The Swinging Pendulum

I wouldn’t say that I grew up in a legalistic environment … most of my legalism at an early age was self-inflicted.  However, liberation from legalism through the gospel was a profound experience for me … understanding that my righteousness before God was found, not through personal holiness, but in Christ alone was news that changed the way I perceived Christian living, and thus Christian freedom.  Rather than seeking God’s approval through rigid adherence to a code of ethics, I should seek approval through the one whose account has been credited to me.  Obedience therefore flows from what Christ has done, not as a means of supplementing it, but responding to it … allowing the law to become a delight to embrace, rather than a burden to bear.  What I needed to remedy my legalism was a notion of Christian freedom found through the gospel. 

However, as I survey the landscape of Christendom, embracing the freedom we have as believers doesn’t seem to be the problem anymore … I no longer encounter believers who resist the “evils” of secular music or R-rated movies, which in many ways, is a good thing … However, the opposite end of the spectrum seems to be the problem now … the pendulum has swung so that an emphasis has been placed on ‘freedom’ so much so that concern for personal holiness no longer registers.  Such freedom is not ‘Christian’ freedom.

I am a television, movie, and music junkie … I would like to include reading as well, but most of my reading now is theology and biblical studies, and as much as I enjoy these, I say this to my shame.  Fiction is a wonderful thing and is a necessary aspect of being an effective preacher, according to David Gordon, in his book ‘Why Johnny Can’t Preach’ … But, I digress …  Concerning various forms of media, I am sometimes shocked at what Christians choose to expose themselves to without giving it any thought at all.  I will resist the temptation to mention anything specifically as to allow people to make there on decisions on these matters, but quite frankly, there are many forms of media where there is nothing redeemable in them whatsoever … others are more subtle, but have axes to grind that are against a Christian worldview.  My concern is not so much that Christians interact with media … even media of which I personally don’t have the stomach … but that they are doing so in a thoughtless manner … they aren’t so much engaging with the culture, but simply lapping up whatever the culture presents without any discretion.  This strikes me as a problem, but it is one that I don’t know how to address without being written off as a legalist. 

In my thinking, I have attempted to differentiate between those forms of media that glorify sin versus those that acknowledge the reality of it, with the former being something that I would chose to avoid.  Certainly, I do not believe that I must agree with everything said or done to enjoy a movie … in fact, often times, I enjoy those things I disagree with more … However, the celebration of sin is something I don’t expose myself to.  My opting to do so stems from a several reasons … First, I am a sinner who doesn’t need to tempt myself further than I am already tempted.  Second, by supporting media that is hostile to my worldview, I am participating in it’s continuation, for Hollywood, the networks, the studios, they put out what people are buying.  We get what we pay for, quite literally.  Third, what our society is watching is shaping it.  While this is certainly a more complicated process than what some might present, we would be foolish to think media does not have a major impact on our mainstream culture.

And in the same way the gospel was the remedy to my legalism, the gospel must also be the solution to the problem at the other end of the spectrum.  What we, as the church, need is to recover the notion that the gospel of Christ frees us from not only from the penalty of sin, but from its power and presence as well so that we might pursue lives of holiness.