The
Desensitization Towards Blood and Death
By Jason Lovelace
Key Scriptures:
Proverbs –
“There is a generation that curesth their
father, and doth not bless their mother. There is a
generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not
washed. There is a generation, O how lofty are their
eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a
generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth
as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the
needy from among men.”
2nd
Timothy 3.1-5 - This know also, that in
the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall
be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof: from such turn away.
Revelation
9.20-21 - And the rest of the men which
were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the
works of their hands, that they should not worship devils,
and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of
wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
neither repented they of their murders, nor of their
sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Revelation 13.7,
15 - And it was given unto him to
make war with the saints, and to overcome them… And he had
power to…cause as many as would not worship the image of the
beast should be killed.
Revelation 16.6 -
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets…
In the media
today we are seeing more and more blood being spilled
on-screen. In days and years past, only in the most
vicious and cruel of Horror Movies was blood spilled in such
ways as has been done in the last couple of decades.
Nowadays, even movies that are quite tame by modern
standards are more and more showing the spilling of blood,
violence, and killing as never before. Violent movies
that would have been shunned by the public in decades past
as too grotesque are now being viewed by record numbers of
people. What does God’s word have to say about the
portrayal of violence, blood, gore, and killing? What
is the end result of such portrayals of violence?
Really, How Bad
Can It Be?
The National
Institute on Media and Family has these amazing Statistics:
l By the time
a child is eighteen years old, he or she will witness on
television (with average viewing time) 200,000 acts of
violence including 40,000 murders.
l Children,
ages 8 to 18, spend more time (44.5 hours per week – 6-1/2
hours daily) in front of computer, television, and game
screens than any other activity in their lives except
sleeping.
What is all of this
doing to our youth and to the children of our society today
at large? When a child sees, on average, 10,000 acts
of violence, and more than 2,000 murders a year on
Television before the age of 18, we can only assume that
said child will grow up to be a violent adult. So far,
in many countries – especially the West and Technologically
Advanced nations – this trend is glaringly obvious. In
the last ten years, violent crime among youths has jumped
exponentially in the countries with the highest technology.
In the US alone, since
1999, there have been dozens of school shootings, situations
where students have brought handguns (or worse) into school,
and killed classmates. The second-worst school slaying
in US History took place at Virginia Technological and State University
in April, 2007, when a student used handguns to mow down 32
classmates and teachers. Before that, there was the
Columbine Massacre where two Seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan
Klebold, used semi-automatic weapons and homemade pipe bombs
to take the lives of more than a dozen of their schoolmates
before turning the guns on themselves. In Japan, violent crime among minors –
especially young teenagers – has spiked in the last decade.
Though Japan has forbids the private
ownership of guns, gun violence has been on the rise over
the past decade-and-a-half. The murder weapon of
choice in Japan – knives – has also been used to massacre
people, with a killer stabbing to death eight children in an
Osaka elementary school a year after the Columbine Slayings
in the US;, and just last year, another massacre, in
Akihabara, Tokyo, where a man used a rented moving truck and
hunting knives to kill nearly ten people before being
apprehended by police. In Western Europe, rioting
youths have caused trouble for France, specifically
Paris, for a number of years.
In Germany in the
last couple of years, there has also been a rise in school
shootings. Many sociologists and psychological experts
are scratching their heads at the reasons for the rise in
killings and murders among youth. However, there are
answers where few are looking: in the Bible.
Know Jesus, Know
Peace; No Jesus, No Peace.
Children today are
getting the godless message. It is coming through loud
and clear, and it usually starts at a very young age with
regards to the media. Television and movies have
become increasingly God-neutral (at the very best), with
those who hold some form of faith being sidelined as
irrelevant to today’s society in the very mildest of cases.
The norm is becoming more and more God-hostile and faith
unfriendly, especially on talk shows and in movies.
