Christian Response To Violence Essay, Research Paper

Television has become a tool in which violent material can infiltrate our homes, and minds. In fact an alarming statistic is that a child will see over 8,000 murders and 100, 000 acts of violence before they even finish elementary school. For this reason I have chosen to discuss violence in the media and a Christians response to it.

To begin let s look at the staggering increases in crime rates. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of child abuse victims increase 40%. Children were 244% more likely to be killed by a gun in 1993, than in 1986. These two statistics alone show that, though our culture might be moving ahead at a rapid pace, we are also becoming more and more corrupted as we go. In fact, the amount of violent crimes occurring in the US is 560% more than in 1960. Something is happening to our country. Why are violent crimes, abuse, and murder up so much in such a short amount of time? Well, in Proverbs 23:7 it talks about ” what a man thinketh in his heart, so he is ” Essentially it is saying what you think and say fits you to a T . If you think about, and dwell on violent things, you will become a violent person. People who push violent advertising often say that violence on television in no way affects a person, however they are convinced that a 30 second advertisement will affect people enough to get them to go out and buy something. What is the difference, except that they give more time to the violent acts on TV than they give to commercials. Thus it could be stated that if a 30 second commercial will affect you, then a 30 minute television show will affect you even more.

As we look back over previous cultures the most lasting and interesting items they leave behind are their works of art. It can be said that we have a sick society based on this view, for the amount of violence in our movies is just staggering. In Robocop 32 people are killed, but in it s sequel 81 are killed. This just shows that our taste for blood is not lessening over time, rather it is growing at a rapid pace. Our culture has allowed violent images to slowly creep into our minds. In fact, despite denial my media executives violence has an overwhelming effect on children. According to a study performed by the NIMH they have found that “excessive” violence on the television spills over to the playgrounds. In a 5-year study of 732 kids, ” several kinds of aggressions were directly correlated with the amount of television watching. Even the Columbine shootings have been labeled as the fault of the movies. The two boys pretended to be as the characters in the Matrix. As occurred in the Matrix, they killed many people, and thought they were invincible.

Just recently I was watching the Patriot. An epic movie about a man who fights in the Revolutionary War. In the movie many, many people are killed, almost too many to count. Since I saw it on DVD I was able to see the behind the scenes footage. Among the choice footage they had a clip which demonstrated how a man s head was taken off by a cannon ball. They went through the entire process, and I must admit at the time I thought it was pretty cool. However now that I think about it, I didn t even realize what was happening. That a person was actually losing their life, that they would cease to exist. I feel that the everyday violence we see on TV has an adverse affect on our perception of reality.

It says in the Bible that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. How then can we, as Christians fulfill this command if we fill our minds with filth and garbage. The truth of the matter is that our brains are like computers, what we put in will eventually come out. Therefore we should limit our intake of violent material, so that our output will be minimal to none. We don t want to end up like the wicked in Job 11:20, “But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape ” We can t allow our eyes to be accustomed to seeing violence because when we do, we will be as the wicked, and there shall be no escape from our fate.