Your Child and the New Age

Chapter 8

How to Resist the Power of Suggestion

  

 

 

Home

 Contents

"Moving images are irresistible. They attract attention, and stir the mind. Therefore, the "visual media" - movies and television - are powerful tools of communication." (Spiritual Counterfeits Project)

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." (Colossians 2.8)

Mom, why can't I see Beetlejuice?"

"We talked about that yesterday."

"I forgot what you said."

Sandy felt exasperated. She didn’t like to tell Tim that some of the movies "all" his friends enjoyed were out of bounds for him. Yet, she just couldn't ignore certain standards. They had debated this issue all the way home from school yesterday, and she felt too weary to take up the challenge again today.

"Mom, where does the Bible say that I can't see Beetlejuice?" Tim wasn't ready to accept no as an answer.

Sandy glanced at her son as she pulled away from the curb. His wide, blue eyes expressed sincere questioning, not rebellious disagreement. She knew he wanted to follow God's way but thought it sometimes seemed just too narrow. He hated to be different from everybody else.

"Help me, God," she prayed silently, then took a deep breath and began.

"Tim, the Bible doesn't mention Beetlejuice any more than it mentions rock music or crack. But God does make it very clear to us what He likes and what He hates. If you choose to do things He hates, it becomes harder and harder to choose to walk with God. You lose your sense of what is right, and you rationalize wrongs. Then you begin to think like those who don’t know God - based on what you want, rather than what God wants."

"But how do you know God hates Beetlejuice?"

"We saw the advertisements, remember? I have talked with some people who have seen it. So have you." She glanced at him again, and saw the telltale look of reluctant assent. "Remember the Bible verses we looked up yesterday that show us what God thinks about spiritism, spells, and those kinds of things?"

"But everybody else gets to see stuff like that.."

"You're different. You belong to God. Therefore, you can't do what everybody else does."

"Nothing happens to the kids who see those movies."

"Yes, it does. It just doesn’t show light away. People can't watch all that corruption and not begin to change their attitude toward life and people. After a while, they can't tell the difference between right and wrong."

"I know the difference. Can't you trust me, Mom?" Tim sounded so confident that Sandy almost laughed.

"You asked me that last week, when you were choosing a video to take home. Remember the ones you wanted to see? In some areas of your life, you haven't yet shown that you have the wisdom to make wise choices. But I trust you to ride your bike safely into town and back."

It was Tim's turn to be silent.

"Tim, when we get home, I'll show you some passages in the Bible that will help you understand God’s thoughts and teach you to be wise."

"God's thinking is very different from the way most people think, isn't it?" he asked thoughtfully.

"Nowadays it is," answered Sandy. She shivered as the awareness of the widening chasm between God’s ways and the world hit her like an icy wind. "Precious Lord," she prayed silently, "help Tim choose Your ways, even when it means rejection and embarrassment. Teach him Your wisdom, so that He will want to choose Your way."

Sandy sensed both the danger of a movie's persuasive power and the need to teach her son discernment. She also experienced the frustration we feel when faced with a child we long to please as well as protect. How do we fulfill our responsibility in training a child in God’s ways? Are our concerns grounded in reality? For answers, let's look again at the conflict.

The movie industry has amazing power. As a film forces viewers to make continual choices, it dulls their awareness of choosing, weakens their mental resistance to its pun, and becomes a persuasive tool for social change.

Marlin Maddoux, a Christian broadcaster and author of America Betrayed, speaks from his own experience within the media. He knows the plans of the media messengers as well as the vulnerability of millions of viewers.

We become enmeshed in it, unaware even of our surroundings, loving and hating the characters, making irrational judgments as to right or wrong, mesmerized by the genius of manipulation...

You are now at Your highest Point of vulnerability, and the authors and directors can now send you the "message" they want You to receive... While you sit than in a passive, uncritical attitude, watching and listening, you have opened the door to almost total access to your subconscious mind. The media people know it - and they exploit it.1

How do we help our children choose movies appropriate to their ages and faith? How do we prepare them to face the unexpected distortion they surely will encounter - even in a "good" movie? How can we encourage them to follow God's way, when it means saying "no"?

Step One: Finding The Right Movie

How do we find "safe" movies for our children? Are there any? Checking each possible choice personally would be a time-consuming torture. And the present rating system has failed to keep up with the changing film content. Introduced in 1968, it merely follows the shifting standards which slip further and further away from God's.
This relaxed rating system doesn't warn us that behind an innocent-sounding title and a PG rating hides a torrent of four-letter words and phrases. Today's rating

Midnight Caller was an X-rated film twenty years ago. Would it be an X today? No, I don't believe that for one moment. (Jack Valenti, Motion Picture Association of America)

system doesn’t reveal that sending our teenager to a PG-13 movie exposes him to sex scenes that signaled an R rating just a few years ago. And there's no warning of the assault on Christianity, the promotion of counterfeit religions, or the ghoulish, grotesque images so popular today.

