Hollywood

[Christ_empowered]

ugh. I lean (very...) left on a lot of issues, but...honestly, I'm not too fond of anything Hollywood produces, and I don't watch movies very often now. Nor do I watch all that much TV, either. Its --not-- moral superiority, either, LOL. Years ago, I (miraculously) landed in a 12 month, Pentecostal rehab facility. They kept a close watch on everybody, and TV was minimized, movies were very rarely shown, and...it kind of "stuck" with me. These days, I get most of my news off various websites and I just...don't..."get" the entertainment industry.

Anyway...now, I know maybe this sounds paranoid, but I feel like the mass media (I mean the sitcoms, dramas, movies, etc., mostly...the entertainment industry, basically...) has changed and is changing our culture, our morals/values, outlook, etc. Its not just a "liberal" thing, either. Remember when Oprah still had her show, and she went all spiritual guru on everybody? All of sudden, New Age-y stuff became best sellers, such as The Secret and some other questionable material.

All the material pushed onto audiences all over the US (and the world, too; it seems exporting entertainment is a big industry...) also pushes a set of values and an outlook on life. I'm left wondering...

...do we --need-- this much entertainment, anyway? I sometimes think of late stage Rome, you know...The Bread and Circuses, while the empire was crumbling and the over-extended war machine was becoming a huge burden on the remaining resources, etc.


There's lots going on in the US and in the world, but we're all being encouraged to Keep up with the Kardashians, buy a new Nissan, and take the latest and greatest pscyh drugs advertised on the TV (in the 90s, everybody was "depressed," cuz that's what the Zoloft ads said; now, everybody and their mama is "Bipolar," because the Latuda people say so...).

Ugh. Rambling, maybe even...ranting, more than a lil bit...

I just don't get it, that's all. I'm blessed that I --can-- live in peace, safety, and quiet, minimal mass media required. Lots of people...well, wages are stagnant for much of America, so lots of people are working more, fewer benefits, rising costs, and then they come home, and the TV is their refuge, their entertainer, their tranquilizer.

how do y'all, as Christians, deal with mass media, especially what passes for entertainment now, in an increasingly hi-tech, media-saturated culture?

 

[Eugene]

.
Morning CE. It may be my age, it may be the programming, but I haven't enjoyed newer presentations for quite a while. My wife likes GSN (Game Shows Network), and if I listen to anything it is the local news, and some of the older programs on Antenna TV such as Newhart, Barney Miller, etc. I used to like Seinfeld and Carol Burnett, Reba, etc. I may accidentally watch one movie a year, and that if it's something I've seen before I'd like to see again. Otherwise we have the TV on 24 hours per day making noise, but most times couldn't tell you what was just showing. These days for some reason have better ads than the shows. I like things such as the following.

 

[Not_Now.Soon]

A few years ago I watched a comedian, and part way through I started to consider what he was saying and how he was saying it. It struck me that humor is a medium to convey principles on politics, religion, relationships, and anything else. All without the standard of using our intellect to see if the perceptions are really true or not. It struck me as dishonest though entertaining.

That said though, I know there are shows (seems like they are all older shows) that still hold some values to them even through their entertainment. The growing values of Hollywood use to be different. And though entertainment isn't nessassery, after a long day at work, (or just after a long day) it's nice to have something to sit down and have a refuge against anything that happened or that is happening.

 

[Christ_empowered]

yeah...today's ads really are...clever and sophisticated. I'm impressed.

I'm not trying to sound judgmental. I don't need TV, because...well, I cannot work, so its easy for me to chill, write, read, etc. My parents watch some TV, especially after work, but they're not as big on it as a lot of people. I can see how it'd be necessary...an after work cocktail, your favorite tv program, chill out.

I just...I get the sense that anything that entertains does carry values and such with it, as not_now_soon pointed out. comedy, dramas, sitcoms, even novels and such. everybody's got a worldview, that's what I hear.

I just wonder sometime if our culture's morals direct this, are being directed by this, or if there's a (probably very complicated) give-and-take, between the entertainment industry and society as a whole.

 

[Not_Now.Soon]

It's ok Christ_Empowered. It's a worth while topic. I go to work and hear several conversations relating to something on TV or in a movie. It's gotten to the point that in a conversation I said I dodn't see such and such movie, then book, then show. The person I talk to said that I should make an effort to see and read those things. Granted that conversation was talking about classics, but in general there seems to be a strong drive to be immersed in our forms of entertainment. When I get home I do the same by getting on the Internet.

This is deffinately a worthwhile topic.

 

[for_his_glory]

Hollywood is nothing more than another Sodom and Gomorrah and always has been. You have good and bad coming out of it in it's programing. It's when they took the censorship out of the equation that much of the programing went down hill especially how the majority of shows have no family values anymore. Pick and choose is all I can say.

