Seeing Without Glasses

I recall realizing how influential the media was when studying mass communications at a local university.

I had come to realize the great responsibility that media programmers have in what is shown on television, played on the radio and messaged onto the psyches of the masses.

What was made very evident to me was how business was the goal and the method by which media messages were broadcast.

In promoting products or services, commercials fill the space between “your regularly scheduled programming.”

And as many mainstream movies now show without blushing, products are precisely placed in a scene to be seen by the camera; yet another way of funding a movie and furthering the commercialization of our lives.

Music, like visual media, also promotes certain products and services, although it would be quite the debate in proving to a musical artist that they are promoting certain things, let alone certain lifestyles, or forwarding their brand of depravity.

But to argue that depravity is forwarded by media without considering the condition of our hearts, or its fallibility, is to shift the blame and place it solely onto others and the actions of others.

Personal responsibility.

When television and radio broadcasting began, certain things were prevented from being shown / played.

Today, with the exception of foul language and outright nudity in come media, that 'prevention' has been loosened.

Fewer and fewer things are considered obscene.

The very understanding of the natural order and what has historically been considered unnatural is mainstreamed as good, normal and embraced as graduated process of human evolution.

Life diluted.

Advertising and marketing is at times subtle ( the actor drinking a Pepsi ), overt ( pharmaceutical commercials ), artful and thought provoking ( Super Bowl commercials ) and always purposed; to trigger your appetite to consume and imitate art imitating life.

What is quite paradoxical, somewhat difficult to understand ( and accept ), and a notion that the religious of any group will vehemently accuse, is that despite the deplorable, the depravity and the demonic forces anyone can count into the thousands on a daily basis, the following reality still reigns:

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one Man, Yeshua Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Man, Yeshua Christ! 

Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one Man the many will be made righteous. 

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Yeshua Christ our Lord. 

- Romans 5: 15-21 (read the entire chapter for the contextual / overall message )

As we can understand, the righteousness from Above was revealed among a corrupt and wayward people, in a fallen and death-filled time... and that aspect of our collective existence has yet to be resolved.

Sin and corruptions has not ceased on earth, no matter what order, what society, what religion or what leader was in charge... to think otherwise is not to see oneself clearly in the mirror, let alone view the world with sobriety.

The righteousness that comes by faith is not dependent on society, our efforts in grappling with society and its choices.

This righteousness is neither dependent on how clearly we see God's grace working among the sin.

Be at peace with the faith He grants us, and be grateful when seeing it working through our obedience.

God and His grace doesn't cease simply because some cannot see past the darkness... otherwise, He would cease to be Sovereign and salvation would be dependent on our efforts in controlling others, society as a whole and the thoughts and hearts of others.

These are realm where only God reigns and commands.

Control is what tyrants, religious zealots and the faithless desire to achieve.

God grants us the semblance of choice weaved within His eternal Sovereignty.