From July 3, 2013
Today at the YMCA gym, I spotted a banner hanging on the wall. It belonged to one of the summer day camp “tribes.” I went over for a closer look, because kids so often write and draw very funny things.
Well, this one wasn’t funny.
The name of the tribe was “The Devils.” All right, maybe these kids are hockey fans. But the banner was scrawled over with slogans–“Join the Dark Side” and “The Dark Side Rules!”–with many repetitions of the word “Evil” and a great many drawings of pitchforks (not hockey sticks).
I fetched someone from the front desk to look at it, and it creeped her out. By the time I’d come back from my shower, she’d had it taken down. The kids who created it, we were told by teenage day camp counselors, are sixth-grade girls. Did they get this from a movie, a TV show, or a video game? Nope. “They just made it up.”
But they were getting it from somewhere, and I’ll find out where. Satanism doesn’t just naturally occur to sixth-graders as some kind of default position.
Some of you parents out there–do you know where kids are getting this? If you do, please tell us.
I am a parent of three children my youngest is now 15 and three step children – youngest is 16.
I am a parent of three children – youngest 15 and three step children youngest 16 and a grandma. The evil that has pervaded our children since even I was a child is monumental. In my young years it was a giggle about bewitched and a wink at the drunks on Mash, and three old women who liked to have sex (The sunshine girls) Have you watched current cartoons? When my son was little the big thing was Pokeman cards and some other card set. When I realized they were pictures of creatures using magical powers to harm others I had to tell my son that I had made a mistake by letting him play with them. Explain that we could not ponder evil and doing evil to others. He was not happy for a little while but he got over it. TV indoctrinates our children into evil. Vampires, zombies, sex and toddlers sexualized to look like adults. Pretty Little Liars. The Disney Family Channel glorifying witchcraft with Harry Potter and Oh how about the Hallmark Channel glorifying The White Witch and the White Witches Family. When my stepdaughter asks to go to a movie with a girl from school I oftenhandedly asked if the friend from school was gay. She said yes. My stepdaughter did not go to the movies that day. I explained to her that teens shouldnt even be thinking if they are gay or not because teens shouldnt even think about having sex until they are married. So now the boyscouts think young boys will know they are gay and can join. There has been a total desensitization campaign of calling evil good and good evil. The ONLY line I see between my children and the world is parents. The schools will promote evil. Just ask my son’s second grade teacher who tried to make Harry Potter books required reading for my son. I protested. Look at the cartoons. They have one about the angel of death. Look at TV Fathers are made to look like buffoons and moms have a wandering eye and are never home and clueless. I think you get my point in this post. As you suspect I could go on further, but will cut short.
Thanks for giving us an opportunity to answer.
You’ve said it very well, Kathleen–thanks for sharing.
I don’t have TV in my home, and we have no children. Nevertheless, you’d have to be blind and deaf and brainless not to perceive the toxic mud that’s being slung at children from all directions. And very few people seem to care! You care, and I care, and I daresay most of the readers of this blog care. But if most people in this country felt as we do, well, this evil stuff wouldn’t be happening.
God save us.
All the satanic, rebellious music they listen to, the books and movies that make light of witchcraft and even outright dark magic, the idea of the anti-hero (a ‘hero’ in a story who does not hold to traditional morals and is not necessarily a good person), constant graphic violence on the TV and in video games, an absence of sound Biblical moral training.
I agree with all you’ve said, but I’m looking for something specific–some actual TV show, or movie, or book, or comic book, or video game–so I can write about it by name.
I’m guessing you know more kids than I do. Does anything I described in the post ring a bell?
I’m certain that there are many sources of such things in the entertainment offered to kids these days. Remember the “After-School Satan” clubs? Satan is becoming ever more bold in his desire to be worshipped.
Isaiah 5:20
“Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!”
I guess that this is nothing new; people have sided with darkness for years, but the numbers seem to be shifting. I had a coworker, a few years back, who as much as stated that he was on the side of the devil. A while back, a replica of the arch leading to the temple of Baal, in Palmyra was displayed in New York. Badness is being flaunted.
Recently, I watched a series of videos made by a fellow who visited Amish communities and learned about their lifestyles. Many didn’t want to be shown on camera, but some among these consented to interviews where they were not shown. Others were willing to talk on camera, and those interviews were fascinating.even though they lived under strict religious guidelines, they seemed happy and had amazing humor, including a sense of humor about their beliefs and community.
