By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Lonnie Wilkey
Growing up in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s I constantly heard adults bemoan the direction that television programming was heading.
Little did they know.
What seemed “over the top” then pales in comparison to programming on network television today. And even worse, there are more networks clogging the airwaves with questionable programming. In my early years there were the big three (ABC, NBC, and CBS). More networks simply mean the more likely bad programming will continue to multiply.
The latest case in point occurred on Sept. 28 with ABC’s Modern Family. This program is bad enough in that it features an openly gay couple with a daughter. On Sept 28, however, the show introduced a transgender child as a friend of the daughter.
A Focus on the Family representative told Baptist Press the episode will confuse children. He observed that children aren’t able to sort out that kind of “falsehood from the real truth.”
He is correct. Younger children who may have seen that episode aren’t old enough to know what is happening. Culture continues to use television to define their values and beliefs.
I have seen it in my children’s generation. Those children grew up in a culture which began to portray homosexuality as “okay.” As a result, many of those children have grown into adults and are accepting of the homosexual lifestyle even though they know it is biblically wrong. Well, it was not okay in the Bible and it’s not okay today, but it has become an accepted norm in today’s world.
If children continue to see transgenders on television they will eventually accept it as an acceptable lifestyle. The Bible makes it clear those lifestyles are not acceptable.
All families, but especially Christian families, need to keep that from happening. Families need to rely on the Bible to establish the values and morals their children will develop now and carry with them for a lifetime.
While the TV may be an effective “babysitter,” parents need to be more diligent than ever in monitoring what their children watch.
Don’t allow culture to establish your children’s values and beliefs. Allow God to do it.
