Appropriate entertainment for children

Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17).

Every time a new Harry Potter book came out, there were expressions of concern over what our children are reading. At first, the objections had been about the use of magic in the stories; there was worry that children might be enticed to experiment with witchcraft. Later on in the series, teenage Harry began to act a bit rebelliously, and some people feared that he was encouraging readers to act on their anger. Towards the end of the series, the concern shifted to the death of a beloved character; many feel that children should not be faced with the tragic loss of a loved one in fiction.

Such concerns are nothing new. At one time, The Wizard of Oz was pulled from library shelves because it depicted witches who were good as well as evil. In the 1950s, comic books became subject to censorship because it was believed that the struggles with evil depicted in their pages were responsible for juvenile delinquency. When Maurice Sendak first published Where the Wild Things Are, parents objected that the illustrations were too scary for children.

There was a time when childish make-believe was actively discouraged. It was felt that an over-active imagination in children was a dangerous thing. At best, it distracted them from using time productively; at worst, it encouraged them to be curious and led them into unsavory, risky behaviors. Educators of years past would shake their heads if they visited a modern school. These days, children are encouraged to be imaginative, to write and draw creatively. Why? Because, before something can be built, it must first be dreamed. Leonardo DaVinci had to dream of human flight before the Wright brothers could make it a reality. Jules Verne had to write of trips to the moon before NASA could make his flight of fancy a reality.

Imagination is a gift from God. Without an imagination, how could you believe in a God that cannot be seen or touched? Without an imagination, how could you believe that the bloody death of one man on a cross could free you completely from the burden of your guilt? Without an imagination, how could you face death calmly, trusting that heaven waits just the other side of the grave? God gave us the ability to imagine what cannot be seen, so that we can seek His help in life and escape the grave to live with Him eternally.

But we dare not dismiss the concerns of those who fear unrestrained imagination. Already before the Flood, human imagination was leading mankind into great peril: God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). Every human being is corrupted with sin; this means that our imaginations are prone to dreaming up things that anger God and oppose His goals for us. When passenger-filled aircraft were used as weapons of terror on 9/11, many people wondered who could conceive of such a horrid idea? At the end of WWII, Americans were aghast that Germans had dreamed up buildings designed to do nothing more than kill human beings by the score. Some of the men who envisioned the atomic bomb felt great remorse following the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Human imagination is capable of producing terrible suffering.

Is God to blame for such things? Of course not; God gave us imaginations so that we could trust in His promises and build a better future; it is our own fault that we misuse the creative talents He has endowed us with. God intended that we design tools, not weapons, that we compose words that uplift the soul, not debase it, that we create pictures celebrating beauty, not perversion. It is the sin within us that twists our God-given imaginations into cesspools of corruption.

Nevertheless, we should not be afraid to be to dream. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, our sins are forgiven; the Holy Spirit has entered our hearts and shows us positive ways to use the creative spark that the Lord has gifted us with. It was from such a spark that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was moved to speak the words "I have a dream". It is because of God-given creativity that we have indoor plumbing, satellite communication, and modern medicines. The Lord made David a musician whose Psalms still lead our hearts in worship, and He has enabled countless musicians to place in our hands the gift of hymnbooks.

Over the years, literature written for children has been criticized for inappropriate content—magic portrayed as good and useful, inappropriate language, glamorized violence, and sexual themes. Examples include the Harry Potter books (for glamorizing magic), Huckleberry Finn (for using offensive language), comic books (for glamorizing violence), and books like Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate (for dealing with sexual lifestyle choices).

When we take up the issue of what is appropriate for children to read and what is not, there are two things to consider. First, is the book in question appropriate for any Christian to read? If a book promotes something that God says is evil, then no one should read it, regardless of age. Books that glamorize evil instead of showing the tragedy that it brings should not be found in the hands of anyone who loves God. On the other hand, literature that shows the dangers of evil can be useful to warn us away from temptation, whatever our age.

Which leads us to the other consideration: when is it appropriate for a youngster to read a cautionary tale? At what point in life should a little one be warned of evil? It is a sad thing to say, but children can be victimized by sinful behavior from the moment they are born. Even very little children are warned to not get into a car with strangers. Before they begin school, children are being taught by other children to fight, lie, swear, steal, and commit vandalism.

Books that serve as cautionary tales are appropriate for children, so long as they treat the subject with sensitivity and do not glamorize it in any way. Children need to be warned about evil because we are all born with it in us, and we all live in danger from it every day. The evening news is filled with accounts of every sort of evil; children are being exposed to the ways of this sinful world during the dinner hour every evening. A good book can help show a child how to struggle effectively with temptation and cope with the sorrows coming from the evil that they experience. As Christians, it is our responsibility to equip our children to face the negative things of life. You must make sure your children know that Jesus died to forgive their sins and rose from the grave to protect them from evil.

I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil (Romans 16:19). With these words, Paul gives us a practical guideline to shape our reading. We should not read anything that holds up evil behavior in a positive light. Depicting such behavior as fun and free of consequences only encourages people to sin. At the same time, we must be free to read what others think. You need to know what the candidates believe in order to choose the best person for political office. You need to know what the school is teaching in order to protect your children from any curriculum that contradicts the Bible. You need to know what non-Christians believe, so that you can be a more effective witness for Christ when speaking to them about the faith. This is one reason why Christians oppose censorship.

Are there books that are evil and should not be read? Of course. Much that is written serves no purpose except to make excuses for evil or to entice us into approving sinful behavior. But when books are banned, who is given the decision-making power? At one time or another, all of the following books have been banned somewhere in America: Tom Sawyer, Gone with the Wind, Lord of the Flies, The Grapes of Wrath, From Here to Eternity, Of Mice and Men, Silas Marner. Yet many Americans treasure these books for the look they provide at society and the human condition.

Depending on who is in charge, censorship can limit the spread of ideas that some feel are dangerous. Before the birth of Christ, the Emperor of China burned almost every writing of Confucius, because Confucian scholars opposed his rule. In the Middle Ages, Galileo’s book on astronomy was banned for suggesting that Earth was not the center of creation. 200 years ago, Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man was prohibited because it claimed that all men have equal civil rights. And unbelievers have been burning Bibles from the days of the early Roman persecutions right up to modern times. This is the other reason why Christians oppose censorship; it is not that we approve of smut and falsehood being published, but because we want God’s holy word to be available to everyone without hindrance from those who oppose His teachings.

Of course, everything I’ve said about reading materials applies to other media as well—television, movies, musical lyrics, even the Internet. Any media that communicates with words can be used to speak of God’s plan of salvation that has been brought to completion in Jesus Christ. Any media that communicates with words can be misused to spread lies and unwholesome ideas. Any media that communicates with words can restricted by censorship; when censorship is misapplied, it can get in the way of God’s holy Word, which is the only solution to the problem of evil ideas.

As you and your children wrestle with what to read, what to watch, and what to listen to, ask yourselves these questions: Is evil promoted, or shown to be the danger that it truly is? Do the ideas presented deliberately distort the truth, or do they provide greater insight into the human condition? Is the main point to titillate, or to give you an example of how to struggle with the temptations and sorrows that result from evil? A Christian can read secular literature, so long as you read it by the light of God’s eternal truth.