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By Roger A. Scully, Jr.
Unless you have been living under the proverbial rock you have come to notice that our present society
is absolutely infatuated with violence. This is mostly seen in the youth of our nation. In fact, the School of
Public Affairs and Services department of criminal justice says, “5 out of every 20 robbery arrests and 3 of
every 20 murder, rape and aggravated assault arrests are of juveniles.” This equivocates to 3,000 murder,
6,000 forcible rape, 41,000 robbery, and 65,000 aggravated assault arrests of youths each year. (These
numbers do not include those 17-19 yr olds who are tried as adults). What is even sadder is the fact that
these numbers seem to increase year by year. But why? To what can we attribute this? Though it is not fair to
place any of the blame on one particular cause, and parents must be identified as the primary blame (cf. Eph
6:4), we cannot ignore a key affect of intermediate and interactive factors coming from the media.
Daily in the media our children are being exposed to the lack of punishment that is brought to bear on
those guilty of heinous crimes; the picture of violence as a justifiable means; the depiction of violence in a
manner which does not cause aversion; and even criminal behavior being rewarded. In addition, our children
are constantly being exposed to the glamorization of ignorance, hostility, sexuality and immorality as the
media praises the lives of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, 50 Cent, and others. The youth of our
nation are fed such a heavy dose of this that they begin to idolize these figures of pop-culture to the point of
imitating them. As Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith said, “We love it, we glamorize it, we teach it to our children.”
There are even video games, such as Grand Theft Auto, where the player steals cars, sells drugs, fornicates,
etc. Craig Anderson of the American Psychological Society has noted that even “short term exposure
increases the likelihood of physically and verbally aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts and aggressive
emotions.” Despite these findings our children are continually being exposed to the things herein mentioned
with very little effort being put forth to shield them from it.
Let it be suggested that parents should spend more time with their children, especially teaching them
God’s word, than they are allowed to sit in front of a television set. Let us “teach our children” and “talk of”
God’s Word with them so that the word of the Lord is “bound for a sign” upon them (Dt 6:7-9). When they are
exposed to that which is unsettling, let us teach them of right and wrong, and reinforce that there is an
objective standard by which man is held accountable (Jn 12:48); and that though many may escape
punishment here on earth, “we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor 5:10). Let us
remind our children that “thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil” (Ex 23:2), and to “be sure your sin will
find you out” (Num 32:23). Finally, let us monitor what our children watch on TV, the music to which they
listen, the video games they play, and even the company they keep. In so doing we can be as Joshua who
said, “as for me and my house we will serve Jehovah” (24:15), and perhaps protect our children from
becoming attacked by the world of media popularization.