Participants: Vicki Griffin
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000396
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01:01 Probably one of the areas that has sapped,
01:04 slowly sapped and leached the spirituality from us 01:08 and our people faster and more suddenly 01:11 than anything else is our preoccupation 01:14 with the entertainment industry, particularly television. 01:18 Are we on the same page or off the page already? 01:21 Can I hear an amen to that, if you think that is a problem? 01:24 Amen All right. 01:26 And as I begin this program today 01:29 we have some sober things to share. 01:32 Some amazing references from secular literature, 01:36 from scientific literature 01:37 and from Christian literature outside of our faith, 01:40 we have no Adventist sources on this particular program 01:44 which makes it all that much more powerful 01:46 and means that we need to sit up 01:48 and pay that much more attention, amen, amen. 01:52 But before I begin our program today 01:54 I would like to start with a story, 01:55 one of my favorites, from the book of Judges. 02:00 And the Lord did an amazing thing for the Israelite 02:04 people after all their disappointing behavior, 02:08 He brought them into the land of Cannon. 02:11 And after a time 02:12 the godly leaders of those tribes 02:15 they died away and somehow the vision, 02:21 the message, the urgency was not passed on 02:24 to the younger generation and they began to settle 02:27 and they began to meld and they began to blend. 02:30 As a matter of fact 02:31 the Bible says in Judges Chapter 2, 02:33 that instead of driving out the Canaanites 02:35 they actually had them pay tribute to them 02:38 and just hang around. 02:39 And so often I think that that is our problem, 02:41 we come out of the world but not all the way. 02:45 We say, well, I can control this. 02:47 I want this much of it, this much was fun. 02:50 So we'll just hang on to this 02:52 and as a result it weakened God's people, 02:55 it weakened the Israelites. 02:57 We have a sad account in Judges Chapter 1 it says, 02:59 "Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean," 03:05 and it says, they put them under tribute 03:07 but Ephraim didn't drive out 03:09 the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, 03:10 neither did Zebulon drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, 03:13 neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, 03:16 neither did Naphtali drive out 03:17 the inhabitants of Bethshemesh. 03:19 What a sad chronicle, 03:20 because what was the one thing the Lord them to do? 03:23 You know, haven't you had that with your kids? 03:25 You tell them, I want you to do this 03:26 one thing while I am in town. 03:31 How can you forget one thing? 03:33 They forget, they get distracted. 03:37 They get involved in other things 03:38 and the Lord spoke to the children of Israel 03:40 about this in Judges Chapter 2, 03:42 He said, in verse 2 He said, 03:45 "You shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land, 03:51 ye shall throw down their altars." 03:54 That's pretty serious isn't it? 03:57 You shall throw down their altars, 03:58 but then He says, like a parent, like a frustrated parent says, 04:02 but you have not obeyed my voice, 04:04 why have you done this, why? 04:07 Why didn't you do what I asked you to do? 04:10 You know I've given you the power. 04:14 And then He, He tells us the result, 04:17 He tells them the result of this, 04:19 of this glitch in their relationship with him. 04:23 It says in verse 3 "Wherefore I also said, I." 04:26 You know, you didn't do your part of the bargain, 04:29 he professes this little speech to the Jews by saying, 04:33 I told you I will never break my covenant with you. 04:37 He said, I promised you 04:39 what I would do but you didn't believe me. 04:44 In verse three it says, "Wherefore I also said, 04:47 I will not drive them out from before you, 04:50 but they shall be as thorns in your sides, 04:53 and their Gods shall be a snare unto you." 04:57 Friends, have the Gods of this world 05:00 become a snare to us, 05:01 have they become pricking thorns in our sides 05:04 as we see the spiritual poverty 05:06 that presses in around us and among us. 05:11 And what was the result for this dear people 05:14 in Judges Chapter 6 it says, 05:16 "Israel was greatly impoverished, 05:19 greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, 05:21 and the children of Israel cried to the Lord." 05:25 And what did the Lord say? 05:27 Forget it, did He? 05:29 No, He was right there, wasn't He? 05:32 And that's our hope today, 05:34 but we have to realize our need 05:36 and cry to Him to help us straighten out our lives. 05:40 Because we're losing a lot of our young people 05:43 and believe we're losing them for some reasons 05:45 that we don't need to lose them. 05:49 Today, we're taking a look at the entertainment trap 05:51 and asking the question, 05:54 are we entertaining ourselves to death? 05:59 Its statistics tell the story, among adults, 06:04 now this doesn't surprise anybody does it? 06:06 Ninety-Nine percent of American homes have TV, 06:11 99% of American homes have -- 06:13 does that surprise anybody? 06:14 Here's the surprising thing, 06:15 more people have televisions than indoor plumbing. 06:20 We have open sewer lines right into our living rooms. 06:24 We spend seven hours a day watching television on average 06:28 that's more than 2555 hours per year or 9 full years 06:34 in front of the television. 06:35 Now you come to church once a week, 06:37 you got that pastor has one hour to get into your heart. 06:43 What about children, 48% of children, 06:46 young children have televisions in their room. 06:48 They have an average daily viewing of 4 ½ hours a day. 06:55 Two hours a day changes brain structure, two hours. 06:59 Subtlety remodels the brain 07:01 whether it's good or bad television 07:03 and we will talk about that. 07:04 That's 31 hours a week watching television. 07:07 One quarter of boys and one fifth of girls 07:09 watch more than six hours a day. 07:15 From tots to teens we have become 07:18 a television viewing nation and it is a solo activity 07:22 and it is highly addictive as we will see, 07:25 40% of two year olds watch three hours a day? 07:29 This figure now has been notched up to a 18 month olds. 07:32 That figure applies to 18 month olds as well. 07:37 Twenty-five percent age three 07:38 and under watch three hours a day. 07:43 Those who do watch that much are more than twice 07:45 as likely to watch three hours and more or more at age six, 07:49 that is 5000 hours of television 07:51 by the time a child reaches the first grade. 