including all sorts of appliances and time savers) that we’re really in a much more deceptive war than the one that the Christians in the first century AD were in? It must have been pretty obvious to the original Christians which way they must choose– proclaim Christ and be lion food, don’t and live.
Now we are constantly making decisions and weighing things on how bad they are. Over time we’ve seen sitcoms go from the funny Dick Van Dyke Show to Friends. Yet Christians do a comparison game with “what else is on” and say that some things are ok, and others are not. People have rightly raised the argument that we’re against profanity, but violence is ok. Or we’re against sex on TV, but some other vice is fine.
The latest is the whole ABC Monday Night Football issue with the ad for Desperate Housewives in it. I could have a whole post on this show– and what it says for our culture who had this show number one for weeks. However, here we have a ad that is now being talked about all over– and make people want to check out the show. Again– the attempt to surprise and get us to tune in.
I could go on with TV, but back to the point. How do we as believers navigate this? Some people refuse to buy things from Proctor and Gamble because of their stance. Others refuse to have long distance with some companies because they support cause X. Does that mean that those that don’t believe that one should drink should boycott the neighborhood grocery store? Are we truly responsible for what someone else does with their money?
These are some tough questions, and over the next posts, we’ll take a look at some of these and see if the Bible has something to say– or at least get my opinion 
— of what we should do in these tough times.
I’m glad you’re tackling this MIn. Very tough questions. I often take the side that ‘boycotting’ something, often becomes a distraction in and of itself.
It’s putting on a band-aid and not dealing with the problem directly. Yes, we can boycott and hurt businesses, but have we changed hearts for Christ? By boycotting, we can have an impact on a corporation, but what of the individual?
Shall we be silent when a corporation seems to affirm something clearly unbiblical? No. We must act. But I don’t think that’s all we’re called to do. Specifically focusing on that one ministry isn’t enough, and there’s the rub. I think some believers get too carried away with a good cause, but don’t focus enough in presenting Christ to the lost.
Looking forward to the next post…