 

[Mike S]

Hollywood is nothing more than another Sodom and Gomorrah and always has been. You have good and bad coming out of it in it's programing. It's when they took the censorship out of the equation that much of the programing went down hill especially how the majority of shows have no family values anymore. Pick and choose is all I can say.

I agree, pick and choose. Watching TV or going to theaters is not something we're forced to do, so just just choose according to your values.

 

[Christ_empowered]

yup yup. Maybe its my age...I'm 33, so I'm well outside of the 18-24, core demographic, plus...I'm old enough now to see big differences between the younger millenialls and me. Wow. I guess its the hi-tech world we're living in now...these younger generations are thoroughly plugged in to all things media related, and its a lil bit...scary.

then again....during the depression, Hollywood still made crazy $$$, offering escape thru trips to the cinema. maybe that's part of what's driving the 21st century pop culture obsession? escapism? I dunno. Just thinking/writing out loud.

 

[Milk-Drops]

What is interesting with entertainment is that its availability is a sign that a society is very comfortable and able to afford the luxuray of entertainment. Even though the US has its problems, the fact that we have time and the means to watch tv or surf the net is very telling of our comfort. Hollywood is interesting because with movies and television shows the growing demand makes it more profitable to make larger scale productions, but the cost to keep that audience is relateability. For instance Hollywood used to be studio specific with its actors and its movie themes because the audiences they were catering to were specific. The costs of making large scale movies meant that studios had to expand their audiences. This drove more formula based productions and focus grouping to find the biggest common denominator. Art in films isn't as easy to come by now because the risk is greater and can ruin a company. This summer we had "The Emoji Movie" and and a saturation of crime dramas on TV and Super Hero tv shows and movies as well. This is because its safe. Sitcoms rely on formulas due to needing to hit an audience and survive the pilot.

The gist is that its the cost that makes movies and television rely on cynical pandering to the lowest common denominator. Now an exception was the 2010s animation boom/revival with the introduction of higher quality Flash Animation shows. Cartoon Network and Disney had a hay day with this because the newer medium is cheaper and there is more ground to experiment with the material because kids shows tend to be aimed towards fantasy. The cheaper the medium the easier it is for artistic expressions to surface.

That is the same with talk shows, reality Tv, and Stand up. This is the exception to the rule about cheaper mediums breading creativity because the point isn't being creative but supplying a formula at a cheap production cost. The daily show, Oprah, etc can pedal books on large platforms because its very cheap to do. Get a person on the show, talk about their product, key in a happy, then sad, then another happy story, episode over. Comedians have it rougher because they have to write the material and still perform, but the cost is still cheap so creativity is easier to get behind.

Advertising changed due to how we consume media and because people are more keen on advertising tactics.

* Ded frog collapses from info dumb* Please send coffe and happy kitten pictures. XP

 

[jasonc]

I will take classic tv and Sci fi.the newest stuff I can like is stargatelling sg1,Atlantis. Babylon 5.

 

[follower]

how do y'all, as Christians, deal with mass media, especially what passes for entertainment now, in an increasingly hi-tech, media-saturated culture?

Below is a very small hint at what followers of Jesus, born again ones, face daily , and illustrates how far away from God the world is, and how far believers must progress to even start to taste of the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, He is our only hope !

=========================================== quotes from years ago, unedited =====
Take /read/ a little at a time, or all, as God Provides Understanding or as He Permits.
------------------------------------------------------------ OKAY, EDITED - paragraphs and sentences had to be deleted to get below the allowed number of characters in a post ----------

concerning > The Mind Behind the System​

Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted from the earth, will draw all men unto myself" (John 12:31, 32).

Our Lord Jesus utters these words at a key point in his ministry. He has entered Jerusalem thronged by enthusiastic crowds; but almost at once he has spoken in veiled terms of laying down his life, and to this heaven itself has given public approval. Now he comes out with this great twofold statement. What, we ask ourselves, can it have conveyed to those who have just acclaimed him, going out to meet him and accompanying him home on his ride? To most of them his words, if they had any meaning at all, must have signified a complete reversal of their hopes. Indeed the more discerning came to see in them a forecasting of the actual circumstances of his death as a criminal (verse 33).

Yet if his utterance destroyed one set of illusions, it offered in place of them a wonderful hope, solid and secure. For it announced a far more radical exchange of dominion than even Jewish patriots looked for. "And I ..."-the expression contrasts sharply with what precedes it, even as the One it identifies stands in contrast with his antagonist, the prince of this world. Through the Cross, through the obedience to death of him who is God's seed of wheat, this world's rule of compulsion and fear is to end with the fall of its proud ruler. And with his springing up once more to life there will come into being in its place a new reign of righteousness and one that is marked by a free allegiance of men to him. With cords of love their hearts will be drawn away from a world under judgment to Jesus the Son of man, who though lifted up to die, is by that very act lifted up to reign.

