Choosing Good Entertainment and Media

I taught Relief Society today-- in all my shakey hand, sweaty armpit, trembling voice glory!  Will I ever be able to do this without getting so stinkin' nervous? Anywhooo... despite my lack of charisma, it went well. Here it is:

INTRODUCTION

I remember one day when I was a girl, watching my younger sister return home from school, gently cradling a dead little bird in her hands. I remember, as we sat on the porch looking at the bird, we marveled at how darling it was. Upon seeing the bird, my mother (who did a better job of staying calm than I– as a mother– would have) told my sister to drop the bird, and go wash the germs off her hands. When my sister put the bird down, it flipped over, and– it was at this time that we discovered that the little bird was completely crawling with maggots. In disgust, we all took a huge step back, and didn’t want anything more to do with the gross little bird. (In fact, Im sure my Mother was the lucky winner who got to dispose of the disgusting creature).

I know this story is disgusting. None of us, would knowingly pick up a dead, germy, maggot-infested bird. Yet, I would like to ask you this afternoon, How many of us choose to carry around filth hidden in the form of the entertainment and media we choose to give our time too?

In preparing this lesson, I called my sister to ask her about bringing home the gross little bird. She said she had been taught better. She knew she shouldn’t pick it up, but she did anyway because– not only did it look sweet, and cute– but when you looked at it closely, every once in a while, you could see it move ever-so slightly. It looked as if it might have been breathing. We know now, that it was the maggots moving inside making it appear alive. This is also, the way Lucifer works with the media of today. He wraps sin in a cute or alluring package. He makes evil appear acceptable and even desirable– when really we should be repulsed by it.

My sister also revealed a part of the story that I hadn’t known until now. She told me that on her walk home, every once in a while she would notice a worm crawling on her arm or on her shirt. She wasn’t terribly bothered by these. She would just flick them off and continue on the journey home. She said that one or two little bugs weren’t too gross. However, she didn’t know that those one or two little bugs were a sign of horrible things to come.

It is very easy to have this same attitude about the entertainment we allow into our lives. Satan wants us to think that one or two little offensive parts in a show are ok, one or two words in a song wont hurt us, one or two chapters in a book are fine. However, this is not true. The more unworthy entertainment we view, the less sensitive we become to the spirit– and risk becoming “past feeling” as did Laman and Lemuel in the Book of Mormon. We should be repulsed by the very first “maggot” we see. It is important to recognize that degrading media weakens our spirit, and in turn, has a direct link to our eternal destiny.

What we see triggers what we think, what we think influences what we desire, what we desire affects our actions, our combined actions determine our character, and our character determines our eternal destiny. (Draw diagram on board)

See => Think => Desire => Actions => Character => Eternity

In August of 2001, while speaking at a CES fireside, President Henry B Eyring gave a remarkable prophecy. He said that LDS youth cannot just go with the flow anymore and expect to remain righteous. He then prophesied of what is to come in the future, saying: “The flow has become a flood and soon will be a torrent. It will become a torrent of sounds and sights and sensations that invite temptation and offend the Spirit of God.” Just a few short months after President Eyring prophesied of the torrent of sounds, sights, and sensations about to hit, the first iPod was introduced to the general public. Two years later the first video iPod came out. As a result, we now have the ability to carry thousands of songs, images, and other videos in the palm of our hands, easily available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (Why?, p. 78)

Q: What are some other media that could be included in that Torrent of sights, sounds and sensations that President Eyring spoke of?

(You-tube, Google Images, MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Satellite radio, HDTV, ,– Instant streaming video/TV, like Netflix)

We are being inundated like never before. If ever there was a need to understand why it matters so much what we allow into our minds, it is now.

For the Strength of Youth says... “Whatever you read, listen to, or look at has an effect on you. Therefore, choose only entertainment and media that uplift you. Good entertainment will help you to have good thoughts and make righteous choices. While much entertainment is good, some of it can lead you away from righteous living. Satan uses...entertainment to deceive you by making what is wrong and evil look normal and exciting. It can mislead you into thinking that everyone is doing things that are wrong.” (p 17)

Put up papers with words (READ, LISTEN TO, & LOOK AT)

READ:

One scholar ran an experiment where people were divided into two groups. One group read sentences that contained aggressive words. (For example, “bold” “rude” “bother” “disturb” “intrude” and “infringe”) The other group was given sentences with the words “respect” “considerate” “appreciate” “patiently” “yield” “polite” and “courteous”.

After reading the sentences, the individuals were told to return to an office for their next assignment. But the researcher made sure he was already engaged in a conversation with a co-researcher when the individual arrived. The question was, “Would the people who had read the aggressive sentences be more likely to interrupt the conversation?” The group who had read the aggressive words interrupted after about 5 minutes, on average. The group who had read the words that promoted politeness NEVER INTERRUPTED AT ALL!!!

Q: That is a scientific example that what we read effects the way we behave. Does anyone else have any examples or thoughts pertaining to the importance of choosing worthy reading material?

LISTEN TO:

Numerous studies have shown that the human brain has an incredible ability to easily memorize words when they are put to music. This can be such a good thing. All of my children memorized the Articles of Faith, simply as a result of me playing the Article of Faith songs regularly in our home. Unfortunately– Satan can use this amazing recording power in his favor too. Years ago, I heard a speaker speculate that Lucifer– in his never ending quest for souls– may have said something like, “I am going to win a lot of souls by purely by getting them to repeat in their minds my teachings over and over again. Upon hearing this, Satan’s minions asked, “How are you ever going to do that?” To which Satan replied, “Its simple, I’ll just put the words to music.” When was the last time you stopped to really think about the words that you are allowing to be repeated over and over to your sub-conscience simply because they are put to music? I know I’ve found myself stuck on a song, and when I stop to think about it, the words aren’t necessarily consistent with what I know to be true.

