These things are audacious in the sense that they are brash and daring.
They push the limits of decency. Music videos, by artists who want to be
noticed, commonly feature scandalous and outrageous behaviour. It’s not new.
Think Madonna, the Rolling Stones, or even Elvis in years gone by. But I think it’s
definitely getting worse.
So what’s the problem here? And how can the Christian Church compete?
The following quote from my book “Our Culture in Christ”, p80, seems
relevant.
“When it comes to appealing to the flesh, the world will always do a
much better job than the church. If we’re trying to grab the attention of the
world through worldly methods, we will run up against a major problem. The
world entertains by sexual titillation, innuendo, violence, crudity and
profanity, all things that do not belong in Christian witness… Christian [TV] programmers
may be creative geniuses but there is a line that they cannot cross because…
well… they are Christian… The problem is not that the Christian program is
boring. The problem is that so many of the people we are hoping to reach are
steeped in sin.
“Non-Christian songwriters and performers are not limited in their
lyrics, their stage effects or their off-stage antics. They will always be more
interesting to unsaved people. They routinely do and say things that would
cause Christian artists to lose their ministries.”
So the problem is that Western society glorifies sin rather than
honouring integrity and righteousness. The audacious behaviour of celebrities
will not stop as long as there is a market for their shock tactics. We can’t
change that but we can certainly pray!
ps: Apologies that this blog didn’t come out last week. I had a week’s
holiday in beautiful Tasmania.
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