Too much entertaining

Dear Editor,

The moral values of the nation have been in a downward spiral for many years for many reasons. Do you think this has been a major contributor to our moral decline? What does your heart tell you?

The great god “entertainment” is ardently worshipped by many. For there are millions who cannot live without amusement; life without some form of entertainment, for them is simply intolerable; they look forward to the blessed relief afforded by professional entertainers and other forms of psychological narcotics, just as a dope addict looks to his daily dose.

No one with common human feeling will object to simple pleasures of life, such harmless forms of entertainment as may help to relax the nerves.

Such things, if used with discretion, may be a possible blessing. However, all-out devotion to entertainment is definitely something else.

The growth of the amusement phase of human life to such fantastic proportions is a threat to the souls of modern men. It has been built into a multi-million dollar racket, with greater power over human minds and human character than any educational influence.

And the ominous thing is that its power is almost exclusively evil, crowding out eternal thoughts which would fill the souls of men.

The whole thing has grown into a veritable “religion,” which holds its devotees with a strange fascination — a “religion,” incidentally, against which it is now dangerous to speak. For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was — a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of the conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability.

When the church opposed unseemliness, the church got herself abused by the sons of this world. But of late the church has become tired of the abuse, and has given up the struggle. She appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god “Entertainment,” then she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of the powers of “Entertainment.”

So, today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for so-called Christians. Religious entertainment is in many churches rapidly crowding out the serious things of God.

Many churches these days have become little more than theaters where fifth-rate “producers” peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of ministers who can even quote a holy text in defense of their amusements. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it!

The great god ‘Entertainment’ amuses his devotees mainly by telling them stories. The love of stories, which is a characteristic of childhood, has taken fast hold of the minds of the retarded saints of our day, so much so that not a few persons manage to make a comfortable living by spinning yarns, and serving them up in various disguises to church people and seeks to pass for true religion. (A.W. Tozer 1955)

To quote a current day evangelist Mario Murillo, “many churches have been infiltrated with Big Screens, Skinny Jeans and Fog Machines.” As a nation, do you think maybe we need to get back to some of that Ole Time Religion…?

James A. Gillette Jr.

Clarendon