Yeah. Well.
I’m actually going to share the link to this article because it’s a pretty accurate description of what goes on at concerts these days (so parents, if you’re down, *take your children*, don’t *send them*). You can thank an email friend of mine, Daniel, for hippin’ me to it. The article? It’s entitled, “Why This Pop-Porn Will Damage a Generation of Children“.
I don’t know if it was my age (37), my current resolve on sexual purity (I Timothy 5:22) or the work that I do with high school-aged young women, but after checking out the piece, I think the best word that I could use to describe how it made me feel is…*grieved*. Not because it’s really anything new (there’s *nothing new* under the sun-Ecclesiastes 1:9). I mean, I remember my first real concert experience. It was New Edition, Bobby Brown and Al B. Sure (see…I told y’all I was gettin’ up there-LOL). I remember Bobby Brown doing his throwback signature floor gyrations. I *also* remember the adult who took me and a couple of my friends hitting the roof. Almost literally.
And so yes, as I read the article, as I checked out *a portion* of a certain awards show last evening (“visually exhausted” is the best way to describe how *that* made me feel), I had to agree with this portion of the author’s insights:
“As someone who’s been in the music industry for over 40 years, written some 400 hits and worked with artists such as Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley, I long for the days when pop music was for everyone; when it filled the musical gap between childhood and adulthood…
Now, however, an entire generation of young girls, some as young as eight or nine, is growing up transfixed by the writhings and thrustings of performers such as Lady Gaga and Rihanna, singing along to lines such as ‘Sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it’, and understandably convinced of one thing – that sex sells.
Just as worrying is the impact the same material must be having on young boys. What is happening now doesn’t just undo all the good work done by the feminists of the 70s, it drags us almost back to the Stone Age. Women, as seen through the eyes of the music industry, have become little more than sex objects again.
And what a surprise, the industry doing the damage, the music industry, is absolutely dominated by men. Katy Perry may have ‘kissed a girl’, but only because men thought they could make money out of it.”
Sex sells. Why are we getting so comfortable (and complacent) with that being a “fact” of life? Biblically, sex is a gift that was *freely given* to couples in marital *covenant* (a marriage license vs. a *covenant* based on biblical principles are *not* synonymous, by the way). The fact that something so beautiful, so precious, so *divine* as sex is being used, not just to sell people’s talents but to seduce innocent children? It’s highly disturbing. And that’s on a good day. I mean, the world is full of so many (many, *many* contradictions). You have to be over 18 to go to strip club, but a child can get more than an eyeful, for free, via three minutes of programming on a music-focused Viacom station. And have you checked out Billboard 100 lately? Yeah. YouTube some of those music videos. Soft porn ain’t just on Cinemax. Anymore.
Last night, a documentary on child trafficking, that was hosted by Demi Moore aired. “Nepal’s Stolen Children” is a story about young girls, some as young as 11, who were forced into prostitution. Forced into using their bodies so that others can make a living. And yet, sometimes I wonder how the media is *any different*. Programming children’s minds into seeing other people as sex objects…before they are old enough to even understand the *purpose of sex* (Genesis 2:24-25, Malachi 2:15-I Corinthians 7, Hebrews 13:4). SO THAT THEY (THE MEDIA) CAN MAKE A LIVING.
Which takes me to an article that I just read today. Gawker was asking if Selena Gomez was capable of shedding her Disney image without shedding her clothes. Hmph. Honestly, I’ve been wondering that about a lot of Disney alumni for quite some time now. But here’s the bigger point. In the piece, a link was connected to a story that I obviously missed earlier this month. One that, I’m kinda surprised *was* a story. Her “special friend”, Justin Bieber, got a tattoo that says, “Jesus” on it. In Hebrew, so I’m assuming that it says Christ *original name*, Yehoshua. It was the question posed as the title of the piece that caused me for pause: “Someone Please Help Justin Bieber Rebel”. It was basically saying that *supposedly* some of his family was upset over the tattoo (if it’s for biblical reasons, I wonder if these same people have *pierced ears*?!?).
But you know what? After reading that “pop-porn” piece, after seeing Justin have to answer Ms. Minaj’s question on if he can “ride curves” (Lord…) last night…after seeing just how much darker the world is becoming with every passing SoundScan, from where I sit-and-see, “Kudos to you, Mr. Bieber!” A rebel, you are, indeed. To promote Christ while the world is trying to pimp the gifts given by his Father, *our Father*? Well, while I’m not sure what your full motive was, I do appreciate the cause…that it caused people to take a moment and think. About what a rebel *really* is. According to the piece I read, Anna thinks you could do something more radical. Me? These days, I’m not so sure.
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.”—John 17:13-15 (NKJV)
Now, it’s *highly questionable* just how *hated* Justin is, but that article certainly had some “hatin'” in it (LOL). I can only imagine the pressure he’s under. I’m sure prayers are much appreciated. After all, being a rebel with a cause is hard work. *Especially in the modern-day Babylon*.
And yes, those who do decide to look it up, I peeped the paparazzi pic of him and Ms. Gomez that was under the story. Rome wasn’t built in the day. The road to redemption wasn’t, either. Let’s start with covering our young people closer to home and build *up* from there, shall we?
Besides, blocking pop-porn is enough to keep us all plenty busy. For now…
I’m pretty sure.