Techno Seduction

By Author: Johnson Philip
Total Articles: 90
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Psalm 1 reminds Christians to avoid certain things, but technology has been seducing Christians to indulge. This article takes a look at one such development.

That a Christian should not walk according to the counsel of the wicked and that they should avoid certain types of company is Known to all. Yet the technical developments of the 1900s threaten to seduce Christians to indulge in all these forbidden activities, and some more. Consider a scenario: how many of us, on a day when we are enjoying fellowship with our family, would allow a pair of young and unmarried boy and girl to come into our living room to embrace and dance in a seductive manner. I am sure none of us would allow such a scene, yet many of us do allow it. The dance and music programs that many Christian families watch together on TV just for fun are exactly that! A young unmarried couple frolicking on the screen, in our own living rooms, in front of our children. It is not plain fun as many might think. Rather, it does have some bizarre long-term effects.

What we Would not allow to a couple with blood and flesh to do in our living rooms, we ...
... allow freely when it is only their image. However, the impact is the same. Young minds are gradually desensitized to the need for boundaries, the role of propriety, and to conduct which can lead them into serious problems. Worse, when the family as a whole indulges in such programs, children get the impression that their parents approve in real life what they approved when it was displayed in a moving picture.

Do not get me wrong. I am not trying to raise the fire and brimstone kind of reaction against the media. On the contrary, I am trying to describe an aspect of the audiovisual media that most of us ignore: the long-term psychological aspects of certain programs and the potential for damage if their intake is not regulated properly.

The words regulation and regulating may make some to think that I am advocating old-fashioned tyrannical suppression. Not at all! I am using
the word "regulation" in the technical and neutral sense. We all have regulators connected to gas cylinders, electric irons, and washing machines, but find nothing antiquated or tyrannical about that. All processes need some kind or other of regulation, a system to guide it and a system of checks and balances such as the traffic signals.

As to what kind of regulation is needed, only you can decide for your family. Each family, its needs, and atmosphere is different. Thus the way sensual input goes into the minds of a set of young people can be understood and controlled only by the parents who only know their children fully. I know several friends who understood this and solved this problem in creative ways, taking care of the unique needs of their families. One of these families has highly compliant children. They are ready to follow everything there their parents ask them to do. Thus these parents have given a healthy menu of allowed programs to their children. Even that list is subject to the children taking care of all their primary responsibilities, such as studies and homework. At times they have an open discussion with their children as to why uncontrolled indulgence in watching TV, or any other medium is harmful. The children are well informed, and are not easily swayed by seductive shows.

Another friend of mine has compliant, but highly curious children. They wish to watch every kind of program, and out of curiosity tend to ask for a reason if parents restrict them from some types of programs. Parents of these children allow them to watch a wider variety of programmes, but at the same time they also join informally to watch some of these programmes, After the program is over, they informally discuss and analyze what they saw on the picture-tube. During such discussion the parents offer such incisive analysis at a level suitable for their Children that soon they learn to distinguish between what is wholesome and what is not, and develop a taste for that which builds them up. It should be noted that such analysis should never take the form of a religious or self-righteous lecture. It needs to be as normal a conversation as anything else in life.

We live in positions times. Religion, spirituality, and separation are mocked upon. Embracing at universalistic outlook where there is no black and white, and where there is no separation, has become the norm. However, Christians cannot flow with the tide. We need to examine everything and hold on to that which is good. Learning how Techno Seduction works is part of this examination. When that is not done, what is forbidden in Psalms 1 comes into the homes and one will find it difficult to chase it out. But that need not be!
Dr. Johnson C. Philip, the founder of Shastri Numismatics Academy, is an internationally known physicist, theologican, and communicator