Raising Sons to Fight GiantsSample

Pop culture surrounds our growing sons. And we are entirely surrounded—by the minions of pop culture. As sons are instructed, there have to be some key principles to guide us through the particulars. 

First, unless we are talking about a violation of the Ten Commandments, we must not rush to judge any particular manifestation of pop culture as “a sin,” as evil in itself. Literacy in pop culture, and enjoyment of various features of it, are no sin.

Secondly, when sin is laid at the doorstep of pop culture, we must not locate it in the wrong place. Sin has to do with the human will and the law of God—obedience or disobedience. It is not found in the paint, alcohol, syncopation, or baggy trousers. All of these things can be used in sinful ways, some more easily than others, but sin, when it exists, must always be located in the human heart. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.

Third, all human actions have a moral component and direction. Everything we do, all day long, is aiding or hindering us in our maturity in Christ. Nothing is neutral. So when we have said that something is “not a sin,” this does not mean it is impossible to sin with that something. Some things, Scripture teaches, are not at all sin, like wealth, but it is still difficult to avoid sinning with it.

Say we are dealing with a young man who has dyed his hair purple. I am giving him counsel and I tell him (as I would tell him) that this was sinful. He would want me to look up “purple hair” in my concordance and show him where the Bible prohibits it. But this is as unreasonable as the demand to find a list of English obscenities in a Greek lexicon. The Bible condemns rebellion, and the purple hair means rebellion. If he agrees, he has admitted the sin. If he disagrees, then he is an empurpled ignoramus. This means that as we deal with the various manifestations of pop culture, we must learn to closely follow the teaching of the apostle Paul. In the realm of adiaphora, things indifferent, all things are lawful, but not all things are necessary (will this get our culture where we as Christians want it to go?).