"The earth" is the scene of this crisis and its tremendous outcome, and "this world" is, we may say, its point of collision. That point we shall make the theme of our study, and we will begin by looking at the New Testament ideas associated with the important Greek word cosmos. In the English versions this word is, with a single exception shortly to be noticed, invariably translated "the world." (The other Greek word, aion, also so translated, embodies the idea of time and should more aptly be rendered "the age.")

It is worth sparing time for a look at a New Testament Greek Lexicon such as Grimm's. This will show how wide is the range of meaning that cosmos has in Scripture. But, first of all we glance back to its origins in classical Greek where we find it originally implied two things: first a harmonious order or arrangement, and secondly embellishment or adornment. This latter idea appears in the New Testament verb cosmeo, used with the meaning "to adorn," as of the temple with goodly stones or of a bride for her husband (Luke 21:5; Rev. 21:2). In 1 Peter 3:3, the exception just alluded to, cosmos is itself translated "adorning" in keeping with this same verb cosmeo in verse 5.

(1) When we turn from the classics to the New Testament writers we find that their uses of cosmos fall into three main groups. It is used first with the sense of the material universe, the round world, this earth. For example, Acts 17:14, "the God that made the world and all things therein"; Matt. 13:35 (and elsewhere), "the foundation of the world"; John 1:10, "he was in the world, and the world was made by him"; Mark 16:15, "Go ye into all the world."






Concerning this system there are two things to be emphasized. First, since the day when Adam opened the door for evil to enter God's creation, the world order has shown itself to be hostile to God.

The world "knew not God" (1 Cor. 1:21), "hated" Christ (John 15:18) and "cannot receive" the Spirit of truth (14:17). "Its works are evil" (John 7:7) and "the friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). Hence Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). He has "overcome the world" (16:33) and "the victory that hath overcome the world" is "our faith" in him (1 John 5:4). For, as the verse of John 12 that heads this study affirms, the world is under judgment. God's attitude to it is uncompromising.

This is because, secondly, as the same verse makes clear, there is a mind behind the system. John writes repeatedly of "the prince of this world" (12:31; 14:30; 16:11). In his Epistle he describes him as "he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4)and

matches

against him the Spirit of truth who indwells believers.

"The whole world," John says, "lieth in the evil one" (5:19). He is the rebellious cosmocrator, world ruler - a word which, however, appears only once, used in the plural of his lieutenants, the "world rulers of this darkness" (Eph. 6:12).

Politics, education, literature, science, art, law, commerce, music - such are the things that constitute the cosmos, and these are things that we meet daily. Subtract them and the world as a coherent system ceases to be. In studying the history of mankind we have to acknowledge marked progress in each of these departments. The question however is: In what direction is this "progress" tending? What is the ultimate goal of all this development? At the end, John tells us, antichrist will arise and will set up his own kingdom in this world (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7; Rev. 13). That is the direction of this world's advance. Satan is utilizing the material world, the men of the world, the things that are in the world, to head everything up eventually in the kingdom of antichrist. At that hour the world system will have reached its zenith; and at that hour every unit of it will be revealed to be antiChristian.


The time has passed when we need to go out into the world in order to make contact with it. Today the world comes and searches us out. There is a force abroad now which is captivating men. Have you ever felt the power of the world as much as today? Have you ever heard so much talk about money? Have you ever thought so much about food and clothing? Wherever you go, even among Christians, the things of the world are the topics of conversation. The world has advanced to the very door of the Church and is seeking to draw even the saints of God into its grasp. Never in this sphere of things have we needed to know the power of the Cross of Christ to deliver us as we do at the present time.

Formerly we spoke much of sin and of the natural life. We could readily see the spiritual issues there, but we little realized then what equally great spiritual issues are at stake when we touch the world.

There is a spiritual force behind this world scene which, by means of "the things that are in the world," is seeking to enmesh men in its system.

It is not merely against sin therefore that the saints of God need to be on their guard,

but against the ruler of this world.

God is building up his Church to its consummation in the universal reign of Christ. Simultaneously his rival is building up this world system to its vain climax in the reign of antichrist. How watchful we need to be lest at any time we be found helping Satan in the construction of that ill-fated kingdom. When we are faced with alternatives and a choice of ways confronts us, the question is not: Is this good or evil? Is this helpful or hurtful? No, the question we must ask ourselves is: Is it of this world, or of God? For since there is only this one conflict in the universe, then whenever two conflicting courses lie open to us, the choice at issue is never a lesser one than: God ... or Satan?

Preface

Table of Contents​

Chapter 2​