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Censored and censured in the name of Christ
For all its cries against censorship and discrimination, Christianity itself has had a long and colourful history in leading the forefront of free-thought censorship. The Council of Nicea carried out some of the first cases of Christian censorship when it attempted to rid the world of any theologian who argued against it. This was followed in quick succession by the Vatican’s Index of Forbidden Books, the Inquisition, the Puritans’ censorship of printing presses in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the YMCA’s Comstockery in the 1800s.
Modern Christianity, despite its efforts to appear relevant, has hardly diverged from its efforts to control everything that its followers see, hear and think. The American Family Association—a non-profit conservative lobbying group with an annual budget of more than $17 million (CDN)—consistently lobbies for monetary fines against TV stations, magazines, and other media whenever they distribute material that the AFA deems offensive against Christian morals. Past lobbying has included boycotts against magazines that feature pictures of clothing lying on the ground.
Notice these are secular media outlets being targeted, not the 700 Club or the Christian Broadcasting Network, where one can consume as much godly television as wanted without having to worry about seeing anything more upsetting than, say, Laura Ingalls chasing a ‘coon.
The AFA isn’t alone. Next to it stands Focus on the Family, Vision Forum, the Christian Coalition of America and the list goes on. It seems that these conservative groups have found a hidden scripture, a forgotten saying of Jesus: “Go out into all the world, and remove everything and anything that upsets you.”
What’s troubling is not that Christians are attempting to clean up what they see as offensive, the problem is that Christians are becoming so obsessed with sterility they’re becoming impotent in their outreach. When a world looks at Christianity, does it see a religion that can relate to its problems and, in doing so, share whatever truth it holds? Or does it see a multi-million dollar effort to destroy any cultural movement that doesn’t fit with its ideology; a religion scared of being dirtied; a group of believers so intent on being out of this world that they have lost touch with reality?
Even more troubling is when some Christians confuse the right wing, conservative, Western lifestyle with a specific moral aspect of their religion. The culture becomes the message, rather than the other way around. In this way, these Christians are just as justified to divert all of their attention toward covering up Vogue magazine covers in Wal-mart, as it is the same as feeding the hungry and preaching a salvation message.
As it stands, Western Christianity has become the act of watching Christian sitcom parodies, only listening to conservative Christian music and hiding away in a cultural enclave. Anything more than that is censured and censored in the name of Christ.
I can’t believe MH would publish this rubbish. Grow up.
Censorship is real, however, you slightly overstate your case. Most Christian based censorship is from the more conservative wing of the church. More important, however, is that Jesus does not approve of censorship for a rather straightforward reason. The words of Jesus, as opposed to those added to the New Testament by the later church, strongly suggest that he trusted his people to think and reason for themselves. In my book, Jesus, A Man For All Time (www.eloquentbooks.com/JesusAManForAllTime.html [paste into your url address for more information]), I demonstrate that the parables of Jesus, in particular, reveal this huge trust that Jesus had for his audiences. By ancient or modern logic, the parables make little sense; they violate traditional thought and demand openness and thoughtfulness but the listeners. If Jesus trusted his people, then he would have trusted them to have discerning minds. Censorship is unnecessary and violates the spirit of the ministry of Jesus. It is simply unnecessary.
I agree that we should spread the Gospel instead of our culture. I disagree with your sentiment that Christians shouldn’t advocate for censorship of things they don’t like. If that is wrong then what you are writing here is just as bad. You don’t like what they are doing and want them to stop… not much difference there.
David, you disagree, yet you give no logic, just present an unsubstantiated dilemma.
Yes, inherent in most opinions is the desire to censor anything to the contrary, and power gives the ability to do so. But Sam is right – censorship is unnecessary.
We do have to face that the world right now has an obscene fascination with the shocking. If nothing is shocking, then people may just grow up and face the existential music, as it were. There is, after all, nothing new under the sun – human depravity isn’t terribly creative, and it doesn’t take much to recognize it, only the death of grand crusades against religious censorship and bourgeoisie sentiment. Then the light of Christ will seem so much brighter if the world gets to see the darkness and meaninglessness it so desires. (Walker Percy illustrates this very, very well.) Thus, we can trust that, eventually, society will correct itself, and it will correct itself by adopting the Christian vision once again.