Even children’s programming is more and more leaving God at
the front step of the stage and production house. In
public schools, God is welcome there only unless he is
whittled down to being regarded as a character in
“literature “. Science courses and history classes
have all but excised God in any form from their respective
fields, and even many of today’s Christian Schools
are now monopolized in the science class by the Idea of
Evolution. Further, many major print publications have
also drifted further and further away from the Bible, God,
and faith in any form. Magazines such as Time
and Newsweek not only have openly questioned God’s
existence, but have openly ridiculed Him. Newspapers
such as The New York Times and The Los Angeles
Times regularly use atheistic principles and ideology in
their Religion Page Editorials. God has basically been
excused from the media, from the public classroom, and, is
being excised from the public forum in general. The
Bible states clearly that to ignore God, to cut him out of
life is not only folly (Proverbs 1.7) but is inherently
dangerous. In fact, the very reason the Israelites of
Ancient History were removed from the Promised Land for so
many centuries is because time and time and time again, she
moved away from God. Though God time and time again
sent his messengers to warn the Israelites (as he has sent
out his messengers to warn the world we live in today), the
Israelites time and time again ignored the messenger, or
killed them in order to silence them. It has been a
pattern down through the years. A nation rises.
For a time, that nation listens to God. Then, after
awhile, the message of the Gospel, the message of the need
for salvation becomes loathsome, in so much that the
messengers and followers begin to lose their freedoms
gradually leading up to those messengers and followers being
killed off. This happens especially quickly when
nations whose youths become totally desensitized to blood,
gore, violence, and all other forms of debauchery.
That will NEVER
Happen in <Insert Nation Here>!
In nations around
the world that have freedoms listed in their constitutions,
this desensitization, this callousness towards not only God
but his followers and his message, is growing in heavy
proportions. It is of an interesting note that the US is the #1 exporter of Movies and
TV Programs in the world today. Nobody watches more
movies than American movies. In the past movies that
had any kind of violence were usually sanitized, with very
little blood being shown. In movies where a person was
shot, he or she usually just fell down, no bullet hole or
blood being visible. Things started to change in 1960
with the production and release of the Alfred Hitchcock
film, Psycho – a movie which has become very famous
for its “shower scene”. In this movie, a deranged
hotel owner-operator is drawn sexually to a woman and then,
in a bloody scene, murders her while she is taking a shower.
Along the way, the main antagonist, Norman Bates, murders
several others before being arrested by the police.
Since this time in, movies began to become ever more and
more violent and graphic in its portrayal. Movies such
as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Friday the
Thirteenth Series, the Halloween Series, the
Robocop Series, the Alien Series, all the way up
to the Saw Series, moves of every genre, especially
Science Fiction, Action, and Horror-Thriller, have become
increasingly more and more violent. What’s worse, many
of the horror movies made in the 1970s and `80s – such as
Halloween, Friday the Thirteenth, My Bloody
Valentine, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre – are being remade with even
more grotesque, grisly, and graphic violence thrown in.
Such levels of graphic violence are also beginning to show
up on television. Television shows such as the
animation South
Park
regularly show death and violence on a regular basis, with
little regard given to life. Even sports presentations
such Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) regularly show competitors and
fighters beating each other to a bloody pulp. Video
games, as well, are teeming with violent and
violence-oriented games, where players use any number of
weapons to destroy the competition, be it virtual or
real-life across the internet by way of a PC. Even
popular music is not immune, with rock, rap, and other music
genres more and more intensely and graphically speaking of
violence towards police officers, elected officials, even
women and children. There is even a newer music genre
aptly called “Death Metal”! Need anymore be said? It
can, does, will…and is…happening in any and every nation
today that rejects God.