07:58 They witness 25 to 200 violent acts per television hour, 08:02 that's children's programming, 08:04 200,000 acts of violence by the age of 16 08:08 and an average of 31 acts of sex, violence, 08:10 and profanity per programming hour. 08:15 I think one of the saddest things 08:17 I have ever seen or ever heard of is the recent murder 08:23 that occurred at the gas station in Maryland or Washington 08:28 and customers were driving 08:30 around the body getting gas and leaving, 08:32 it was on videotape. 08:34 It was, there are none, there are just none. 08:37 Many of our young people have seen 08:38 one million commercials by the age of 20, 08:42 one million commercials, 08:44 it is doing more to shape the soul of our society 08:48 and our people than any other single factor, commercials. 08:54 Now who do you suppose said this, 08:56 "television violence is the single most significant factor 09:01 contributing to violence in the America." 09:03 Who do you think said that? 09:04 James Dobson, Pat Robertson, 09:11 who do you think, yes? 09:13 You're not gonna guess, nobody is saying anything. 09:16 Ted Turner, Ted Turner, he's cashing in on it, isn't he? 09:21 He's cashing in on it. 09:25 Now this is a statement 09:26 by Lieutenant Colonel David Grossman, 09:29 he wrote a book entitled 09:31 "Stop Teaching Our Children To Kill." 09:34 He is in the United States army special forces. 09:39 He is a PhD in psychology 09:41 and before he became a Christian, 09:45 he was trained in the science of killology. 09:48 He taught special forces how to kill with accuracy 09:50 and precision using conditioned responses. 09:55 It is interesting and I heard him speak personally. 09:58 I had a chance to talk with him, he is an amazing person, 10:01 a wonderful Christian man 10:02 and he literally quit his career 10:04 in order to take this message all over this country 10:08 because of his concern 10:10 for what is happening to our young people. 10:11 He is an expert witness at any school shooting. 10:15 The Columbine, he was one of the first ones on the scene, 10:18 the little boy in Paducah, 10:19 Kentucky that shot all those people in church. 10:22 He was the one that was there and he said, 10:26 "these kids have a completely different pattern of killing 10:30 than criminals of past ages who conduct crimes, 10:35 who are engaged in crimes with passion." 10:38 When someone is involved in a crime of passion, 10:40 you know, I'm sorry to tell you this. 10:41 I'm sorry to have to repeat these kinds of things 10:43 but I think we need to be aware of what video games 10:45 and television are doing to us 10:48 and how condition responses work. 10:50 But he said that, the way these kids are killing, 10:53 when someone is involved in a crime of passion 10:55 they will attack a person over and over again 10:57 if they're using a gun. 10:59 But these kids you'll notice 11:00 they have one shot per person head and chest shot 11:03 and they're laughing, they're smiling. 11:06 And they have actually become conditioned, 11:09 it's called operate condition -- conditioning. 11:11 The boy that did the shooting in -- 11:13 at Paducah, Kentucky, had a 20% better hit 11:17 and kill rate than a trained FBI agent 11:20 and he had never held a handgun. 11:22 It was all through video games that he learned to kill 11:26 and they get rewarded. 11:28 When a target comes up, 11:29 and this is what Dr. Grossman shared with me 11:31 that was so interesting. 11:32 He said in World War II 11:33 they had an 85% accuracy rate with targets 11:37 but then when the men would go out in the field 11:39 they had a 15% kill rate. 11:41 He said, because human beings don't look like targets, 11:44 so what did they do? 11:46 They changed the shape of the target 11:49 so now it looks like a person 11:52 and what does it do when you hit it, it falls. 11:55 So now what you're doing as target 11:57 comes up you hit it, it's down. 11:59 The target comes up you hit it's down. 12:00 It is no longer in the higher centers of the brain, 12:03 it becomes a conditioned reflex, 12:05 those things are good, reflexes are good, 12:07 that's why pilots are trained 12:09 when they have certain sequence of events occur, 12:11 are they thinking about what to do? 12:14 No, they have conditioned to respond without thinking 12:18 and that is the way that violence is taking a turn today. 12:23 When you and I were little 12:25 and we played Jericho or War or Ford or whatever it is, 12:28 and we got out of hand, what did mother come and do? 12:30 And she come out and give you a whacker, 12:32 make you sweep or breakup the game. 12:34 Today you get points and you get rewarded. 12:39 He said, when violence, when violent television 12:43 and video appear in a community 15 years later 12:46 the murder rate doubles. 12:49 That's when you go to the islands 12:50 and they bring in cable TV and he explained this, 12:53 he said, that these children at a valuable age 12:58 18, 19, 20 months old are being genetically 13:01 primed to kill under stress 13:05 because of what they are witnessing 13:07 and we will discuss that a little later. 13:12 There are other factors 13:13 contributing to the deterioration of the society. 13:17 The breakdown of the home, gangs, domestic violence, 13:21 drugs and alcohol, abuse of every stripe 13:23 and lack of family values. 13:25 But for many, the input of television 13:28 is the determining factor for a ruined life. 13:32 Childhood exposure to television 13:34 violence is implicated in half of all homicides, 13:37 that's from the Sergeant General. 13:39 Let's talk about this for a minute. 13:42 Are we seeing classics on television 13:44 or we being conditioned? 13:46 This is from Dr. Grossman's book, 13:47 to make human beings do something naturally repulsive, 13:53 you make it what? 13:55 Fun, that's how Japanese soldiers 13:58 were trained in brutality. 14:00 They would these young tender Japanese soldiers 14:05 would be forced to slaughter innocent people in live graves 14:12 and then they would be rewarded with women 14:15 and food and festivity and they became conditioned 14:20 and a connection was made in the brain 14:22 linking pleasure and violence. 14:25 To make humans do something 14:26 naturally repulsive you make it fun, 14:29 this is called classic conditioning, 14:33 classical conditioning. 14:36 And how often that's the case with us? 14:37 You know, we're tired at the end of the day. 14:39 We want to dwell on someone else's 14:41 problems beside our own, 14:42 so we sit down with our favorite soda pop 14:44 and binge item and watch violence on television, 14:49 or treachery or lying 14:51 or stealing or immorality for entertainment. 