Propaganda

    You know, if you watch TV enough, you'll see enough "spin" or hear enough keywords to know that the person delivering the news to you, just doesn't care what you think and in all honesty, may think your opinion is the stupidest thing they've ever heard.

    Back during the World Wars, they had a word for this that was continually going around-propaganda. The Germans had it when they made movies degrading the Jews and trying to turn their countrymen against the Jewish people. America responded with movies like Why We Fight, a film that was intended to encourage national patriotism and pride to bolster the war effort.

    No matter what side it came from, the films presented a message and tried to sway the people's mindset and view on a certain issue. Over Fifty years later, propaganda has become more subtle and more productive. I'm not just talking about the news media with their constant "spin" of the "truth" of what's going on around the world. If that's all the propaganda that there was, that would be great. Of course because there is that, people have decided to get their news from other places besides the television and print news sources. They have gone to the internet, to the radio, and to smaller, independent presses.

    That's all good for news sources, but what about the big propaganda machine. This may shock some people, others will find it as a down right lie, but the biggest propaganda machine out there is the music and movie industries. Anything that carries a message, a worldview, a belief, is propaganda. Some people would say Christianity is propaganda, and using the definition I just did, I would agree. (however, I prefer not to lower God's love for a hateful human race to something as simple)

    Music, no matter what kind, carries a message. Movies, no matter what kind, carry a message. Think of the latest blockbuster movies, how many sex scenes did they have in them? How many half-naked women did they have in them? How many scenes of violence did they have that have helped to desensitize their audience? Or what was the message? In Harry Potter, did kids learn that lying was okay as long as it got them out of trouble? That's what Harry taught them by his actions.

    What about the music we listen to? How many 'hoes' or 'b****es' can you count in your playlist? Oh wait, that's just rap? Okay, how much infidelity, rebellion, adultery, hatred, etc can you count? Seriously. You may think I'm taking things way to far or one of those people that want to blame every little thing on the media. Well, I'm not. The world will be the world.

    As a Christian, as a human, we have the right to decide what we put into our bodies through our eye-gate and ear-gate, that regurgitates itself through our vocal cords, our thought-process, and our actions. I promise you, if you do not have a guarded thought life and listen to and watch music and movies that continually curse, and portray acts of lewd sexuality, violence, hatred, etc, then you will soon be doing likewise. It may not be to the degree that you may think I'm talking about, but you'll soon start to curse yourself (more so if you already do) and start to say, do, and think things you used to not.

    I preached a sermon a while back and I stated in it that Satan has taken this world and like a rubix cube, turned it, perverted it, and changed it all around, designing it to take our eyes off of God, to do, say, and think things that are contrary to God's Word and law. And because he has, and we fall into the trap of doing those things that he wants us to, we get out of the will of God for our lives and miss out on the blessings of God.

    Everything may be propaganda, but thank God, some of it is propaganda of the truth. That's the propaganda you should be listening to, and that's the Word of God.