Media's Influence: Who's Saying It's OK?

Over the last several decades a cultural war has been going on in this country between the advertising community and the church. At the core of this cultural war is sexual permissiveness, portraying Christians as ignorant and out of touch. Let's face it, sex sells and advertisers are now using sex subtly and not so subtly to promote everything from cars to cologne.

Our radios, television sets, movie screens, CDs, billboards, magazines and newspapers loudly proclaim that "sex is normal, available and certainly not restricted to adults." Advertisers are brain washing your teens into believing that you will be sexier and your sex life will be "off the hook" if they wear their brand of designer jeans. Or that he will love you more if you put on their brand of perfume, or kiss better and consider using their brand of toothpaste gel. All the while songs like "Tonight's the Night" are being played in the background. Now add to that the fact that Hollywood portrays people in their movies and television shows that are Teflon characters who never pay for the sins of their permissive lifestyle. And then throw in lack of accurate information about sex from a responsible adult and it becomes painfully obvious why so many teens are falling in this trap.

I believe we must begin to show them who are the ones that are pushing sex at them and who's saying wait. And what are the motives of the different groups. Teens need to see the real deal behind actions of advertisers and Hollywood--dollars, billions of dollars. The advertising and entertainment industry rakes in hundreds of billions of dollars annually by encouraging our teens to be sexually permissive. They couldn't care less how many out-of-wedlock births occur each year, or how may youths contract a sexually transmitted disease. Nor do they have any concern for the countless youths whose lives are emotionally scarred, some even for life because of this sex-saturated culture. Now let's show them who makes up the group that wants them to wait--i.e., God, parents, church, extended family members, teachers. Teens are a lot more savvy than we like to give them credit. It won't take them long to figure out that the motive behind the second group is love and concern as a person. While the first group, motivation is simply to exploit them for personal gain. Our kids need to be exposed to the truth of who's ultimately behind the push to become sexual--Satan. I'm not suggesting that this knowledge alone will cause teens to abstain, rather it is just one more nail to drive into the coffin of pre-marital sex.