The Media Wants YOU

The most important thing you should know about the secular media is that they want you.  They have agenda and mission.  They have an ax to grind and the greatest of grinders with which to accomplish it.  They have elite creativity, unlimited researchers, and exhaustive number-crunchers dedicated to our personal cravings.  Moreover, all these armaments the creators of books, movies, music, and websites pool to purchase one thing: you. 

Michael Landon Jr. said, “Unfortunately, with the [movie] studios and the gatekeepers, there’s no restraint. Their target audience is our children. So even if you look at the demographics of people who go to see movies at theaters it’s very young, it’s teens that’s the main marketplace. On television, they’re also the main target audience because the people that are buying product time are no longer interested in the actual buyers, the consumers of the product, their attention is now on future customers….I actually think that [Hollywood is] targeting our children, who by a certain inherent nature want to see these things. See, you put sexualized material in front of the teenager and it’s very difficult for them at that age to not want to look. You put graphic violence in front of them and it’s hard for them not to get involved.[i]”

This is not about putting eight claws and a fire-breathing mouth on the Big Bad Media.  I watch movies, read books, listen to music, and use the internet.  Sometimes wisely, but often foolishly.  I’m confident you realize the capability of the media for both good and bad.  Likewise, you should also understand mainstream media’s agenda, while not using them as a scapegoat for all society’s problems. 

So let’s go beyond the convenient scapegoat.  If the media’s target is you, then why not start with you?

1. Is your heart craving what the media provides?

Mine does.  All too often.  The storyline just sounds too sweet to be missed, and if the main character is blatantly living in sin, well, I can just fast forward most of those parts.  But the story is alluring, the soundtrack bewitching, and the actors enthralling.  So I take the heaping dish of glamor with the side of sin to live vicariously through the movie for 90 minutes and satisfy cravings like:

•  Needing someone to appreciate me 
• Desiring to be loved 
• Pushing aside stressful, pressing issues 
• Wanting success 
• Yearning for glamorous opportunities

2. How are you satiating those cravings?

If you turn on the television or crack open that book or stalk that website with those cravings urging, they will only be worse when the television turns off or the book ends or the website stalls.  I have wasted many hours on useless specimens of these media, and walked away afterward disgusted with myself at the waste and determined to do better in the future.  But if the cravings are not filled, they will continue to eat away at you until a gaping cavity appears. 

3. Will you allow yourself to be purchased?

If you are a Christian, you are already bought with a price.  There are many who would like nothing better than to buy your soul with their entertainment.  And you should know that “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.” {2 Peter 2:19}  Do you really want to be a slave of the latest rising star or Hollywood executive or author who pushes Christ to the gutter and themselves to the heavens?  If you are overcome by a media addiction, that is what will happen!

Do you know that using the media to fulfill desires meant to be filled only by God is like using a piece of scotch tape on a shattered dam?   

• Only He provides your worth.
• Only  He unconditionally loves. 
• Only He gives grace to keep your head above water. 
• Only He defines success. 
• Only He chooses your situation for His perfect, wise purposes. 

The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in imperfect, sinful you because Christ who fulfilled the law lives in you.  I wish I could copy and paste the entire book of Colossians here, and specifically chapter two!  If you don’t have time to read it right now, suffice it to say: you are complete in Christ (2:10)  If you died with Him, you were buried with Him, raised from the dead with Christ, and are made alive with Him.  (2:11-13) 

This is why I am not a slave to the media or anyone else.  I am not up for purchase—I are sold out and all in, because Christ lives in this body. 

If you skimmed all of that, read this: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” {Colossians 3:1-3}

Yes—cravings, Hollywood, whitewashed sin, and slave owners will exist, as long as this fleshly body does.

But yes, yes, yes—the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, God the Father, freedom, and grace endure, beyond infinity. 

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[i] http://www.faithtalks.com/posts/michael-landon-jr/
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Photo Credit: Stuart Richards