"Amusements"

 "But perhaps the most important thing of all from the modern agents of propaganda is cinema... leading to almost world-wide uniformity. The great majority of the young in modern civilisation derive almost their ideas of love, honour, ambition and priorities (clothing and the like) from the evenings spent in what Hollywood defines for them as good. I doubt whether all the messages of churches or the hours spent in education combined have anywhere near as much influence as the visual media on the minds of  the young. The producers of such content are the high priests of a new religion.

(One) result is the defects of our new system are only noticed by a very few who are willing to spend their leisure time in pursuits other than amusements - these are, of course, a small minority and are, therefore, negligible".

Bertrand Russell - The Scientific Approach.

"We are not ignorant of his (the Devil's) devices".

The Apostle Paul.

Some years ago, I was required to attend a training course at a prior job on the subject of developing personal confidence at the workplace. Most of the course was pretty straightforward, but the focus of the final session was to be a teaching of the techniques of visualisation, in order to bring about 'inner health and healing'. Thankfully, I'd read up on this a few years before and how it had been tragically employed in the church as a technique to bring prosperity and positive mental attitude, and it was clear the it's roots were far from Christian.

I sat the session out, but wasn't surprised when one of those participating had a very adverse response as certain painful memories were encouraged to be brought to the surface. 

When the course was finished, I expressed my concerns to management, and an enquiry decided that such a technique shouldn't be used in future. I also had a candid discussion with the tutor, and wasn't surprised to discover that she had a active interest in the occult and had learned this particular technique from various esoteric sources she'd read and encountered.

The truth is, very little in this life really leaves us 'passive'. Sure, passivity is a "nice" avenue to implement in scenarios like the one I've just outlined (if you have certain goals in mind), but all it actually does is lower our defences to allow things to just 'flow' right on in and take us into a supposed 'wonderland' without responsibility.

I learned in my teens, through a doorway opened by engaging with Yoga, just how dangerous such passiveness can be.

It's easy for us to look at Bertrand Russell's observations above and seek to by-pass what they're really saying (and this is from someone who loves movies), but if we miss 'the wood from the trees' here, we're in real trouble. 

Hollywood wants us to believe (as does You Tube, Facebook and the like) that it really doesn't have an ideology - at least one that's going to cause you any harm - but that's a total lie, and one we neglect at our peril.

So, here's the big test - what do you do when someone comes along with some measure of 'authority' (acceptance) and asks you to do something, to participate in something, that they promise is for your good? Do you just go along with what's said, or do you say you want to spend time looking at what's being offered in a more objective fashion? Do you, in other words, just jump at something because it sounds good, or do you thoroughly weigh up what's there?

A film or show can allow an  'escape' for a while, but is there more going on with what we're investing our time and money into than just straightforward amusement?

The telling consequence is how such engagement shapes our behaviour, modifies our thinking to condone or at least accept certain "norms" as acceptable, even good, when we know they're actually seriously harmful in respect to distancing us from God's good intents and purposes. Over time, they can subtly shift our beliefs and desires to drive us along by something distant to God's radiant righteousness evident in Christ Jesus.We should never forget that there's a big part of us - the old Adam - which is entirely on board with that kind of departure!

The test here isn't just with respect to the things that are blindingly obvious - being promiscuous in respect to what we eat, indulge or who we are intimate with - the lies, remember, are usually coming down from those in authority, who are merely using various means (be it Amazon, Netflix or even the health service) to employ what they have devised as 'good' for you.

All of this, then, can be poison, and we need to handle what's going on around us right now with a very great deal of care, for there are real dangers here.

Conformity, of course, doesn't have to be just a 'positive' scenario. Back in the late 1930's, as the world was rushing towards the nightmare that was a global war, an American radio company based in New York decided to perform a contemporary rendition of H G Wells' novel, the War of the Worlds. The broadcast was so convincing that before the players had concluded the first act, parts of the country had been brought to chaos through the fear it had generated that an actual invasion was taking place. In like fashion in the same city, there was a total loss of power for some 13 hours in 1965, resulting in looting and chaos amongst some 80,000 people there, and some 3 million in the entire affected region.

Like a drowning man, fear drives us to grasp for answers, and if they are wrapped in the oh so familiar wrapping of modern 'science' (technology or medicine), we welcome them with open arms... and omit to stop, to examine, to reflect.

The church has chosen to built its position in the current crisis right here - no deep reflections by the majority of leaders or parishioners - the many years of 'hearing' what is being stated about what's best by the 'entertainers' have soaked in, and now, we are merely on board with whatever's passed down, even if it means seriously impeding what the church is actually meant to be about.

So, to draw a few conclusions...

Life is, generally speaking, a minefield.

Look at the troubles any saint worth their salt had to navigate in respect to external (worldly) and internal (church) matters, and you'll see the same truth over and over again - life is presently riddled with dangers, that, upon contact, explode and cause us real and often terrible damage.

We cannot escape these troubles (Jesus promised they'd be there), but we can seek to engage with them with wisdom and discernment, caring for ourselves and others as we do so.

The problems truly become endemic when we fail to give the measure of consideration essential to de-fusing what's before us, so we can escape the collateral damage. Negligence results in severance and suffering.

Much of the present situation is saturated with fear, and much of what has been done has been implemented and worked through on the basis of that condition. This is a cycle that needs to be broken, and Christians, who understand that life is about a perfect love that expels such paralysis need to be first in line to show that there is a way out of this current nightmare - that neither life or death, or things present or things to come, or peril, or nakedness or sword can ever sever us from the magnificence of the love that has been so bountifully lavished upon us by our Heavenly Father in the giving of Christ Jesus.

The world so deeply needs that mercy right now.