Monday, December 28, 2015

But it's just a movie...

We do not like excessive violence, but we enjoy violence lite. It makes life more exciting. I plead guilty to being fascinated with it. I’m a regular voyeur. And you? Do you watch crime movies on television? Is there a connection between violence lite and the violence inherent in war? Is there a link between violence lite and the 30,000 gun deaths every year which we say we abhor? Can we coolly dismiss such questions as irrelevant? Is it a stretch to link toys, sports, movies, and videos, etc., to gun violence, murder, and mayhem? Is there more to violence lite than meets the eye? Whenever we talk about violence we are on a continuum. I argue there are dots to connect between violence lite and our fascination for weapons of war and those three million handguns that come off our assembly lines this year.—America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose, page 42 (emphasis original)

<idle musing>
Indeed! What we feed our minds has an effect on how we think, as an old (1948) book says, Ideas Have Consequences". Violence lite is still violence and still reflects a heart that isn't resting in shalom. As the scripture says, as we think in our hearts, so we are (Prov 23:7).
</idle musing>

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