I AM Not Amused teaches us a balanced
Christian Perspective of Media Entertainment
Media Entertainment has taken over the western world and with every passing year it overtakes us with increasing voracity. As Christians, we have a duty to be salt and light in a waning world and that is where I AM Not Amused enters the picture. Two errors have arisen in the Christian world with regards to entertainment:
- Non-critical Involvement
- Total Separation
I AM Not Amused is about learning to balance being in the world, but not of the world. Throughout this book, we will learn how to weigh our involvement in pop culture against our call to be holy, using the popular arts as a springboard to reach lost people in the world. We also gain an understanding of what is at stake if we continue consuming Hollywood productions without thinking about the consequences. This book is a journey through the early days of media including the history of ratings, propaganda, and some of the legal matters impacting the entertainment industry as a whole. Finally we learn about the steps we should take to evaluate our own entertainment.
In brief summary, I first explain my purpose and motivation for writing this book as I journey through my adolescence in a media-saturated home. I talk about how music, movies, and video games shaped my life both for the better and the worse as I was raised in a home without boundaries.
The next two chapters examine whether or not media entertainment can actually impact us as we consume music, movies, and video games. Rather than take a usual Christian approach, we see what the artists and producers themselves say including quotes from Michael Greene, George Lucus, Marilyn Manson, and more. After examining how we can be impacted we see specifically what artists themselves say about the message behind the content they produce. This section does a deep dive into the messages behind Manson, George Harrison, and Insane Clown Posse among others.
After seeing what the entertainment industry produces, we tour through the Bible looking for what God’s Word has to say about media, our involvement, and our purpose. We start with a call to letting our minds dwell on holy things, then living out our life as a believer rather than a member of the world. Finally we address the two critical errors highlighting the benefits and pitfalls of each as we develop a plan to live better before God in our media-saturated times.
After a brief detour through the struggles of addiction including steps to overcome besetting sins, we provide steps for believers to incorporate into their lives to determine if certain forms of amusement are profitable for us to consume.
All together, this book is a guide to interacting with Media Entertainment for our amusement, and for our engagement with the world as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission.
