Photo by aqsahu
I reblogged a post by Sue Acuna two posts down and it reminded me of an article that I sent to the local newspaper over five years ago. The article appeared in the “In My Opinion” section. I haven’t watched much of the current junk on T.V. but I can only imagine that things have gotten worse.
Christians never lose hope because they know the end of the story. Actually, the end is only the beginning of forever. Even though we see society in spiritual decay, our hope is not in the things of this world. Thank heavens. Here is the story I shared with the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas half a decade ago:
CR
Dear Editor,
(For “In My Opinion?”)
Kidnapping, murder, the vicious beating of a nice elderly woman followed by visuals of her as she’s wheeled into a hospital with pieces of flesh eaten off, a comatose youngster angry at the world and channeling evil actions through others upon others as her doctor father reads Grimm’s Fairy Tales to her in her unconscious state…I guess that’s what I get for having a bladder infection and curiosity.
You see, I was sick and couldn’t make the final Cutter Morning Star High School football game of the season. (Hold your heads high boys, you never stopped trying.) I had to stay home alone as the kids went off to be a part of Mr. Terry’s excellent band. My wife would be in the stands without me.
There was a time that I never thought I’d ever go to another high school football game, as at 15 ½, I had an after-school job. I did attend one game as a high school freshman. I remember watching Scott Hertenstein walk off the field after the game. Hertenstein had no neck in the days when everybody else did. He was the only good player we had. His defensive prowess kept the other teams’ scores down. It was tough to watch him, the gladiator in the arena, walk off the field that night after another close loss.
Over thirty years later I am catching up. I have been pleasantly surprised at the sportsmanship and behavior of the Garland County teams I have seen this season. There has been no: chest-banging, finger pointing, double upside down flip-flop in-your-face end-zone football spinning celebrations, beastly coaches stalking the sidelines like panthers ready to rip into any mistake-prone kid playing his heart out, etc. Major college teams and the pros could learn a few things from our local games.
Home alone…on an unusual Thursday evening of football. What to do? So much to do! I pick out a great looking article from my Prophesy in the News magazine. I flip a tape in the VCR to tape “Survivor” for a family fan and view the first few minutes. (Catch the first and last 10 minutes and you miss nothing. Miss it all and you miss nothing.) The T.V. goes off. Silence…a beautiful sound. I read an article or two. The hour passes. I turn off the VCR, click on the T.V. and check C-Span. Nothing interesting. My basic cable T.V. Guide displays many of the programs I never watch because of the young, developing minds living with me. I decide to get a look at what America’s watching at 8:00 on a usual Thursday night.
At this point you might skim the first sentence above. In it, I describe parts of an episode I saw. Who knows what I missed as, if you’ve ever had a bladder infection, you know where I spent some of the hour. Unfortunately, I didn’t miss the final scene of the show where one of the evil influences, a pretty female, is shot between the eyes and dies (I think) after a number of convulsions and electro-static reactions. The appallingly graphic nature of these “special effects” would have R rated this show not that long ago.
During commercials, I changed the channel and watched five minutes of a major network’s top-rated show. Most of the scene depicted a body lying on an examining table and two new millennia detectives trying to figure out how this and that had happened to it. Add up the victim viewing time of the entire “Columbo” series and you might equal the cadaver time in this single episode.
What else is there to say? Are large portions of the American public so depraved that the shows I’ve mentioned are “entertainment?” The answer, sadly, is obvious. I hope that all adults who swallow this poison aren’t subjecting their children to it.
Although I used to like football, even coached some, I haven’t really followed it much the last decade. After Thursday night’s experience, I look forward to next year’s high school football season where somehow the National Anthem is still the National Anthem, the crowd is decent, and the bands, no matter how small, are always appreciated.
I’ll check in with the nightmare that a large portion of America’s “entertainment” has become in a couple of years. Will it be any worse? Maybe I can take some antibiotics and make it all go away.
Chris Reimers
Hot Springs
(Dear Editor, please include the following:)
After completion of this article, I arrived at church on Sunday morning and found the following quote introducing my pastor’s sermon notes:
“The Holy Spirit is like ‘a wide-spectrum antibiotic for the ills’ that most Christians deal with.”
-Dr. Charles Ryrie
.
Wings of the Wind 
Very telling and thought conscious. It would seem that a lot has changed for the worst. There is very little for young people to see on television.
There is nothing moral within any network, just more immorality and activist propaganda gone wild. There is a cure for the aliments of this and subsequent generations… The Blood of Jesus! Nothing cleanses like His blood. It makes our sins white as snow.
I agree, the Holy Spirit is the wide -spectrum antibiotic for the ills of humanity.
Today, I was talking to a young lady who is not connected to cable. When her child watches TV, it is a DVD of Veggie Tales or something similar. She is not the norm.
Your comment about the blood of Jesus reminds me of the song:
“What will wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What will make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
It goes on the say that Jesus’ blood “makes me white as snow.”
It’s an old one but a good one.
Always appreciate you stopping by, Manny.