The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
Mr. Gore has an idea. He's going to run with it. He is passionate about it. His plan is grand. First, over the course of the next ten years he is going to steal enough federal reserve notes to make the Great Train Robbery look like a lunch money shakedown, $50 billion. That's billion. Next, he's going to launder this money through a host (actually 50) of subsidiary syndicates, and eventually, hand out $5000 a year to hundreds of thousands of his lackeys.
Did I mention the plan was grand? The first part is small potatoes. The second part is the big part. He's going to kidnap just about every three and four year old child in the country. That's big potatoes, really big. And while he has them he'll teach them the gospel according to Al Gore, that our mother Gaia is wounded, and needs Uncle Sam to save her, that homosexuality is a grand thing (it doesn't create any little cretins to crawl around Gaia and use her stuff) , that "is" can mean any number of things, and that he invented the internet.
He calls this his vision for education. He calls the theft "taxation," and the kidnapping "mandatory preschool." And we call it a policy initiative, rather than a war crime. In what other age could this happen? In what other place could such an idea be proposed without it being laughed off the stage? Is there any time when, any place where, outside the realm of the absolute totalitarian regimes of recent history, this could even be talked about? I think not.
He's right about one thing, that kids are shaped the most when they are youngest. And that's why we cannot let the state have them. Nevertheless, such doesn't mean vote for George W, the heir of the first "education president." It means telling them both that our children are a heritage from the Lord, and refusing to render unto Caesar that which bears God's image, whatever age they are.
Whatever
"Christianity taught me to view God as vengeful and judgmental. Over the last few years, though, I've realized that God is compassionate and has no preference about how we live our lives. I think that is communicated through the fact that we're given free will. There are definite universal laws, the law of consequence and cause and effect, but I don't think God prefers one choice over, the other. He or she or it notes rather than judges." -Alanis Morissette, quoted in the recent Rolling Stone magazine
If you are not familiar with Alanis, you might ask your resident teenager to clue you in. Morisette is one of the most influential women of pop music on the scene today. Her music and videos are as effective on this generation as the Beatles were on ours. Not only are her songs listened to religiously by many of the mall walking crowd but like every cultural icon, her thoughts about things she knows nothing about become gospel because Miss Popular said it.
Isn't it ironic that every person who cannot grasp or refuses to acknowledge the God of the Bible, after their "search" invariably finds God to be just like them? Not one of these flakes ever comes back and says that they found God to be even meaner than they thought at first. No matter who it is, John Lennon, Albert Schweitzer, Ralph Waldo Emerson or this particular boy toy, they always find God to think exactly like they do. Isn't that amazing? (Choke..Gag ... Barf)
Unfortunately Pop and Rock musicians are the poets and philosophers with the largest audience of our day. And since they are, we would do well to guard our minds and the minds of those for whom we are responsible from lyrical heresy and "wisdom" from fools. Outside of grace, Alanis will find herself before the judgment seat of a God whose truth she has suppressed, rather than the idol she has fashioned.
Shame
One of the advantages of small and local culture is that people know you when you fall into flamboyant sin. While gossip is rightly condemned in the Bible, there is a common grace element to knowing that if you step out with someone who is not your spouse, that all the neighbors will be talking about it. It's tough for a teenager to buy condoms when Mrs. Haynes runs the drug store, and knows everyone in town.
When local culture first became pop culture some of this restraint remained. When silent movie star Fatty Arbunkle had a starlet die in his hotel room in San Francisco, his career was finished. Children out of wedlock ruined a few stars in the Hollywood's golden age.
But the adage today is that any news is good news, as long as the star's name is spelled right. Whether it is Michael Jackson being sued for pedophilia, or Rob Lowe caught on his own videotape at the 92 Democratic convention with a pair of bare naked ladies (who it turns out were not ladies in either sense of the word, but underage and rather uncouth girls), or Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra doing a little super pro wrestling in their hotel room, or HughGrant or George Michael or Dick Morris, nobody batted an eye. The band just played on.
I'm not surprised, because the same happens in the church. Years ago, when Joyce Landorf was all the rage, she fell off the radar screen when she dumped her hubby. Not so now. Whether it is Os Guinness, Becky Pippert or our own sweet Amy, the church at large yawns, while the local sessions at best advise counseling and ad hoc accountability groups, with nary a discipline case in sight. There is no outrage in the world because there is no outrage in the church. We've all bought into the star system. If you can sell records, fill churches, or peddle books you get your own set of rules, or lack thereof.