14:56 Everyday, children of all ages 14:58 and in all stages of brain and ego development 15:01 watch vivid pictures of human suffering 15:04 and death for fun, for fun. 15:09 And come to associate 15:10 horror with their favorite soft drink or candy. 15:15 The Bible says in Ephesians 4:16 15:18 that there would be a generation that was passed feeling 15:22 and the very mechanisms of our brains 15:25 that regulate executive function, 15:27 monitor fear responses 15:29 and control addiction pathways are being altered 15:32 by our interaction with television. 15:34 And as I said in another meeting 80% of people 15:37 that watch television are not doing it 15:39 to find a specific program, they're just doing it 15:42 because of the need to watch television. 15:45 Is that sound like an addiction? 15:47 Hostility rates in families go up 50% 15:50 when television is taken out of the home. 15:55 Once the brain solidifies the link 15:58 between pleasure and violence 15:59 it is difficult to convince it, that it isn't normal to do so. 16:03 Endorphins remember, 16:06 you see, when we see something painful, 16:09 terrifying or bad, 16:11 God has placed with in your body 16:14 morphine like substances that kill pain. 16:17 It is possible to become addicted 16:20 to those morphine like substance. 16:22 We have heard terrible stories 16:27 about the leaders in Baghdad and what they took pleasure in. 16:32 And, friends, horrible ways of thinking and viewing 16:36 evil things can become an addiction. 16:39 It can become an addiction. 16:44 TV talks and trouble, 16:46 now this is from a scientific literature 16:49 from several different journals, 16:50 they have been more than 10,000 studies 16:53 done on the effects of television on the human mind, 16:56 and why aren't we seeing this on CBS? 17:00 How many reports have you seen on television about this? 17:04 And less than one half of 1% 17:09 showed no effect out of 10,000 studies. 17:13 Excessive, excessive viewing. 17:15 Now this mind you is not bad television, 17:20 this is just excessive viewing period. 17:23 Is associated with increased aggression and hostility, 17:28 increased levels of fear and anxiety, 17:31 more difficulty with language skills, 17:34 decreased reading ability or we're gonna, 17:36 we're gonna watch this movie 17:37 because it's gonna make them wanna read about this subject. 17:41 You know, forget it, have you seen it happen? 17:44 Have you seen it happen? 17:47 And shortened attention span. 17:49 I would like to talk for a moment 17:50 about the increased restlessness and fear and anxiety. 17:55 If you notice, if you ever laid a baby on the floor, 17:58 you can lay a six month old baby on the floor 18:00 and put a television behind them with no volume on 18:05 and you will notice that, 18:06 that baby turns its head a 180 degrees, 18:10 as only a baby can, to watch that television. 18:14 Now what is taking place in that baby? 18:17 It's called an orientation response 18:21 and as we've talked this week about our beautiful, 18:24 magnificent brain and how plastic and changeable 18:27 it is and how responsive it is to the environment. 18:29 We also understand that the parts of the brain 18:32 that are the more stimulated grow the most synapses 18:35 and get the most active. 18:37 Well, there is a portion of the brain 18:40 that is very active especially in children 18:42 and it's called the amygdala, it's your primary fear center, 18:45 in other words, when you're walking in the woods 18:47 and you step on a stick 18:49 you're immediate reflex is to what? 18:52 You jump, that's the amygdala, 18:55 it's a primal fear response and then you look 18:57 and there are other fear responses, 18:59 there are other organs in the brain that pick up 19:02 at the higher cognitive levels and say, 19:04 okay, wait a minute, that's okay, 19:05 it wasn't a snake, it's just a twig. 19:07 But the amygdala 19:09 is what processes novelty and fear. 19:13 And what a baby does is, anything for you and I 19:18 or any human being that is new and novel 19:21 is a potential threat and we have to sort it out. 19:25 But for a baby, all of that stimulation 19:28 and rapid scene change is novel 19:31 and they orient themselves toward it to watch it, 19:33 and it processes through the amygdala part of the brain 19:36 as they begin to, to, to respond 19:39 and understand that this is not going to kill them. 19:44 And the novelty begins to become pleasurable, 19:47 but it is over stimulation of this area of the brain 19:50 and it is associated with increased levels 19:53 of stress hormones and lower activity 19:57 in the frontal areas of the brain, 20:00 because only so much -- only the part of the brain 20:02 that you're exercising is gonna grow. 20:05 And so these children become more skittish, 20:08 they become more frightened, they become more daring, 20:10 they take more risks, 20:12 we'll learn more about this as we go along. 20:15 It causes higher levels of restlessness, 20:16 hyperactivity, and less motivated 20:19 to want to learn, why? 20:21 As we've talked about the addiction pathways 20:24 in the nucleus accumbens, the limbic part of the brain, 20:27 that get stimulated and stimulated and stimulated, 20:30 novelty, novelty, novelty, novelty. 20:33 Dopamine is produced. 20:35 But remember how we talked about 20:37 when you produce too much Dopamine, 20:40 the I feel good hormone, 20:41 too much, too much, too much. 20:44 The production of Dopamine results in antioxidant 20:47 damage and it kills the cells that produce the Dopamine. 20:50 So now you have less receptors, you have less Dopamine, 20:53 you have more depression, you have more cravings, 20:56 you have more of a connection 20:58 with this thing in an addictive way. 20:59 You need more and more and more and more 21:03 in order to get appropriately fixed 21:06 and it doesn't take very long for that to happen. 21:11 Increased severity 21:12 and frequency of asthma in children, 21:14 200% higher incidents of asthma in children 21:16 because it's a stress response, 21:18 more overweight and we will learn 21:20 why as we go on. accident proneness, 21:22 because children are more likely to engage in the risk 21:25 taking behavior that they see on the set, 21:27 because everything is solved in 30 minutes, 21:31 I mean, can you imagine real, a real life television program. 21:38 Come to the Griffin home, 21:40 as we engage in worship for evening worship, 21:43 and their son Anthony's arm get stuck in the springs 21:47 because he is playing with the piece of paper. 21:49 Watch as he is given bathroom duty as the result. 21:53 Stay tuned because this attitude isn't resolved 21:56 until next week. 21:58 You see, is that interesting? 