KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Desensitized
ONE OF THE great topics of discussion over the last year has been the price of gasoline...
One frequently heard accusation has been that "the oil companies only raised the prices so high because they wanted us to feel like we were getting a good deal when they lowered the prices again." It's a matter of being desensitized to compromise, isn't it? Slowly our mind was trained to compare our current price to the high price it had been most recently. Even though we had howled at the unfairness of the price increase at the beginning, we soon began to appreciate the great reduction in price. We compromised our standard because it's "not as bad as it could be." We became desensitized to the high price we're paying now because it is far less than the once astronomically high price we paid recently.
As I was thinking about this, I wondered if this idea could be compared to the price of morality and ethics in our world. Fifty years ago, we would have howled at the immorality and unethical conduct which seems so common place and even expected today. We actually had controls in place to see that certain conduct and dress were not seen on television or in theaters. It seems today that the standards have been lowered to where they are almost nonexistent.
Some time back, someone recommended a movie that was playing at the theater. My wife and I went to see it, but about five minutes into the movie, we got up and walked out. Last week, someone shared a DVD movie with us to watch. We watched less than five minutes, then turned it off because of the language and sexual content. We didn't want to condone such things and we didn't want to become desensitized to the sin of those things.
Lifestyles and behavior that God clearly condemns now are advertised openly on our televisions and brought into our homes on a daily basis. We have, however, the power to prevent this if we will. We can turn programs off. We can refuse to purchase products that promote those programs which offend -- or should offend -- the sensibilities of Christians. We can walk out of theaters and let the management know we disapprove. We can write the FCC and the local television stations about our concerns. We can take a stand and make our voices heard.
It may seem like a small thing, but isn't it time to count the cost and refuse to have our values desensitized? Shouldn't we take a stand on our values and start using that remote control to change the channel or turn the immoral input source off? Why continue to subject ourselves to the constant bombardment of immoral conditioning that might bring about moral compromise or collapse in our lives and the lives of your children? (Russ Lawson)
KneEmail: "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" ( 2 Corinthians 11:3).