Mainstreaming sexual perversion in the media

For 35 years, a small but influential portion of the entertainment industry has helped to promote a radical agenda, attacking the traditional values of Western civilization.

This has had a tremendous negative impact on our culture and on religious leaders. So much so that many public schools and churches are teaching children that Jesus Christ does not matter, that the Bible is just a fallible religious text created by men and you can interpret it any way you want, that there is no such thing as sin or evil, that there is no such thing as an absolute truth that everyone should believe, that God only cares about poor people and that totalitarian socialism is good because it forces government to tax the rich to serve the poor.

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Homosexual propaganda movies like "Philadelphia," "Brokeback Mountain" (which almost walked away with the Best Picture Oscar? this year), and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" (which opens today) have become part of this radical agenda. In fact, the two most recent movies go out of their way to attack and mock Christians who believe that homosexual behavior is an evil sin, just as greed, envy, adultery, pre-marital sex, prostitution, stealing and murder are an evil sin (see Jesus Christ's comments on evil in Mark 7:20-23).

Like most blatant homosexual movies, "Chuck and Larry" quickly moves away from anything resembling entertainment and turns into a boring, perverted anti-Christian political platform for homosexual activists and other radical malcontents who hate America and hate Bible-believing Christians. In fact, at one point, Jessica Biel's character says that Christians "just want everyone to be as miserable as they are."

Before you say, "So what?" you might want to consider this fact: "Chuck and Larry" not only mocks Christianity and overtly urges viewers to accept homosexual behavior as just another "lifestyle" choice (when did sex stop becoming a moral issue and become just a "lifestyle choice"?), it is one of the first mainstream movies to associate homosexuality with young children. Thus, one main character's young son is an effeminate boy who dislikes sports and screams when he sees a pornographic photo of a naked woman. In another scene, a fireman talks about homosexual issues with very young schoolchildren.

This week, the leading "progressive" candidate in the Democratic Party, Barack Obama, reiterated his support for teaching sex education to children in kindergarten. Since Obama, like the filmmakers behind "Chuck and Larry," also supports same-sex marriage, we assume this means that he wants to teach homosexuality to children as young as five.

Obama's comments to Planned Parenthood (that's who he was speaking to, by the way, according to ABC News in a July 18 report) should come as no surprise – especially if you have been paying attention to the radical homosexual agenda that many liberals, "progressives" and homosexual legislators have been promoting in funding and other bills for our public schools, especially in states like California, Massachusetts and New York (all of which are blue states committed to radical liberal politics and social mis-engineering).

Homosexual activists' objections notwithstanding, all these outrageous activities, comments and movies show that the radical cultural agenda of the left, including many leaders in Hollywood, many leading elected officials and many homosexual activists, is to find as many young homosexual lovers as possible for themselves and/or their friends.

The media creates the culture that shapes the hearts and minds of children and their behavior. The media also creates the culture that elects the politicians who decide family and children's issues, including issues like sex education in the public schools, parental rights and same-sex marriage.

Therefore, we must show the leaders in the media, and their friends in government and public education, that America will no longer condone movies like "Philadelphia," "Brokeback Mountain," and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." We also must demand that they stop the pornification and homosexual brainwashing of our children and grandchildren.

That's what we've been trying to do at Movieguide? and the Christian Film & Television Commission?.

Of course, the answer to the radical moral and cultural teachings in movies like "Chuck and Larry" is the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the word of God made flesh. That gospel preaches the kind of love that does not delight in evils like sexual promiscuity, adultery, homosexuality, greed, envy and murder. It is a love that rejoices in the truth of Jesus, who died for our sins and frees us from such evil lusts through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thus, the love of Christ does not tolerate evil, but teaches repentance from, and defeat of, evil.

We have seen the results of the radical, left-wing agenda attacking the traditional moral and religious values of Western civilization and America. Between the 1960s and 1993, according to former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, we saw:

A 966 percent increase in the rate of people living together before marriage;

A 523 percent increase in out-of-wedlock births;

A 370 percent increase in violent crime;

A 270 percent increase in children on welfare;

A 210 percent increase in teenage suicide;

A 200 percent increase in the crime rate;

A 130 percent decrease in the divorce rate and

A 75 point decrease in the average SAT score.

The decline in moral standards in the entertainment industry has engineered this moral degradation. And, this moral degradation has affected all of society. Although progress has been made since the 1990s in the areas of welfare, teenage suicide, the crime rate and teenage pregnancy due to the efforts of our organization and many others, much more still needs to be done.

The question remains, however, are the American people and the Christian community going to be part of the solution or part of the problem?

Editor's Note: Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide?, is the co-author of "The Culture-Wise Family" and author of "The Media-Wise Family." Dr. Tom Snyder, editor of Movieguide?, is the author of "Myth Conceptions: Joseph Campbell and the New Age" and co-author of $Frodo & Harry." For more information about Movieguide?, and to subscribe, visit www.movieguide.org or call 1-800-577-6684.