Adam's Apple
Senior Member
- Apr 25, 2004
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Always More Battles Ahead in the Culture War
By BETSY HART, Scripps Howard News Service
01-SEP-05
Friends of mine and I share almost identical theological views. Like me, they are concerned about the popular culture and what our kids absorb from it. When the Civil War epic "Gods and Generals" was released, we agreed that its positive portrayal of Christian men and women was terrific and very unusual in a mainstream movie. But they agonized over whether to let their children watch it because of the scenes featuring General Stonewall Jackson and his wife chatting quietly in bed together. I, on the other hand, was saying to my kids, "See? See? That's a husband and wife! That's how it should be! Isn't that great?"
In other words, those of us who want to clean up the culture could have it done tomorrow and still find that we have cultural debates, some of which clearly hold the potential to grow into new culture wars.
I thought of this as I read Rebecca Hagelin's valuable and bold new book, Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That's Gone Stark Raving Mad. Hagelin, a vice president at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., seeks to empower parents to deal with the culture. She actually makes the case that gasp parents have a right and responsibility to control what goes on with their kids in their own homes. And, she DOESN'T suggest we totally disengage from the culture. Talk about a step several steps in the right direction.
I just worry that if some of Hagelin's readers leave it at that, thinking they have won some victory over sin by (wisely) filtering the Internet and monitoring the TV, they will have done their children a disservice. That's because we could remove all those things _ as I recently did for a time to help break a habit not because they were "dangerous" in and of themselves and find that ultimately the battleground against sin remains because, well, that battleground is in the heart.
full article:
http://www.betsyhart.net/PAGE-This-Weeks-Column.htm
By BETSY HART, Scripps Howard News Service
01-SEP-05
Friends of mine and I share almost identical theological views. Like me, they are concerned about the popular culture and what our kids absorb from it. When the Civil War epic "Gods and Generals" was released, we agreed that its positive portrayal of Christian men and women was terrific and very unusual in a mainstream movie. But they agonized over whether to let their children watch it because of the scenes featuring General Stonewall Jackson and his wife chatting quietly in bed together. I, on the other hand, was saying to my kids, "See? See? That's a husband and wife! That's how it should be! Isn't that great?"
In other words, those of us who want to clean up the culture could have it done tomorrow and still find that we have cultural debates, some of which clearly hold the potential to grow into new culture wars.
I thought of this as I read Rebecca Hagelin's valuable and bold new book, Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That's Gone Stark Raving Mad. Hagelin, a vice president at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., seeks to empower parents to deal with the culture. She actually makes the case that gasp parents have a right and responsibility to control what goes on with their kids in their own homes. And, she DOESN'T suggest we totally disengage from the culture. Talk about a step several steps in the right direction.
I just worry that if some of Hagelin's readers leave it at that, thinking they have won some victory over sin by (wisely) filtering the Internet and monitoring the TV, they will have done their children a disservice. That's because we could remove all those things _ as I recently did for a time to help break a habit not because they were "dangerous" in and of themselves and find that ultimately the battleground against sin remains because, well, that battleground is in the heart.
full article:
http://www.betsyhart.net/PAGE-This-Weeks-Column.htm