For the strength of Youth: “Choose carefully the music you listen to. Pay attention to how you feel when you are listening. Don’t listen to music that drives away the Spirit, encourages immorality, glorifies violence, uses foul or offensive language, or promotes Satanism or other evil practices.”

President Boyd K Packer said, “You are very, very, very, very, very, very foolish when you like to participate in music that is dark and noisy. Worthy inspiration cannot get through to you where you are. No matter how popular it may be or how much you want to belong, just remember that there are those angels of the devil using you.”

That is a pretty bold statement. Good music can have a wonderful influence for good in our lives... just as bad music can be tremendously harmful.

Q: Does anyone have any thoughts before I move on?

LOOK AT:

I think, perhaps more than anything else, what we look at has a profound effect on our actions– sometimes without us even realizing it. For a moment, ask yourself, how many of us have thrown a few air-punches to the Rocky Balboa theme song, struck the tournament winning crane-pose from the Karate Kid, done some John Travolta Saturday Night Fever disco dance moves, or ever uttered the phrases, “Hakuna Matata”, “Wingardium Leviosa”, or “There’s no place like home.” ? Whether we want to admit it or not, what we watch influences how we act.

In the scriptures, we read a startling example of this in the sad downfall of King David. Though David was a great man, he lost everything due to a moment of weakness that began by looking at something he should not have seen.

Q: Can anyone briefly share the story of King David’s downfall?

(Its in the beginning of 2 Samuel 11) While on the king’s roof, David beheld Bathsheba “washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon” Instead of looking away and controlling what his eyes beheld, he lusted after her and “sent and inquired after the woman.... And she came in unto him, and he lay with her.”

What he saw from the roof created lustful and immoral desires, and those desires led to sinful adultery, then to the tragic murder of Bathsheba’s husband, and eventually the loss of David’s exaltation. All because he didn’t control what he watched.

“The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life. Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we're not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live” – Elder M Russell Ballard

Q: Does anyone have any thoughts or comments?

CONCLUSION:

In closing, I just want to bare my testimony that the media we choose to allow into our minds and homes does have an enormous effect on who we are. Whether that effect is good or bad is up to each of us. I pray the media we spend our time on will plant good thoughts, and that those good thoughts will grow into righteous desires and actions. Those actions will yield a Christ-like character, which will allow us all to return to our Father in Heaven’s presence. Of these things, I bare testimony. In the Name of Jesus Christ Amen.

EXTRA QUOTES

In a day when broadcasters and publishers have rather free access into our homes, we must seek clean, uplifting entertainment, whether on television, videos, movies, magazines, books, and other printed material. We should be very selective and choose only those things that meet the test of being virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy. If it is questionable, we should avoid it. (Elder Worthlin)


Because of its sheer size, media today presents vast and sharply contrasting options. Opposite from its harmful and permissive side, media offers much that is positive and productive. Television offers history channels, discovery channels, education channels. One can still find movies and TV comedies and dramas that entertain and uplift and accurately depict the consequences of right and wrong. The Internet can be a fabulous tool of information and communication, and there is an unlimited supply of good music in the world. Thus our biggest challenge is to choose wisely what we listen to and what we watch. (Elder Ballard)

MY HANDOUT:
“The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life. Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we’re not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live.

If we do not make good choices, the media can devastate our families and pull our children away from the narrow gospel path. In the virtual reality and the perceived reality of large and small screens, family-destructive viewpoints and behavior are regularly portrayed as pleasurable, as stylish, as exciting, and as normal. Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up. Immorality and sexual innuendo are everywhere, causing some to believe that because everyone is doing it, it must be all right. This pernicious evil is not out in the street somewhere; it is coming right into our homes, right into the heart of our families.”

Seven things that every parent can do to minimize the negative effect media can have on our families:


1. We need to hold family councils and decide what our media standards are going to be.

2. We need to spend enough quality time with our children that we are consistently the main influence in their lives, not the media or any peer group.

3. We need to make good media choices ourselves and set good examples for our children.

4. We need to limit the amount of time our children watch TV or play video games or use the Internet each day. Virtual reality must not become their reality.

5. We need to use Internet filters and TV programming locks to prevent our children from “chancing upon” things they should not see.

6. We need to have TVs and computers in a much-used common room in the home, not in a bedroom or a private place.

7. We need to take time to watch appropriate media with our children and discuss with them how to make choices that will uplift and build rather than degrade and destroy


“...The family is the main target of evil’s attack and must therefore be the main point of our protection and defense. As I said once before, when you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense to Satan. When he wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t poison the world’s peanut butter supply, thus bringing the Church’s missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn’t send a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn’t legislate against green Jell-O and casseroles. When evil wants to strike out and disrupt the essence of God’s work, it attacks the family. It does so by attempting to disregard the law of chastity, to confuse gender, to desensitize violence, to make crude and blasphemous language the norm, and to make immoral and deviant behavior seem like the rule rather than the exception.”

– “Let Our Voices Be Heard”
Elder M. Russell Ballard