Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,” so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.
As we continue our national discussion about the proper response to all of the recent mass shootings, it is time we took a look at ourselves and see how we have "grown hardened by the deceit of sin", specifically murder.
Take a look at a single evenings TV listing at the number of programs and movies whose core is senseless violence. It's not just about keeping it away from our children, it is about adults as well.
Jack the Ripper is known to have killed five people and the world was horrified, that's the first 10 minutes of the modern "action" film and we eat while we watch it happen. Is it even a question as to whether we have been hardened by the deceit?
Sitting in a movie theatre watching pornography is shameful, and rightly so. Why is sitting in a movie theater filled with people watching murder upon murder shame free? Do we really believe that extra-marital sex is more sinful than murder?
Is watching someone's brains being blasted onto a wall by a shotgun really entertainment?
I think of the opening of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" or the movie "Hotel Rwanda", where the violence was there for a teaching purpose. But for every one of these there are at least 10 where violence, vengeance, and murder are simply glorified.
Again we get back to the core of our Christian morality. Every human life is sacred.
