Entertainment Today...

So today I was talking with some people about movies, books, and entertainment. I think they were a little surprised by my fervor in the conversation, but it all got me thinking and the following is what came out of it...

Are we so numbed by our desire for entertainment that we miss the impact of the messages we are receiving. Movies, for example, are a prime source of entertainment in our nation today. But we aren’t just receiving entertainment for the next two hours. We are receiving messages. Movies reveal to us things in our culture. They depict different characters and I confess - My heart is often broken by the condition of humanity.

I admit that I am a pretty intense person, and at times, when I get going on different things, I have (on more than one occasion) received this blank look from people. I’ve heard “I just watch it for entertainment”... “I don’t watch to get anything out of it”… “It’s just a movie”... I have never tried to push my convictions on other people. In fact, I have been careful not to. But seriously. How hardened have we become?

When I watched the movie “Taken”, I was heartbroken at the reality of the situation. Sure, the movie was great because the hero dad rocked all those sex-lords with his awesomeness. Watchers get a thrill at seeing daddy stalk, kill and destroy his daughters captors. And who wouldn’t. Revenge is sweet – and so is justice. But while the father is doing everything he can to save his daughter, I noticed the many other girls that flash through in the movie and think about their story. How did they get there? Who will save them? And although its just a movie, I am reminded of the millions of girls (and even some boys), even as young as 5, throughout the world who have to live with that 24-7. It doesn’t end after 2 hours for them… It goes on and on and on.

DID YOU KNOW… It is said that American businessmen are the biggest consumer of the sex trafficking market? Both in the United States and Internationally. According to Doug Nichols’ who obtained his information from various sources (noted at http://dougnichols.blogspot.com/ 2008/01/human-trafficking-statistics.html), there are at least 30 million victims of slavery in the world today. Each year it is estimated that there are 1 million new victims. Experts say that at any given time, some 2.5 million people are being trafficked and it is said that human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking in international crime. Among runaways, one out of every three teens are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home. According to the US Dept of Hlth & Human Services - Administration for Children & Families, victims of sex trafficking can be women or men, girls or boys, but the majority are women and girls. There are a number of common patterns for luring victims into situations of sex trafficking, including: a promise of a good job in another country, a false marriage proposal turned into a bondage situation, being sold into the sex trade by parents, husbands, boyfriends, & being kidnapped by traffickers. Sex traffickers frequently subject their victims to debt-bondage, an illegal practice in which the traffickers tell their victims that they owe money (often relating to the victims’ living expenses and transport into the country) and that they must pledge their personal services to repay the debt. Victims of trafficking are forced into various forms of commercial sexual exploitation including prostitution, pornography, stripping, live-sex shows, mail-order brides, military prostitution and sex tourism. (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_sex.html).

If you’ve ever seen the movie “Human Trafficking”, you probably got the clearest view of that life, without actually living it, as you can get. But sex trafficking and forced prostitution are only the beginning… Abuse in the home is prevalent in the world.

Another movie that struck me, unlike it did others was “The Dark Knight”. The joker is a crazy sinister character. Most people would have a really hard time having compassion for him. And I understand. On the other hand, I wondered about what could happen to people in their life to make them the way they are. In real life, there are many totally evil people. And sadly, many of them grew up in some pretty bad situations. It is those situations that break my heart. An abused child is a victim. Until he grows up and deals with his children the only way he learned. Through abuse. After which, he becomes the offender and his child the victim. And the cycle continues.

The truth is. This is a hurting broken world. And when we put it on a box or TV screen and dismiss it just as entertainment, we can forget that it’s a reality.

DID YOU KNOW…4 children die every day as a result of child abuse and 3 out of 4 of these victims are under the age of 4? A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds. Of the reported rapes of children under 12 years old, 90% of the victims know the perpetrator. Child abuse occurs at every socio-economic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education. 36.7% of all women in prison and 14.4% of all men in prison in the US were abused as children. Children who have been sexually abused are 2.5 times more likely to abuse alcohol and 3.8 times more likely to become addicted to drugs. One third of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing this horrible cycle abuse. And those statistics were from 2006 (http://www.childhelp.org/resources/learning-center/statistics).

My intention is not to condemn movies or to convict you; but rather, to make you think. The things we watch do have a message. What messages are you receiving and what are you doing with it?

This is a challenge for me as well, because in all honesty, it is easy to look away and forget it. So then, my question for myself and for you is not only, what are you doing with it... but what can we do with the information we have? Any thoughts?