What struck me most, however, was that they were not particularly affected by popular culture. They didn’t know, nor did they care about what was on TV or some silly superhero movie. Even the most modern among them, the Beachy Amish whom drove automobiles and had mobile phones were still a culture unto themselves. They enjoyed time together, interacting socially.
It reminds me of good times I spent with my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins, when we would sit down over coffee, usually in the kitchen, and talk for hours. This is something I see as missing in our lives; face to face interaction, the vocal cords lubricated with coffee, and time well spent with family and friends.
If people had more of a sense of identity, and a sense of belonging, I can’t help but think that there would be less identification with the seamy side of life, and more identification with what is upbuilding.
I truly could not agree more. I remember family gatherings with so many people. I do miss those.
I came from a large family, 20 cousins, 9 aunts, 9 uncles, 1 sibling. Most are gone now, and I’m at least somewhat in touch with only about three cousins. More than a few have separated themselves from the family, and we don’t even know if they are still alive. No more big family gatherings. I only have one cousin with whom I remain close, and we are quite distant from one another.
It is too bad when people pass away, or move away.
“ It is too bad when people pass away, or move away.”
It’s strange in my family. There are some cousins I’ve never met, to the best of my knowledge, and I wouldn’t even know how to contact them. I managed to find one, about eight years ago, and we hit it off, but several are unaccounted for. In at least one case, we found out someone had passed away when an obituary was published. I actually lost two relatives within a month of one another, recently. One was quite elderly and the other, someone I hadn’t seen in over 40 years.
Beyond that, while we were all concentrated in the upper Midwest, many have moved all around the country. I don’t think that this is unique to my family; it’s happening in many places.
Americans are known for our mobility. I don’t think it’s too good for us in the long run.
“ Americans are known for our mobility. I don’t think it’s too good for us in the long run.”
Much of the problem is economic. Many people in my family love where they do, because of jobs. Someone took a better job that moved them 1000 miles away, and then others in the family followed to that locale.
A family member in that new locale married someone in another city. The person they married was in that town because of a job, but then there was a transfer to another hub city for that employer, so that branch of the family moved to a third town, and eventually more of the family followed. In the case of my family, up to that point, most of the moves were related to presence of major employers, mostly railroads, even though I can only think of a handful of relatives who actually worked for railroads.
There was a period in my life when I chased airline jobs and when the airline I ended up working for closed shop and wanted me to move to LA, I changed careers. I ended up where I am now, because there were some family members already here, but stayed here because of a job that was too good to quit. When I finally did quit, it was for a Federal Govt. job which would allow me to potentially move back to Colorado.
Back in the agrarian days, people were more tied to a location, to their land, as it were. When the farming branch of my family left the farm, they ended up in far flung places, following work opportunities. From humble farm life to major cities, or to sites of huge construction projects that take years, or even decades to complete. These jobs were all over the US, and there was even an opportunity in Africa.
I’ve personally been offered jobs in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, both tied to aviation, and thankfully turned down both. The Afghan job would have put me there just in time for the US pullout, and the Saudi job would have out me there just in time for the Gulf War, when Scud missiles were fired into Saudi Arabia.
Contrast that to the Amish, where farming dominated their economy, historically, and now their economy is dominated by light manufacturing, mostly furniture. Both of these are tied to physical locations. Families can plant roots and stay in the same place for generations on end. While most families in the Western world are not growing, the Amish are doubling their population, roughly every twenty years.
I’m not advocating for the Amish faith, but my point is that their connection with location has served the well.
Even if you are not of their faith, you have to admire their devotion to the land, and the shedding of so much of the impedimenta that can weight modern people down.
“ Even if you are not of their faith, you have to admire their devotion to the land, and the shedding of so much of the impedimenta that can weight modern people down.”
One thing I really admire is that even the most modern Amish sects reject television, which they feel tears down the family. The more strict sects prohibit, or at least severely limit telephones, in part because they feel that it’s better to communicate in person. Most of my lifetime income was made because of data-comm, Internet or digital telephony, and it’s been my observation that over-reliance upon these things can backfire, significantly. I’m all for the advantages that modern comm systems offer, but we still need face to face communications.
That is to say quite distant from one another geographically.