Bulletin Articles: Full Article for Record Number 1072
Sex On TV Influences Teens
by Larry Ray Hafley
So said a headline in the paper, followed by these words:
"Teenagers who watch a lot of television with sexual content are twice as likely to engage in intercourse as those who watch few such programs, according to a study today in the September issue of Pediatrics. The study covered 1,792 adolescents ages 12 to 17 who were quizzed on viewing habits and sexual activity. Both regular and cable television were included. ’This is the strongest evidence yet that the sexual content of television programs encourages adolescents to initiate sexual intercourse,’ said Rebecca Collins, a Rand Corp. psychologist who headed the study" (Houston Chronicle, 9/7/04).
Well, imagine that! What we watch on television influences our behavior! Frankly, I am not amazed. When smoking fell into disfavor, it was banned from advertizing. Smoking used to be the "in," the "cool thing." Thus, in movies and on TV, real action heroes and beautiful women, debutantes, were portrayed as smokers. However, characters today are rarely shown smoking. Why? Because "the...content of television programs" affects the behavior of both adolescents and adults!
Have you ever wondered why the entertainment crowd goes out of its way to paint homosexuals as normal and their behavior as being upright and moral? Do you know why homosexuals are never seen as deviant perverts on television? Because they know "the content...of television programs" affects the attitudes, actions, and moral standards of the viewer, they present the homosexual as upstanding citizens and as being misunderstood by evil, hate-filled bigots, or "homophobes." So, why should they be surprised that what people watch on TV has an affect on them?
Why not apply the same wisdom to drinking alcoholic beverages? As watching sexual activity promotes fornication, so watching drinking as an acceptable behavior helps to produce death, divorces, and drunks. Why not admit that the same is true with respect to drinking as to sexual behavior? The liquor industry would never drink to that proposal. Neither the media nor the government is not about to attack the alcohol industry like they have the tobacco companies. Why? Money and hypocrisy, ungodliness and world lusts, that is why.
As devoutly and ardently as we may desire it, we cannot expect that society will repent and reform. Though we may not win the battle with the world, we can win it within ourselves. We can overcome the world (1 Jn. 5:4, 5). We can help our children to overcome temptation by living lives of light and by leading them in those well lit paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
