Do You Remember?
By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher
Recently, I was revising one of many books to bring it up to date. I came across the section that I had written many years ago on a new phenomenon which I had called Christophobia in an article for Joseph Farah when he was still editing a major newspaper in Los Angeles. That was a long time ago–in 1997–for THE MEDIA WISE FAMILY book.
Although I’m always stressing that I don’t have a crystal ball or some magical prescience, I was amazed at how much my previous reflections had predicted the status of society today:
Christophobia
Beside our misplaced veneration of entertainment, another reason the entertainment media are getting away with murder and there is so little evangelism and so much ignorance about the biblical worldview is the rampant growth of Christophobia in our society. Christophobia is a term I coined many years ago to refer to those who have an irrational fear of and hostility toward Jesus Christ and anything Christian.
The symptoms are quite simple and insidious. Some of these aberrant symptoms include:
An unhealthy fear of using the name of Jesus as anything but a profanity in public.
A dread of discussing biblical principles in public.
A horror that someone would expose or discuss his or her Christianity in public.
An aversion to using biblical standards to make decisions and to determine right and wrong in any given situation.
A perverse fear of the Bible.
There are many more symptoms of this dysfunctional condition, and many other situations where Christophobia rears its ugly head in our schools, media and government. For example:
Christmas is now called Winter Holidays.
Easter vacation is avoided by school systems, even if it means skewing school calendars to create unbalanced terms.
Newspapers ask Christians to edit out any biblical references.
Many courts refuse to consider the biblical point-of-view.
This destructive phobia has spread throughout our culture to the extent that Christians are often the most Christophobic members of our society. These Christophobic Christians:
Get livid when you bring up a biblical perspective;
apologize when the Name of Jesus is used in reverence;
complain when Christians stand together; and,
worry that some Christians may be wearing their Christianity on their sleeves.
Often these Christophobic Christians fret about using biblical standards to determine right and wrong. They are horrified that these standards might be applied to common “problems” such as murder, adultery, lying, sodomy, and the other evils condemned by the Word of God.
If this phobia continues at its current pace, it will become the most debilitating psychological aberration of our age. Christophobia causes many to hide their Christianity, others to deny it and still others to lash out at Christians. It may even inaugurate a widespread persecution of Christians and a denial of the Christian roots of our society. History will be revised to blame Christians for all the problems in the world, and the immorality condemned by the Bible will be acclaimed as the solution to our problems.
This abnormal psychological condition must be routed out of our national psyche before it is too late. Christians must help others understand the dysfunctional aspects of this disease. They must deliver those who suffer from it by introducing them to Jesus Christ and instructing them in the wholesome benefits of the biblical worldview.
It is very important as God points out throughout the Bible that we remember.
When he divides the Red Sea aside so that the people of Israel can cross on dry land with walls of water on either side, God tells them to remember, and then they rapidly forget. He tells them to remember when he gave them water from the rock, and they forget. He tells them to remember when He fed them manna and quail in the desert, and they forget.
This habit of forgetting allows the tyrant, the bad, and the ugly to conquer the culture.
As Solzhenitsyn said in his great book THE FIRST CIRCLE about the Communist Soviet concentration camps for intellectuals, it takes the educated, scientist and diplomats less than a day of incarceration and physiological torture to forget who they were and what life should be.
In the mass media, we see people forgetting constantly. In the Golden Age of Hollywood, there were great movies telling the stories of great stars, singers and others which have been forgotten. More modern productions are applauded in spite of their many deficiencies.
Of course, the worst part of forgetting is forgetting that we lived in a free society whose backbone is freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of worship.
The latest Covid19 crisis has attacked all of our freedoms, from the freedom of assembly, to the freedom of worship.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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