22:00 This is life, this is life, 22:03 90% of life is just mundane, 22:07 doing what you don't feel like doing at any given moment 22:10 but TV takes care of that for us, doesn't it? 22:13 It puts us in an unreal world where unreal problems 22:16 are solved in an unreal way and we have lost our ability 22:19 to work our problems, or communicate with one another. 22:23 The Bible says, don't bring an abomination 22:26 into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. 22:31 You will utterly detest it, it's a command, 22:33 Jesus, it is said of Jesus in Hebrews 22:36 "You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity." 22:40 Friends, are we teaching our children to hate evil? 22:46 Are we teaching them to hate evil? 22:50 Have you taught your children 22:51 how to walk from one end of a mall to another? 22:54 It's an amazingly frightening place to me. 22:58 First of all, teach him not to wanna go there. 23:01 Let alone letting him hang up, 23:02 but every once in a blue moon we have to go. 23:05 And I remember when my kids were little 23:07 we had to walk past Victoria Secret, 23:11 we do not have permission to look at nude bodies. 23:15 So you teach them. 23:16 Children, your mother is behind you, 23:19 we're walking, straight past a store that Jesus hates. 23:25 You're gonna keep your head straight forward 23:27 and mommy is gonna watch 23:28 and it's gonna help you learn self control 23:30 and you'll be so glad because your head won't 23:32 be filled with stuff when we have worship tonight. 23:34 Oh, we've got to teach them to negotiate this world 23:39 and yet we bring this filth into our houses. 23:43 The Bible says, teach them to hate it. 23:45 It's a cursed thing, I remember one time, 23:48 we were driving down the highway we lived in Florida. 23:51 My family was in the wine business, 23:53 I grew up in the wine business. 23:55 The biggest wine producers in America are my relatives, 23:59 my dad had three wine distributorship 24:01 and I grew up -- the first time 24:02 I ever went to a neighbors house, 24:04 the lady offered me some strawberries 24:07 and I asked her to put burgundy on them, 24:08 I was three, and she sent me home, 24:12 she said, we use milk here. 24:14 And I thought oh, how disgusting, 24:16 I didn't used the word disgusting, 24:18 but it seem nasty to me to put anything 24:19 but burgundy on my strawberries. 24:21 She send me home. 24:22 That was my first exposure to how different my life was. 24:28 And I remember, you know, 24:29 I'm a Seventh-day Adventist now and I am a teetotaler, 24:33 don't touched that stuff. 24:34 And we were driving down the highway 24:37 and my little kids were looking at a black velvet poster, 24:43 I'm in this busy traffic and they're just like this, 24:45 there's this slinky woman with this incredible, 24:48 the glass and the ice on it 24:50 and the condensation all over the glass 24:53 and she looks so friendly and alluring. 24:55 And they were just like this, 24:57 they were just staring at this picture, 25:00 and I just shot up a prayer. 25:02 Now friends, don't get the idea 25:03 that I did everything right and this and this, 25:06 I'm just pulling out a couple of examples 25:08 that we got to watch and pray. 25:10 Deuteronomy Chapter 6 says, "Everyday when you get up, 25:14 when you walk, when you talk, 25:15 when you go to bed, 25:17 when you're in the fields be looking for ways to have 25:21 your family ready for Jesus when He comes. 25:24 Help them to learn right from wrong." 25:26 Anyway my kids are staring at this vamp up there see, 25:30 and I was raised in night clubs, 25:32 I was raised in night clubs, 25:33 so I immediately, I don't see that, 25:36 I see all this other stuff that's behind it. 25:40 I said oh, children, look at that woman, 25:44 well, they were already looking at the woman, 25:46 that's a foregone conclusion, I knew that. 25:50 I said, do you know that there are men and women 25:56 who are drinking that drink, 25:58 that kind of drink right there because of that woman 26:00 laying there in her nightgown, 26:04 who shouldn't be in her night gown, 26:05 she should have a bathrobe on it and be at home, 26:08 dressed like that. 26:10 She's laying there making daddies 26:13 and mommies want to go to the bar 26:15 and drink that will make their heads dizzy 26:18 and then their poor children come home from school 26:20 they have nothing to eat and then their families break up 26:23 and daddy goes away and they went oh, 26:26 bad, that is a bad, 26:28 oh bad, that is so bad. 26:30 Oh boy, was I happy. 26:32 You know, we're in, you know, we take our babies, 26:34 we dress them up in all these little frills 26:36 and laces and we have them dedicated 26:38 and then we go home and forget about it. 26:40 You got to go home and put your army clothes on. 26:46 Have we been overexposed as a people, 26:49 repeated exposure to profanity, 26:53 sensuality, lying, cheating, 26:56 and stealing comes in many flavors in our homes, 27:00 drama, sitcoms, news, commercials, and cartoons. 27:10 Now based on what I've already said, 27:14 which of these forms of entertainment 27:17 do you think changes values the quickest? 27:20 The most quickly, pardon. 27:23 Not cartoons, somebody is saying sitcoms, 27:28 and your reasoning on all of them is very good 27:32 but it is actually sitcoms. 27:34 Because if you can get someone to laugh 27:37 and enjoy the process of wrong, 27:41 even if it's carelessly you have achieved 27:45 a material change in the brain. 27:48 It embosses itself in a change 27:50 in synaptic structure in the brain. 27:54 You see the pastor, 27:55 the preacher man you take your family to church on Sabbath 27:59 and the preacher man says, don't lie, 28:02 don't steal, respect your neighbors, 28:05 and the man's in-charge at that home. 28:10 Maybe you get it all in one sermon, 28:11 that's pretty rich. 28:14 You go home, sun's going down, 28:20 it's time to go out and get a dairy queen, 28:22 pizza, and watch our favorite sitcom. 28:26 So now we watch some comedian, 28:31 Lucille Ball or whatever, under cut her husband, 28:35 lie, cheat, steal, 28:37 and do the very things that pastor preached 28:39 against that day and we laugh, and we laugh. 28:43 We hear people calling each other names, 28:45 exhibiting racism, 28:49 and we laugh and we without realizing it 28:52 have been changed, 28:54 we have lost the urgency of being 28:57 a disciple of Jesus Christ. 28:59 Do you know that the Bible says 29:01 that it is not more earthquakes, famines, 29:04 and disasters that's gonna bring the second coming of Jesus. 29:06 It says, these are only the beginnings of sorrows. 