Two Months Ago, we commented in this column about the Internet and its potential for harm as well as good. Last week we tried to do something about the harm.
Screening out iniquity
In our Internet access program, users can set their own standard of censorship. Material that doesn’t meet their standard can be screened out and accessed only by means of a secret password known only to the user (if he happens to remember it!). Presumably the idea is to prevent one’s children, grandchildren — or anybody for that matter — from getting at undesirable web sites.
Thinking this was a good idea, we decided to implement the feature. Another shock resulted!!
Shocked again
There were four categories available. Following is a sample of the choices one can make — the higher the number, the more extreme the material which is permitted through:
“Language – 4. Explicit or crude sexual language; 3. Obscene gestures, strong vulgar language.. .O. Inoffensive slang.
“Nudity – 4. Provocative frontal nudity.. .2. Partial nudity.. .O. None.
“Sex –4. Explicit sexual activity; sex crimes; 3. Non-explicit sexual touching.. .O. None.
“Violence –4. Wanton and gratuitous violence, rape; 3. Blood and gore; pleasure in killing or hurting non-threatening victims…1. Pleasure in injuring non-threatening creatures, humans injured, killed.”
As we read one possible limit after another on the computer screen, the implication sank in: We’re not being referred to news pictures of crime or war scenes; we’re being directed to carefully staged and acted-out behavior. In fact, the scenes are so carefully defined, they can be accurately coded so an Internet access program such as ours can censor the material. Apparently the sordid contents are produced like a movie. Evidently the sex crimes are carefully rehearsed and retakes are made until the acting meets a certain definition. The wanton violence, the blood and gore is all scripted by trained writers so that the customer can amerce himself in a specific level of iniquity.
We shudder every day at the brutality of gang crime; we were stunned by the carnage in the Balkans; we are disgusted by filthy language on the job site. Yet this calculated, planned, cataloged iniquity is as bad and even, if possible, worse. Here is premeditated portrayal of sin for profit.
We have never thought of ourselves as being naive, but we’re beginning to think we are. The cesspool of iniquity surrounding us in movies, videos, songs, novels and magazines is worse than we had realized.
What it does
We assume every reader of this column wants to please God. Dear reader, it doesn’t take any scientific study to know what voluntarily immersing our minds in iniquity does to our spirituality. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Mt. 12:34) or in computer terms, “Garbage in, garbage out.” Explicit sexual talk and crude vulgarity will come unsolicited out of our mouths if that’s what’s going into our minds.
The godly person prays: “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer” (Psa. 19:14). We know what’s rolling over and over in our inner, subconscious thoughts if we’re putting iniquitous trash into our minds. How can our meditations possibly be acceptable to God if we find delight in sex crimes and the “gratuitous maiming of non-threatening creatures.”
“Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (II Cor. 7:1). For the sake of our eternal life, stay away from this wickedness. Every reader wants to realize this promise for himself and his loved ones: “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” Then look at the next words: “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (I John 3:2-3). Is this us, our language, our thinking? We may deceive ourselves; we don’t deceive Christ.
Doing something about it
Comments about leavened and unleavened bread were received from Sis. Mary Simpson of New Zealand and are found in “Letters to the Editor.” Accompanying those comments was a letter from Sis. Mary which is worth quoting at some length, for here is a family on a planned campaign to counter the iniquity that abounds around us:
“With our children [three boys ages 3 to 6, one infant girl] growing, I’ve been thinking of the ways I can make God and Jesus more real for them — especially in the world of today with all the evil which is presented openly to them We try to have a daily Bible discussion before school each morning on different topics to do with practical living For example We’ve just been talking about what holy means How does that make us behave? We are special for God (1 have to use very simple language with ages 3-6) and God lives in us as our Father when we say what He would say, when we do what He would do and when we think as He would think If I wait until the children are thinking of baptism to tell them that God dwells m them after baptism, I think I may have missed the opportunity to guide their minds.
“Often we discuss while getting dressed, during breakfast, etc It also raises another important issue How do we learn to think as our God thinks? By learning what He says (by heart) so it is m our minds to develop a conscience and guide our steps So we are learning Bible verses The 31/ 2 year old knows all of Psalm 117 It only has two verses! The older ones learned I Chronicles 28 9 in two weeks ‘As for you, my son, know the God of your father, and serve Hun with a loyal heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intentions of the thoughts If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever’ (NKJV) We say it together whenever we go out in the van, at times through the day and at bedtime Now I’m just finishing the Lord’s prayer I want to go on to do the 10 commandments (in easy language) as a basis for determining right from wrong
“The real benefit of this to myself is that to teach the children, I have to learn the verses first, I have challenged a sister to learn a book of the Bible – and she accepted! So we are working on I Peter, at our own pace Mark [Mary’s husband] is also doing Peter We’ve only been going a week or so I photocopied the book so! can keep the words in mind until they stick It is so useful to have the words there when I am gardening, washing dishes, etc , and can really think about what God is saying “
Our problem is an old problem
There is something about the mind of man that tends to the lowest common denominator Every person who would be godly has faced the same problem and the wise ones do something about it, just like our Sis Mary and family are doing “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide” (Psa 119:11, 37:31).
God has made us with a subconscious which He can, and will, help us to use If we want the meditations of our heart to be acceptable to Him, if we want the word to be m our subconscious so that our minds slip into thinking about it during the day, ask Him for this blessing “This is the confidence which we have in him that, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him” (I John 5 14- 15 RSV).
Overcoming the smut and wickedness being pumped at us from every direction requires a negative response – don’t watch, read or listen to it – and a positive one – do put the Word of God in our minds that we might not sin against Him.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One