Author: bigbluelab

The other morning I turned on Good Morning America to watch some morning news.  As they were returning from commercial break, they ran a short snippet of one of Lady Gaga’s music videos acting in a way that was beyond PG-13 to put it kindly.  I thought for sure the show’s hosts were going to talk about how appalling this was and how it is being exposed to our children.  However, it was just the exact opposite.  The show’s hosts came on happily talking about how great a performer she is and that she was going to be on the show performing live for a free concert.  Most of the audience cheering in the background were little girls.

I’ve seen Lady Gaga now a couple of times making appearances on some other morning news programs and other shows like American Idol. I can’t speak for her talents because I’ve never really listened to her singing, but her appearance and provocative fashion and dancing I would say are always well beyond a G, PG, or TV-14 rating.  She may have the right to freedom of expression. But when the form of expression surpasses a level of decency, morals, and ethic and is marketed toward kids, it has to make you ask, Really?

For years now, I’ve seen R-rated actors portray characters on various children’s shows.  For example, the narrator’s voice for the Thomas the Train kids TV series has been George Carlin, Jerry Springer, and Alec Baldwin. Really? Is this the best Hollywood could find to market to children?  Most young children wouldn’t recognize these names.  So why would producers spend the extra money to hire these celebrities?

As adults, we may recognize George Carlin as the infamous comedian for making popular the 7 dirty words.  Or how about Jerry Springer as the king of trashy talk shows.  Other voices I’ve seen over the years on children cartoons on PBS, Disney, and other kids’ channels have included Cheech Martin, Gilbert Gottfried, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Michael Myers, Jack Black, and so many others.

If you think about it, most of us probably wouldn’t allow these people to babysit.  Yet we invite them into our homes every time we tune in to any of these shows or plop in these popular DVDs.

On a recent episode of “The View”, apparently Bill O’Reilly offended a couple of the host ladies for stating that the 9/11 terrorist acts were done by Muslims. The ladies argued that it wasn’t Muslims, it was “Extremists” that killed the Americans and then stormed off stage.

So what is an Extremist? Webster’s dictionary defines an Extremist as “advocacy of extreme measures or views,” and extreme as “going to great or exaggerated lengths.”

How does one become an extremist in their faith? Is it that they live and obey the teachings, practices and principals of the founders of the religion? If so, then what is the argument presented by these ladies?

The founder of Islam is Mohammed. The founder of Christianity is Jesus Christ. It is my understanding that Mohammed killed or at least gave instructions to kill. Jesus did neither. I have read by some Muslims that Mohammed killed in self defense. Jesus ordered Peter to put away his sword in self defense on the night of His arrest.

Because I believe in the Bible, believe in Jesus as my Savior, believe in Creation and the Creator, believe in Hell, believe in separation from God through sin, believe in the 10 commandments, believe in His resurrection…does this mean I am an extremist? I often wonder for those who have never studied Christianity, if they interpret a Christian Fundamentalist as someone who is living and obeying the laws of the Old Testament only. Wouldn’t that then make me a Sadducee or Pharisee instead?

For an interesting article of the differences between Mohammed and Jesus, see here.

In today’s USA Today, there is a large article on a survey done by Baylor University. The premise of the survey was to get an understanding of how Americans view God to be.

9 out of 10 Americans believe that there is a god. But of those, how do they view god? The survey categorized 4 categories describing god based on the views of how people view god:
– Authoritative (28%)
– Benevolent (22%)
– Critical (21%)
– Distant (24%)
* The remaining 5% they categorized as Atheist / Agnostic

Personally, I would have liked to have seen additional questions in the survey to identify if their god is the Biblical God. Perhaps questions like:
– Do you actively read the Bible?
– Can you site scriptures for each response provided?

I would imagine that the majority of those 9 of 10 people replied to the survey questions about who / what is god with statements that began with “I think that god…” or “I believe that god is…”. It’s one thing to say that there is a god. But it’s a completely different question if they can identify that god with the God of the Bible. In other words, how many people base their views of what the Bible says about God versus those who have made up their own image of a god.