29:08 No, when the image of Christ is reproduced in His people, 29:11 He'll come, He says, 29:13 when you preached the gospel to the kingdom, 29:15 then the end will come. 29:16 Friends, we can hasten His coming. 29:20 That's the reason He hasn't come, 29:23 because we take pleasure in unrighteousness. 29:29 It is so sad for me to see 29:30 the values suddenly change in our young people. 29:33 I see these pristine, 29:34 beautiful little children come up for the children's story 29:39 and they lovely and they're precious 29:41 and they're pure, 29:44 and then the years roll by and they're 12, 29:50 and they're 13. 29:54 And we have little girls dressing like prostitutes, 30:01 they're copying their mothers, 30:04 slits all the way to Kansas, 30:10 guys dressing like they have loaded diapers 30:14 and their hair has been washed in Ty-D-Bol. 30:20 Who is spending the money on these kids clothes? 30:22 Why do they look like they've had their -- 30:24 their clothes pored on them, instead of modest, 30:29 pure, chased, what has happened? 30:31 May the Lord help us, to take control, 30:36 not in an evil way, not in an arbitrary way. 30:38 But friends, my parents did that make my choices for me, 30:43 they let me do whatever I want and I hated them for it, 30:46 they didn't protect me. 30:48 Dads, are you protecting your little girls? 30:54 Why are they ending up in the backseats of cars? 30:56 Why are they marrying because of physical attraction 30:59 instead of spiritual grounding? 31:00 We have to turn the set off and turn the worship on. 31:08 And worship is about more than talking to God. 31:12 I tell you, we debrief during family worship, 31:15 we're talking back and forth and what's happened in your day 31:18 and what were you exposed 31:19 to and how are we gonna deal with this? 31:22 My son and he is 20 years old, 31:23 he's in an Airframe and Powerplant class. 31:26 He's a he got his pilot's license when he was 16 31:29 and then he's getting this Airframe and Powerplant 31:31 in case he decides to do missionary bush piloting, 31:35 and he's doing that before he goes into engineering. 31:38 And a lot of these guys are ex-military. 31:42 He comes home and he says, 31:43 mother, he said, you would faint dead 31:49 if you saw what I have to see in here in my class. 31:53 He said, I won't even tell you it would kill you. 31:57 He said, there is some kind of genius, 31:59 he said, it's not just what they say 32:00 he said it's the way they string them together. 32:03 Do you think we do some parental debriefing? 32:08 Because I tell you what, 32:09 if you don't actively resist the minute you hear it, 32:12 when you hit your thumb with a hammer what's gonna pop out? 32:15 These kids need instruction. 32:17 They need help, you see purity, 32:21 modesty and chastity is part of our message 32:24 and mission as a people, 32:25 that's what makes us distinctive isn't it? 32:28 There is nothing wrong with being feminine and beautiful, 32:31 but we should not be sensual and sexy 32:36 outside of private places with our husbands. 32:40 We need to teach our young girls to be modest. 32:43 We need to be modest, I had a pastor talk to me, 32:46 you know, I came out of the world, 32:47 I mean, big time. 32:48 When I went to school I was an atheist, 32:50 I went to Southern California University 32:53 and I was an atheist when I went there, 32:55 I thought Seventh-day Adventist 32:57 was some kind of roffing and air-conditioning outfit, 32:59 I had no clue what this advent thing was. 33:02 I said, it must be some kind of air-conditioning place 33:04 that's open seven days a week, that's all I can make of it. 33:06 But I like their landscaping, and a girl told me, 33:09 she said, no, no, no, it's university, 33:11 it's a religious school and they'll let you in if they-- 33:14 if you tell him the body is a temple. 33:17 I said, man, I can do that. 33:18 I didn't know what I was getting into. 33:22 And I used to wear these cocktail dresses to church. 33:26 Well, just like we see now, 33:28 but it was a long time ago and it was left coast, you know. 33:33 And I remember after I was married I was still that way, 33:36 I mean, we-- I went down a dry devil 33:39 and came up a wet one in the baptismal tank. 33:43 And one precious pastor -- and I was a woman's lever too. 33:46 When my husband and I got married I told him, 33:48 I said, if you throw your socks on the floor 33:51 I will nail him to the ground. 33:52 Do you think I was put on this planet to serve you, 33:55 you got another thing coming. 33:56 He didn't know what he had gotten himself into. 34:01 So this pastor comes to the house to talk to me, 34:07 it was an unbelievable experience. 34:10 I had just been delivered from bulimia. 34:11 I was bulimic for 20 years, 34:13 trying to get that perfect body, 34:14 you know, our girls are suffering from this disorder, 34:16 you know, you can't wear clothes 34:18 that are too small and watch TV and read women's magazines 34:22 and even look at the back of Time Magazine 34:24 and have those pictures around our house 34:25 without getting that, 34:26 that sickness in your brain about 34:29 what we're supposed to look like, 34:31 and it's happening it's happening big time. 34:34 So he comes to the house and I knew something was coming 34:38 because he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, 34:39 Sister Griffin, our hearts are wicked. 34:42 And then I knew something was coming 34:44 and it was gonna be aimed at me. 34:47 And he said, Sister Griffin, 34:48 he says, when a woman put her arms out, 34:50 you shouldn't be able to see from east to west 34:52 when she bends over you shouldn't be able to see 34:54 from north to south and when she sits down 34:57 I don't want to see her knees. 35:01 Oh, he hurt my feelings 35:04 and oh did they need hurting. 35:09 But I knew that it was God speaking 35:11 and I cleaned out my wardrobe by God's grace. 35:16 I took one button off one dress that I wanted to keep, 35:18 it looked like a lightening bolt 35:20 and I liked it because that's what I was. 35:22 And it was in my box on the dresser 35:25 and I could not sleep until I threw that button away. 35:28 The Lord replied, you get rid of all of it, 35:30 drive out the Canaanites, get rid of the spike heels. 35:33 I threw it all out. 35:34 I filled the refrigerator box with that garbage 35:38 and I started to dress to protect my brothers. 35:42 I went into Sabbath school, 35:44 oh, I am so thankful for -- it's for winter. 35:47 I sometimes I wish it would snow in the sanctuary. 