Violence Violates Positive Behavior

.

Many factors are being blamed for the breakdown of the moral development of the youth in contemporary America, but the sad thing is that the left-wing media and the forces that determine public education do not see a spiritual void within our youth, a void that keeps them from being able to cope with the many problems youth are particularly meeting at this time in America.

A report from the National Association for the Education of Young Children mentioned factors such as poverty, racism, unemployment, illegal drugs, abusive and inadequate parenting, and adult models of violent behavior as all having negative effects on the formation of positive moral behavior in children.  Negative behavior is rapidly increasing in childhood development.  This is seen especially in regard to the time being spent with television, movies, computer games, and videotapes with lack of parental guidance.  The NAEYC study stated:  “The increased depiction of violence in the media jeopardizes the healthy development of significant numbers of our children.”

It was reported that: “Up until seven or eight, children have great difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality, and their ability to comprehend nuances of behavior, motivation, or moral complexity is limited.”  Yes, violence is a dominant factor and children are very much influenced by it.  The problem of violence in the media is not new, but has become much worse since the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to deregulate children’s commercial television back in 1982.  For example, airtime for war cartoons jumped from one and one-half hours per week to forth-three hours per week in just four years (1986). Who knows what it is now over twenty years later?  Some experts estimate that by the time most kids reach age thirteen, they have already seen more than 100,000 incidents of violence!

Imagination, that once instilled such creativity in American learning, has shifted from being a positive influence to a negative one! Research has continually demonstrated that watching violent programs is related to less imaginative play and more imitative play in which the child simply mimics the aggressive acts observed on the television. Could this be one reason for the magnitude of behavior problems in the public schools?

A writer wrote a letter to the newspaper about all the destructive influences of Christianity, the violence being fomented throughout the world because of Christian teachings. Later, a person replied back with another letter to the editor contradicting the atheistic position.  It pointed out that the basic fruits of Christianity are given in Galatians 5:22-23 where it says:  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”  These characteristics do not promote violence!

The teaching of the New Testament is certainly not focused on violence.  In Matthew 5:38-41 the Lord Jesus taught: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.  And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.”  Romans 12:17 says:  “Recompense to no man evil for evil.  Provide things honest in the sight of all men.”  I Thessalonians 5:15 states:  “See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all.”  And I Peter 3:8-9 gives the direction:  “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another….Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.”   Here is a control for violence.

Sad to say, public education beginning in the early 1960s has increasingly ignored, and even in some ways proved hostile, to  Christian teachings.  It is very evident that a major problem has developed in the basic character formation of an increasing number of children.  The pattern has been to teach the facts, just the facts, and the children have been left void of the moral underpinnings needed to handle the facts.

Kyle Shaw, 17, boasted to his friends that he was going to launch “Project Mayhem” with a bomb outside the Upper East Side Starbucks in Manhattan.  Shaw was a fan of the movie “Fight Club” and imitated Brad Pitt’s character from the film.  The police commissioner just happened to note that he apparently failed to adhere to Pitt’s famous line in the film: “The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.”  Shaw did and let the cat out of the bag. The movie, released in 1999, also includes a scene in which a Starbucks is destroyed.  Shaw sought to make fantasy facts, and how many other young people are in varying degrees so influenced?

Masses are looking for role models, and many feel Brad Pitt offers etiquette for the digital age.   William Bradley “Brad” Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He has been cited as one of the world’s most attractive men, but he is not a friend of Christianity.  He even said,  “I didn’t understand this idea of a God who says, ‘You have to acknowledge me. You have to say that I’m the best, and then I’ll give you eternal happiness. If you won’t, then you don’t get it!’  It seemed to be about ego. I can’t see God operating from ego, so it made no sense to me”

Pitt’s films are filled with violence, and he is constantly attacking Christian morality.  In fact, he gave $100,000 to fight the homosexual marriage ban in California.  He is an example of one of the present-day negative influences from the media.  He said, “The only way to tell the truth is to lie.”   His work, “How to Behave: New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans” just hit newsstands 21 July 2009, and masses of our young people are just lapping it up as the gospel truth.  He is but a product of something far more reaching, however.

Violence violates positive behavior! Our society needs to let the gospel truth of God’s reality have the freedom to convert young people, so that they might realize the role model of Jesus as the Christ and realize his power for living.  But under the guise of “freedom of religion,” “freedom from religion” has developed in public education in America, and violence is increasingly becoming a product of this!

.

by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, Box 751, Lavonia, Georgia 30553, 706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

.