
As a parent, I'm intrigued how culture shapes the thinking of our teenagers so fast. Back in the good old days, pastors and youth leaders warned kids of the dangers of listening to certain music and watching certain films. I was a young student when I first heard these warning shots, and I laughed them off. "PLEASE...it's just a movie," I would declare. Everyone knows the difference between what is real and what's not real.
But it isn't that easy, is it?
When the Hunger Games took center stage a few months ago, I went to see the film with my son. I hadn't read the book or known anything about the story line, but I was intrigued because of the movie FRENZY!
I wrote an article on the hunger games, and found out pretty quickly I wasn't alone wondering why a book about teenage violence was so popular. A KIVU parent wrote me,
"Thanks Andy for the analysis of THE HUNGER GAMES. I did not read the book, but found it confusing as to both the student and adult interest in it after seeing the movie--not something that grabs me. My family, including my husband, read the book except me. I heard the stories they elaborated on in discussing the book. It did not draw me to read it through their discussions. I have girls....thought the "violence" stuff was more afar since we had no video games of such nature. I do believe our world has begun to accept violence against other humans as intriguing. I find it sad that publicists, writers, game makers, movie makers are capitalizing on this BRAIN FIGHT OR FLIGHT complexity. I am glad to see your information pointing to the development and function of the brain as a reason and comparison to drawing interest in the movie. It makes more sense to me now! I wish we could place more POSITIVE strengths on these complex brain systems training along a deeper, positive sense. When I say we - I mean us wonderful beings, humans."
I'm not one to hide under the rock of culture and act as a visa vi protectionist. There's much we can learn about the state of our current union by understanding what makes waves in our cultural thinking. But there comes a time when we need a place to process the ideas we're reading and watching to make sense of moral compass choices we'll make in the future.
There's a lot of good in the Hunger Games. Character qualities like honor, trust, loyalty, and in the end the fight for life is an important cultural issue going on in every corner of the world. But we've got to continue pushing to challenge the way we think rather than just letting a good story begin to shape our moral direction.
The Bible states it like this, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5)
If we're going to be a people who follow Jesus, we need to learn how to think like Jesus. We need to understand the place of violence in our lives. We need to learn how to care like Jesus cared, live like Jesus lived, and not merely follow every wind blowing through cultural popularity.
AGAIN..I'm not saying we don't watch movies, but like this parent acknowledged, we need to be suspect and give students the ability to process ideas in relation to the real world.
Often I find students actually don't know the different between reality and movie. If you want to give them a place where they can learn to reason, come join us at KIVU this summer, and I'll be sure to help give them the tools they need to process these ideas against their faith.







