Ergun Caner has an article in the most recent issue of Christian Counseling Today that is pretty good: “Addicted to God: When Faith and Crazy Collide.” Caner senses that a growing number of young Christians are finding themselves “God-crazy,” obsessing over limited aspects of their faith, exhausting themselves in Spiritual activities, and in general living an unbalanced spiritual life.I thought a particular section of his article on reality television was particularly compelling:
A casual [spin] of the television dial will quickly discover a pattern in [today’s] youth-oriented television: the saturation of reality television. Such networks at MTV, VH1, Entertainment Television, and Bravo have found great success in programs that pit average citizens against one another. The formula seems to be simple: confine a number of young adults in one area, get them to compete against each other, and record all the treachery and malevolence for a ratings bonanza.
The larger the disparity between the young people, the greater the drama becomes. Put young men and women in a house alone, and their raging hormones will cause an explosion. Take two students from stereotypical backgrounds, such as a white supremacist and a Mexican, and make them roommates and the collision in inevitable. …Between the yelling, crying, screaming, and slandering in the average program, it resembles the most exaggerated and outrageous Greek tragedy.
Translate this into the world of Christian youth, and one can see the troublesome implications. Young Christians, intent on serving Christ, do not develop a balanced and devoted walk. Instead, they mimic their television counterparts and travel from one intense drama to the next. They cease to have [average] days—normal, usual, without crisis. Each and every experience either makes them rapturously happy or suicidal. Every semester, Christian college campuses are replete with the dramas of breakups, engagements, and relationship struggles that reach epic proportions.
Too many young people never establish normalcy in their Christian walk. There is no standard center. Instead, they fly from crisis to crisis, mountaintop to mountaintop, without a core set of normative response mechanisms. They only know how to react and respond in times of drama, because it has been modeled so effectively for them—especially on TV. They become addicted to drama, and a bit insane.
I’m interested to know if anyone has seen this trend at CBC or in the lives of other college students they know. If so, what should be done to correct the problem?
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3 comments:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Reality television is ruining our society!
i have seen it at CBC, but i don't think it is the norm. i see students on a daily basis who seem to have a decent balance in their lives. of course, everyone (espcially girls) is going to have a bad day, crying spell, mood swing, etc....on occasion. but, for the most part, i think most of our students lead balanced lives. they don't always make choices i agree with, but that really isn't the issue at hand.
as for the students who do display this type of behavior...not sure what is to be done about it. i almost wonder if they have lived their lives this way for 18 years or more, is it to late to try to correct the bahvior?????
TV is rarely reality--it is hyper-reality, a caffeinated version of life. More than "insanity," I'm concerned about the messages reality shows send: greed is good, and if you have to stab someone in the back to achieve what YOU want, so be it. I can't imagine a message more radically different from the servanthood modeled by Jesus that we are called to mirror.
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