Not a New
Phenomenon
This is not a new
thing just for the 21st century. Two
thousand years ago, the Ancient Roman Empire also had a
similar problem with violence. Where modern society
has any number of avenues showing violence and death, the
Romans got theirs in real life by way of the games:
gladiatorial contests pitting two fighters against one
another, the victor living to fight another day, the loser
dying in a painful, bloody, violent fashion. During
these gladiatorial contests, criminals were regularly put to
death by any number of ways, including being fed to wild
beasts, crucified (and sometimes burned at the same time),
or run down by a pack of wild dogs. Eventually, these
“criminals” came to include people who merely chose to
follow one of the newer religions within the Roman Empire called “Christianity”. Even before the
times of the Romans and after them, empires, kingdoms, and
nations regularly used public violence in one form or
another not just for the punishment of the lawless, but also
for the entertainment of society. The Aztecs and
Mayans of Central and Southern Mexico
carried out gruesome human sacrifices to appease their gods.
Arabians for centuries before the arrival of Mohammad and
Islam regularly undertook public punishment and execution
for those who chose to break the law. Even in the Old
West in the USA in the 19oos, public hangings and other
forms of execution were regularly attended by all citizens
of whatever town in which the executions were being carried
out, and the “high noon” style gunfight, while clearing the
streets, were also regularly watched by people who could
find a safe enough spot in which to view them.
Intense, Grisly
Scenes
The problem with
today’s violence is the intensity and the gruesomeness with
which it is being portrayed in the media. Never before
have movies been so bent on portraying violence and death.
The Saw series (with the sixth movie in the series
being released on or around Halloween) is the epitome of the
depth of human depravity being portrayed on the big screen.
This ground-breaking series has led to the remaking of 1970s
and `80s movies which, in their time, were already quite
gruesome. It isn’t enough nowadays for a victim to
merely be frightened and die, but that victim has to undergo
some horrid torture by some insane maniac who appears to be
impervious to the emotions and suffering of the victims.
Even in war movies, the “reality” of combat – for some
reason beyond the grasp of this writer – must be portrayed.
Saving Private Ryan, starring Tom Hanks and Matt
Damon, and directed by Steven Spielberg, was just as
groundbreaking in its portrayal of combat violence as the
Saw series has been in its portrayal of horror violence.
The same can be said for Gladiator, starring Russell
Crowe, for historical drama, especially movies dealing with
the Roman Empire.
Further, the movie Robocop – the first of the series
– was so graphic in its violence that the ratings board for
the movie industry nearly gave it an NC-17 rating, not for
any sexual content, but for its violence. The
startling thing is that Robocop – released nearly twenty
years ago – would, by today’s standards, possibly receive
merely a “PG-13” rating at the worst (and Robocop is
also set for a remake, to be released within the next year
or so). We see in the Bible a clear warning:
“He that
leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he
that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword…”
– Revelation
13.10
“…for all that
take the sword shall perish with the sword.”
– Matthew 26.52
But Isn’t the
Bible Full of Violence?
If even a brief,
superficial survey of the Bible is undertaken, it is soon
easy to see that violence is depicted and described, even in
rather grisly fashion. Stories of men being hacked to
pieces with a sword, men being beheaded, cities ravaged with
women and children killed are easily seen in the Bible, most
often in the Old Testament. With all the stories of
such, it would be rather easy to conclude that God is some
horrible ogre, ready in an instant to have some unbeliever
stricken dead at the first crossing of His Law.
However, digging a little deeper into the Bible, we see a
picture of God that is quite different than what modern
critics would charge. We must realize, first and
foremost, that God is not a proponent of death:
“The Lord is
not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that
any should perish.”
– 2nd
Peter 3.9
“‘Have I any
pleasure at all that the wicked should die?’’ saith the Lord
God: ‘and not that he should return from his ways, and
live?’”
– Ezekiel 18.23
“‘For I have
no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,’ saith the Lord
God: ‘wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.’”
– Ezekiel 18.32
“For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world; but that the world through him
might be saved.”