35:54 I went to one church 35:56 and I used to love sitting in a circle 35:59 for Sabbath school, no more. 36:03 There was this darling woman older than me, 36:05 had her hair in this cute little bun, 36:07 she had this real cute wool jacket on and a long black skirt 36:12 we were filed into Sabbath school and we sat -- 36:14 we went to sit across from her. 36:16 My son and I, my tender son 36:18 who I raised to be pure, who wants to be pure, 36:22 here's a woman older than me. 36:25 We sit down and she has a slit right up the front of the leg. 36:30 Now, we had to move, we had to move. 36:41 What are the moral effects of this exposure? 36:45 A loss of a sense of shock. 36:47 We have magazines laying all around 36:49 our house with filthy pictures in them 36:52 and it doesn't even move us 36:54 and our children are absorbing it like plastic. 37:00 A loss of sense of shock, 37:01 you know, Lord just pitched his tent towards out of me. 37:03 He didn't start out there, 37:06 He ended up there and my question is this, 37:09 do we secretly admire the lifestyle of the wicked, 37:17 do we want it? 37:21 Boredom and apathy, 37:22 yeah, that's the result of addiction. 37:25 That's the result of over stimulation, boredom. 37:28 Compromised values, enjoyment of wrong, 37:31 yes, we begin to enjoy wrong. 37:34 Decline in spirituality, 37:35 a false sense of entitlement and we will get in that. 37:39 It changes our thinking 37:40 and eventually our behavior changes 37:43 and that's why we are told that it will not be a hard thing 37:46 for most of God's people at the end of time 37:49 to take the step into Babylon. 37:51 Because they've been living like them all along. 37:54 That's why we need to start proclaiming the Sabbath more 37:56 fully in our hearts and in our homes, 37:58 everyday our homes are a sanctuary for Jesus Christ. 38:02 It's a landing place for angels, 38:04 I want His converting power in my home don't you? 38:10 We've been adverted to apathy, 38:12 this is written by a Christian psychiatrist 38:15 and the title of the book 38:17 is "Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment." 38:19 What does the advertising industry do to you? 38:23 Its endless commercials breed in you, 38:25 discontent with your house, 38:27 your car, your body, your clothes, 38:30 in an old fashioned biblical language, 38:32 it inspires you to covet. 38:33 It promises you satisfaction, peace, meaning, 38:36 and happiness but only if you get your needs met now. 38:42 Children learn that they are the most 38:44 important person in the universe. 38:47 You know, I talked to one elderly, 38:49 elderly evangelist and he said, 38:51 you know, when I was a boy 38:54 we waited till the older people ate before we got in line. 38:57 We let them serve -- they served themselves 38:59 and then the children went. 39:01 He said, now that I'm old the children go first, 39:03 he said I've been waiting all my life 39:05 to be first in line at the potluck. 39:08 Children learn that they're 39:09 the most important person in the universe, 39:11 impulses should not be denied, 39:13 pain should not be tolerated, 39:15 and that the cure for any kind of pain is a product. 39:18 They learn a weird mix of dissatisfaction and entitlement. 39:23 With the messages of ads we are socializing our children 39:26 to be sub-centered, impulsive, and addictive, 39:29 and I would take one more step 39:31 we are wiring their brains that way, 39:34 and they will be past feeling. 39:37 This is actually a statement from Robert MacNeil, 39:43 member of the MacNeil/Lehrer Report, 39:45 he is a -- one of the -- 39:46 probably one of the best television news commentators, 39:49 here's what he has to say. 39:51 The trouble with television is it discourages concentration, 39:54 its variety becomes a narcotic, 39:56 not a stimulus, to keep everything brief, 40:00 not to strain the attention of any one 40:02 but instead to provide constant stimulation though variety, 40:06 action, and movement. 40:08 You are required to pay attention to no concept, 40:10 no situation, no scene, no character, 40:13 and no problem for more than a few seconds at a time. 40:18 Here's what happens, 40:20 everything on television is just for the moment. 40:23 It's just television and the kids pick this up. 40:28 This devaluating tone, the sense that nothing matters. 40:34 Does that mean that there is never anything to watch? 40:36 Does that mean it's never appropriate 40:38 to watch a television program? 40:39 No, what my husband is the media guy 40:43 for this conference, he does videos. 40:48 But if a person replaces videos, 40:51 replaces study with videos, it doesn't accomplish 40:56 what it's supposed to accomplish. 40:58 We have enjoyed through out the years 40:59 with our children nature videos, documentaries, 41:03 historical documentaries, 41:05 science videos as a special treat. 41:09 But friends, we are so careful in what we chose, amen. 41:13 I remember one time the kids picked up a video 41:15 at the Goodwill for 25 cents and it was on daring rescues 41:21 and we thought oh that will be interesting 41:24 and so Saturday night we went up into Dan's office, 41:26 because that's where the TV is, 41:28 and he got it all hooked up 41:29 because he just does health education videos 41:31 and he does evangelistic things and that's wonderful, 41:34 we want people to watch those. 41:37 But there will be no tape forms in heaven, 41:39 the purpose of tapes and video evangelism 41:42 is to get people to do what? 41:45 Study, study, study, 41:48 there is no substitute for using your own brain. 41:52 So anyway, we brought up pillows and blankets 41:56 and we made popcorn and some hot apple juice 41:58 and we're gonna watch this thing 42:00 and the very first scene and, 42:03 I really don't want to go over in this program today, 42:05 but I'm gonna tell you this story. 42:06 The very first scene is this guy on this water tower 42:10 and he is hooked on with this nylon thing 42:12 and he slides off of it and he is dangling in mid-air 42:15 and I just screamed, 42:17 I couldn't believe it how this guy 42:19 and then the whole thing is how they rescue this guy, 42:21 the helicopters and the boom trucks 42:23 and every thing and then before we had a chance to breathe 42:27 it's another guy falling off a cliff, 42:29 he is hanging by his fingernails 42:30 and all the rescue workers and it shows them all slipping 42:33 and sliding all over this mud and fungus, 42:35 to try to get this guy, and wow! 42:39 By the end of the program 42:41 a guy in a bicycle gets hit by a car, 42:45 the car locks on to him and the bicycle 42:48 and he is dragging him a 100 yards 42:50 and I'm just sitting there like this. 42:53 I looked at my husband and I said, 42:55 I've become a monster, this is not affecting me. 43:00 We weren't watching a training video, 43:02 we were not learning to go out to rescue anybody, 43:05 we're watching all this 43:06 harrowing stuff for entertainment, 43:08 that video went in the trash. 