"The movie industry, which seems to lure younger and younger moviegoers with promises of forbidden fruit, opposes any modification of what might be called "obfuscation in labeling." It apparently fears that if parents are made aware in advance of some of the garbage their kids are exposed to, they might crack down and keep their children at home." (Cal Thomas, syndicated columnist and guest host on Crossfire)

Step Two: Be Prepared

1. Pray together for continued wisdom and direction.

2. Agree ahead of time to leave if the movie turns out to be worse than expected.

3. Research the subject. Discuss biblical events or principles that relate to the movie's vision. For example, it deals with a futuristic, New Age kind of utopia, view of the future.

4. Be ready ahead of time to view counterfeit messages from a Christian perspective.

Before seeing Field of Dreams with a friend, our fourteen-year-old read newspaper reviews and Movieguide. He went fortified with the following questions, which we discussed after when we met the boys for ice cream.

5. Put on the whole armor of God.

If we go to enjoy a movie without the armor - without choosing to count on truth as our filter, the life of Jesus as our righteousness, and faith in our Shepherd as our shield - we will begin to absorb some of the movie's counterfeit values. We will be allowing the world to squeeze us into its mold.

But remember, if we go somewhere God does not want us to go, His armor will not protect us from the consequences. We can't put on the "breastplate of [God's] righteousness" - which assumes our assent to His will - then go our own way rather than His.

It is essential to understand what God does and does not promise to do. If I presume that God’s protection extends beyond His promise, I will become disappointed and frustrated. The truth is that His armor may or may not protect me against the storms of the world (Matthew 5:45). But it will always protect me against the assaults of Satan, whose arrows use the circumstances of the world to crush and destroy far more than could any storm.

In other words, God may not take me out of my circumstances, but He will bring victory in the midst of the trial. He will protect me against discouragement, despair, hopelessness, worthlessness - all the destructive emotions and thought patterns that rise up inside to disturb my peace, deny my resources in Christ, and quench my joy in Him.

I learned that lesson the hard way. During my first three years as a Christian, I worked with the chaplain's service in a local VA hospital. Both patients and chaplains encouraged me to attend a "new, transforming" group therapy session, which had "freed them up" to relate to others with more love and transparency. Curious and open to adventure, I went.
The session didn't impress me. I heard nothing new, only the same profanity I had been exposed to on other days. But something changed in me. Suddenly God seemed distant and my mind seemed out of tune with His.

Later I realized why. My Lord had not sent me. I went to the session to satisfy my own curiosity, to please others, and to gain knowledge that opposed His truth. Because I failed to protect my mind, the profanity I heard found entrance and gained a foothold. For the next three months, four-letter words would burst into my thoughts. Daily I begged that God would cleanse and renew my mind. When the onslaught ended, I had learned my lesson. When I go where my Shepherd sends me, no evil can drive a wedge between Him and me. But if I choose my own way, no matter how much I affirm the armor, I suffer the consequences.

Step Three: Others Go, But You Cannot

As parents, sometimes you just have to say no. It's hard! Your child's friends will all talk about a popular show which he alone missed. You hurt with him and wish you could shield him from the pain - but you cannot without compromising your faith. Suffering for Christ's sake is an unavoidable part of a disciple's life. You just hope to see the pain produce wisdom and maturity rather than bitterness and rebellion. How can you encourage him?

A good video, a trip to the ball game, and other distractions can help. But only God's Word can change his attitude, bring wisdom, and produce maturity.

The following Scriptures will deepen his understanding of what it means to be a Christian. You may want to choose a Scripture each morning, then discuss it at a predetermined time later in the day.

As you read the Scripture passages, ask yourself these questions: What does it say? What is God saying to me? How can I apply it to my life?

Look at what God wants to accomplish.
- James 1:2-4
- Romans 5:3-5
- 1 Peter 5:6-10
· Listen to what God tells you to avoid.
- Romans 12:9
- Ephesians 4:17-20
- Deuteronomy 18:10-13

Know that God has wonderful plans for those who follow Him.
- Matthew 5:11-12, 13-16 -Romans 8:16-18
- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

The object of our focus changes our lives. When we focus on immorality and violence, these mental pictures mold our thinking and behavior. But when we focus on God and His truth, He fills us and makes us more like Himself. The transformation the world offers can't compare to what God promises His children.

We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3.18)

| Home | Bible Studies | Armor of God | Persecution | Preparing for Victory | Articles | Heaven |