– John 3.16-17
“There were
present at that season some that told him of the Galileans,
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them, ‘Suppose ye that these
Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they
suffered such things? I tell you, “Nay: but, except ye
repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Or those
eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them,
think ye that they were sinners above all in
Jerusalem? I tell you, “Nay:
but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”’”
– Luke 13.1-5
We need to
understand that God is not a God of violence, and he does
not approve of death and destruction. As the verses
above explain, violence is portrayed in the Bible for our
example. As the verses from Luke 13 state, violence in
the Bible is set for us as a warning. We need to
understand something, and we need it drilled into our
collective psyche and burned into our communal conscience:
GOD
HATES SIN
There are no two
ways about this fact. God hates sin. He hates
sin so much that he came down, in the form of Jesus Christ,
and died rather than have people go through the pain and
suffering of sin and eternal death. The violence that
we see in the Bible comes about and came about as a direct
result of sin and people continuing to live therein.
God hates in, and he will judge sin. That is the
reason violence is portrayed in the Bible: it is set
as a warning to us of the magnitude of the consequences of
sin, and is, in a way, a mere, tiny example of the violence
that will be the Lake of Fire,
or, the Second Death. The Bible even speaks to the
Israelites and to the New Testament Believers to teach
children and young ones the dangers of sin, the gravity of
the commission of sin, and the consequences of living a
sinful life.
The Bottom Line –
It Will Only Get Worse Before It Gets Better
There is only one
reason, and one reason alone that violence continues in
media and continues to get worse and worse year-by-year:
there will come a day in the “civilized”, Western world when
people will be publicly put to death merely for naming the
Name of Jesus Christ, and allying with him as Lord and
Saviour. Revelation, Daniel, and other books in the
Bible speak of a coming time when Believers and Followers of
Jesus Christ will be slaughtered publicly just because they
choose to live for Jesus Christ. Jesus himself states
in the Gospels that people will think that they are doing
God a service for destroying his followers, and such an
example is given to us in the Book of Acts by way of Paul
before he turned and came to Christ as Lord and Savior.
Before the Damascus Road
revelation, Paul – thinking he was doing God a favour –
persecuted, imprisoned, destroyed, and had executed
believers. Such a time is coming for the rest of the
world. It may not come exactly as happened in Ancient
Rome, with Christians being used for lamps by Caesar Nero,
or used as food for the lions and tigers of the arena, but
it is coming, of that you, reader, can be sure. This
desensitization towards violence, the portrayal of grisly
and grotesque death, and the production of movies, TV shows,
and video games which shed buckets of blood is for this
process. These are tools of the Devil, and he is
making as much use of them as he can before his time comes.
Violence, its portrayal in Television, Movies, Video Games,
and other media outlets will get far, far worse before it
gets better.
Conclusion –
How’s Your Spiritual Diet?
Are you day and
night watching movies, TV shows, or DVDs and videos that
portray violence? Do you listen to music that calls
for killing of police officers, or describes rape or murder?
Friends, you may think that this doesn’t affect you, but
that is the trick of the Devil with regards to this.
Though you may think it is harmless fun or innocent
entertainment, the truth of the matter is that it is
gradually eroding your sense of what is good and right.
In essence, your conscience is being seared away with every
portrayal, every scene, and every description of violence.
The Devil wants you to think that all of it is harmless fun
and innocent entertainment, but the truth is, it is like
being bitten by a snake: that poison will
eventually reach your heart, killing your spirit and
conscience just as surely as a snake’s poison will
eventually kill the physical body. The remedy?
Throw away those movies, those videos, those games, and that
music that speaks of barbarous violence, bloodshed, and
death, and fill it with the presence of the Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. There is no other way.
Prayer –
Father in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Holy Name! We come
today to Thee, O Lord, and we ask for your help in defeating
the violence and destruction that is so pervasive in today’s
world. Give us, O Lord, the ability, the strength,
and, most importantly, the desire, to turn away from the
things that would so easily destroy us from the inside out.
Help us, Lord, with your Spirit of Discernment, to make good
choices when seeking entertainment from today’s media.
Help us, Lord, to keep our eyes and our hearts on things
above, as your Word declares. We ask all of this in
the Precious, Awesome, Name above All Names, Name of Jesus
Christ, Amen.
Verse for the
Day:
“The Lord
is…not willing that any should perish.”
– 2nd
Peter 3.9