43:14 What about television news. 43:16 This is again, our news commentator, 43:18 this is from one of the key news people in the industry. 43:22 I question how much of TV's nightly news is really what? 43:26 Observable, have you ever sat down to watch the news. 43:30 You sit down watch the news, 43:33 after these commercial messages 43:35 you will be able to see the bloody hotel in Jerusalem 43:39 as we go and they pan, they pan, they pan, 43:42 now you see the blood on the walls 43:44 right before commercial break, after these commercial messages 43:47 we're gonna talk and see how this latest explosion happens. 43:50 So you have a commercial messages 43:52 and then you get to see this gory stuff 43:55 and this goes on and on and on, 43:57 two hours later you get up you feel dead. 44:00 What on earth did you do? 44:01 You've watched the same series of news 44:03 in three different programs stuck there like a magnet, 44:07 it's happened to me and I'm sure 44:09 it's happened to many of you as well. 44:11 Nothing in television shall ever require 44:14 more than a few moments concentration, 44:18 much of it has been aptly described 44:21 as machine-gunning with scraps. 44:25 One news director told my husband he said, 44:27 if it bleeds it leads, it has nothing to do with news. 44:32 The technique fights, coherence, what is coherence? 44:37 What does coherence mean? 44:39 Understanding, this is a British study, 44:43 just 14 minutes of negative news increased levels 44:47 of three different stress harms, particularly Cortisol. 44:50 Cortisol destroys delicate neurons 44:52 in the hippocampal area of the brain. 44:54 The hippocampus is what is responsible 44:56 not only for short term memory 44:58 but retrieving memory from different parts of the brain. 45:01 So if you -- it's responsible for associating 45:05 a name with a place, you see, it's a very, very important 45:09 and a new nerve cell generation in the brain 45:12 does not take place 45:14 when cortisol levels are chronically high. 45:16 When cortisol levels are chronically high, 45:19 it also is associated with clinical depression 45:22 because of destruction of nerve endings, 45:24 in those key areas of the brain. 45:26 So it increases personal catastrophizing, 45:28 facilitated worrisome thoughts, 45:31 increases anxiety and sad news, 45:33 how many minutes? 45:35 How many minutes? 45:36 Fourteen and reading news does not have the same effect 45:40 because you're reading. 45:42 It's not going through amygdala in limbic system, 45:45 it's not novelty, 45:46 you are actually cogitating on the information 45:49 that you are reading. 45:50 You're reflecting on it, 45:52 it's using a different part of the brain. 45:54 Here's where we come to the crucial point 45:56 about mental stimulation and the brain. 45:58 Passive experience does how much for the adult brain? 46:02 Hey, are any of you teachers? 46:04 What if you told your students, 46:05 all right, this semester you can come to class, 46:08 all you have to do is sit there, 46:09 you can eat and enjoy watching me 46:12 lecture and flash pictures. 46:13 You don't have to talk, you don't have to interact, 46:16 you don't have to give a paper, 46:17 you don't have to take a test. 46:19 How much do you think they're gonna learn? 46:21 They're gonna learn how much weight 46:22 they gained that semester. 46:26 To keep the brain learning and growing, 46:28 we need to generate active responses 46:30 to cognitive challenges and I will repeat again, 46:33 an advise that my dad gave me, 46:34 it's probably the only piece of sound advice 46:37 I remember getting, but it's a good one. 46:38 He said, "always be reading something too hard for you 46:41 and associate with your people that are smarter than you are." 46:44 I think that is wonderful advice 46:46 and I aren't seen that much genius on television, are you? 46:51 A wealth of new scientific evidence 46:53 shows us the difference between the effects of active 46:56 and passive experience on the brain. 46:58 Active responses to cognitive challenges 47:01 is unquestionably what turns on adult neurons, 47:04 do you want adult neurons to turn on? 47:06 How many of you would like a better memory. 47:09 New brain cells migrating to your memory centers. 47:12 How many of you would like that today? 47:13 This ain't gonna do it. 47:17 The healthy condition of the body 47:19 is undermined by inactivity and indolence 47:22 and to a great extend preserved by energy and motion, 47:25 guess who said that? 47:27 Socrates, he didn't have TV but he knew the principle. 47:31 Is television an addiction? 47:34 Here's the symptoms of substance abuse. 47:36 Spending a lot of time with it, 47:38 actually television stimulates the same opioid receptors 47:41 and the same addiction pathways in the brain as any drug, 47:46 there's no difference. 47:48 Using it more than you intend, 47:50 repeated failure to reduce time with it. 47:53 Giving up useful activities for it, 47:55 withdraw when it stops. 47:57 You actually feel depressed, 47:59 people are not watching television to feel good 48:02 they are watching it to keep from feeling bad, 48:06 that's addiction. 48:09 Drug use is not a necessary 48:11 and sufficient cause of addiction. 48:14 It is improper to consider drugs as the necessary 48:17 precondition of addiction. 48:19 It stands to reason and we've already seen the slide, 48:22 if you can derange brain circuits with drugs 48:25 you can do it with natural rewards 48:26 like food or sex or television. 48:30 A lot of addiction is a result of experience, 48:33 repetitive high emotion, high frequency experience 48:37 and our brains have gone on a binge. 48:40 When stimulation, this is again the psychiatrist, 48:44 still bored in a culture of entertainment. 48:47 When stimulation comes at us from every side we reach a point 48:51 where we can not respond with depth to anything, 48:54 is that happening in our homes today? 48:56 People are not responding to one another 48:58 with the depth of interest an emotion 49:01 that the situation may call for. 49:04 Bombarded with so much that is exciting 49:07 and demands our attention, 49:08 we shut down our attention to everything. 49:13 Here's the effect of over stimulation, 49:15 apathy and boredom isn't that ironic, 49:17 the very thing we do to entertain ourselves 49:20 is the very thing that creates an aura of boredom 49:23 and dissatisfaction and ahedonia, 49:26 that is what drug addicts experience 49:28 when they go off of a drug, 49:30 and because their dopamine is so low 49:32 they do not have the ability to enjoy or experience 49:36 pleasure in the normal activities of life. 49:38 Is that happening with television viewing today? 49:41 Some people have no pleasure in their life anymore. 49:46 So they sit down and eat highly addictive condensed foods 49:50 that highjack the pleasure centers of the brain 49:52 and watch television and we are in nation of addicts. 49:55 Detachment, we become detached. 49:57 People driving around a body at a gas station, 50:01 the need for greater stimulation and addiction. 50:06 Here are the withdrawal symptoms, 50:08 depression, restlessness, fatigue, aggression, tension, 50:13 and poor concentration. 50:17 This is an amazing statement, heading into the millennium. 50:21 America has embarked 50:23 on a national orgy of thrill seeking and risk taking. 50:28 All I hear these dear people say, 50:33 I only watch educational television, 50:35 I watch Wheel of Fortune. 50:40 Now, let's take Wheel of Fortune, 50:42 got nothing against Wheel of Fortune 50:44 but let's take it apart for a minute. 50:45 Here is the main feature of this thing 50:47 is a Las Vegas rule out wheel. 50:52 Okay, a woman in a glorified night gown, 50:55 a gown less evening strap is stay somebody spins this thing, 50:59 I don't know who would-- she goes out there 51:02 and turns this letters around, this is educational? 51:05 Oh, yes, it is educational. 51:07 Are we're getting an education, 51:08 there is no question about it. 51:11 Boredom is a chronic symptom of a pleasure obsessed age. 51:17 When pleasure becomes ones number one priority 51:19 the result is boredom. 51:24 That's an addiction journal. 51:25 Now here's a new definition of hell for Seventh-day Adventists. 51:28 Hell is an endless holiday, 51:31 the everlasting state of having nothing to do 51:34 and plenty of money to spend doing it. 51:39 It increases our risk of dementia, 51:41 it is possible this is from the journal medical hypothesis. 51:44 It is possible that stress derive damage may magnify 51:48 the risk of a dementive process in long term 51:50 habitual viewers. 51:52 What the article is saying is that, 51:53 television viewing habits are a risk assessment 51:57 for institutionalized demented patients. 52:00 And the risk is that four hours a day 52:03 of any kind of television programming. 52:07 The plot sickens, 52:09 violent frequent television is linked to memory loss, 52:12 elevated blood pleasure, increased heart rate, 52:14 weakened immunities, double elevation of cholesterol, 52:19 lowered metabolic rate, 52:20 it takes less mental energy 52:23 to watch television than to eat a whiny. 52:27 Increased stress hormones particularly cortisol 52:30 and we talked about increased asthma risks. 52:33 This is an amazing statement from a medical journal, 52:36 results indicate that metabolic rate during 52:40 television viewing was significantly 52:42 lower than during rest. 52:46 TV viewing has a fairly profound 52:48 lowering effect of metabolic rate 52:50 and maybe a mechanism for the relationship between 52:53 obesity and television viewing. 52:59 It takes the body uses more energy to sit in a chair 53:05 and do nothing than to watch television 53:07 that's what that is saying, the Bible says, 53:11 I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. 53:15 I hate the work of them that turn aside, 53:18 does that mean that if some cataclysmic things happen, 53:21 we won't catch a view over on television? 53:24 But man, I tell you have to see the hassle 53:26 we have to go through in our house to hook up 53:27 a TV to watch something. 53:29 I am so glad, I am so glad. 53:33 The Bible says, I hate the work of them that turn aside, 53:36 who so privately slanders his neighbors, 53:38 I'm not gonna laugh at it, I'm gonna turn it off. 53:42 I will not know a wicket person. 53:46 He that has a high look and a pride heart 53:48 I don't want to see it. 53:49 A froward heart shall depart from me. 53:52 He that works deceit will not dwell within my house, 53:56 he that tells lies shall not tarry in my sight. 54:00 We have to fix our focus, 54:03 turn away my eyes it's a prayer, 54:06 turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things 54:11 and revive me in your way. 54:13 Do we need that today? 54:15 I need that today. 54:19 Let's look at some television alternatives. 54:23 Visiting, visiting, family worship, 54:30 playing musical instruments, reading, 54:35 there are so many fun things to do. 54:37 You know, I tell people to, 54:38 don't bellyache to me 54:40 if your bathroom floor boards are rotting, 54:43 use it as a family project, 54:45 rib them up and put a new bathroom floor in. 54:48 Not yet, Sheryl. 54:53 You see what I am saying, 54:54 hey, our son learned how to lay toilet, 54:56 he made me a beautiful toilet floor 54:57 because our bathroom floor rotted. 54:59 It's wonderful, 55:01 Dan and I just have the fun of building bookshelves together 55:05 and we learned we have some very different 55:06 approaches to building sanding and staining, 55:10 it was a very exciting time. 55:12 Hobbies, you do not know what fun is, 55:16 finally he gave me a bookshelf and he took one. 55:18 He says, I can not work with you. 55:22 He does like a brain surgeon, and says oh, 55:24 get it done nobody is gonna look. 55:27 There is nothing more exciting to be chased 55:29 by thousand Italian bees, we kept bees. 55:32 Oh, we can carve soap, there's kits you can buy, 55:34 you can build clocks, 55:35 there is so much stuff you can do that is so fun, 55:38 even chores are fun, I call them laundry parties, 55:42 do you have laundry parties at your house? 55:44 Home projects, cooking, baking, doing chores, 55:48 gardening is so fun 55:51 and we can learn to like it, can't we? 55:54 Sight seeing, helping with homework, 55:56 attending church and community programs, 55:58 some people get so stuck watching 55:59 religious material on TV on video tapes 56:03 that they don't -- they stop helping a church, 56:06 they stop getting involved. 56:08 It's a solo activity, friends, don't forget. 56:10 Exercising, playing and having fun, 56:13 enjoying your pets, doing nothing for a change, 56:17 isn't it hard to do nothing? 56:19 God wants us to think. 56:23 It's time to relax, 56:24 we are literally running from ourselves unless 56:27 we regain the art of silence 56:29 and the ability for non-activity, 56:34 unless we substitute true leisure 56:36 for our hectic amusements, 56:37 we will destroy our culture and ourselves. 56:39 And friends, that is exactly what's happening 56:41 but God doesn't wanted it to happen in His church, amen? 56:48 The question is, is it time for it to be quiet 56:51 on this set, TV, is it time to cut it off? |
Revised 2014-12-17