Humanity-destroying ideas might have an easier time invading and gaining our heart’s approval if they come to us boasting of good things: laughter and love. If we knew that a box in the garage contained loose razor blades, we probably wouldn’t tear into it recklessly like we would a wrapped birthday present. Romcoms promise the gift of harmless fun and heartwarming stories; their soul-cutting content is brightly and benignly packaged, so we’re not as cautious as we should be when our hearts tear into them.

Have you ever, even as a Christian, found yourself rooting for people to break God’s commandments and even cheering when they achieve their Satanic aspirations? This is far easier to do, and therefore far more common, than we may realize.

Years ago, my wife and I were watching a very cleverly written, well-acted sitcom. We were cracking up every bit as much as the production team behind it would want us to. Then after a moment’s reflection, she turned to me and said with sadness and a bit of shock, “Do you realize we were just laughing at what God hates?” At the time, I didn’t, of course. But to this day, her words remain like a scar in my heart, a faithful wound from my very best friend. It’s so easy, in the midst of being entertained, for us to enjoy and approve the life-destroying ideas, words and actions which wrecked the world and which cost Christ his life as he gave himself to free us from them.

This past weekend I had the privilege of leading a conference breakout seminar on the topic of holiness and entertainment. The prep work on this difficult and complex topic reminded me of a piece I’d written years ago on the topic, revised and interwoven with new stuff below, focusing on one vehicle of popular entertainment by which our Enemy sends his insidious, life-stealing ideas into our hearts. In keeping with Satan’s historic bloodlust regarding children (Exodus 1:22, Matthew 2:16), he sends this particular vehicle right at them, and so often, we Christian adults are too busy enjoying the ride to notice where it’s headed, and who’s about to get hit.

C.S. Lewis opens his brilliant, prophetic series of lectures entitled The Abolition of Man with these words: “I doubt whether we are sufficiently attentive to the importance of elementary text books.” Lewis alerts his audience to particular lessons children in his day were learning about values, ethics and knowledge – lessons which, if uncritically absorbed into our souls, gut our very humanity. How this dehumanizing happens, I’ll not spoil for you – please read the book if you’ve not already! Suffice it to say, Lewis was right. Taking Lewis’ thoughts into our generation, I doubt whether we are sufficiently attentive to films bearing the light-hearted label “romantic comedy,” especially when these “romcoms” involve children.

I’ll concede right away that the genre itself is not at fault, and for me, that’s a very difficult concession to make. I don’t generally, i.e. ever, like romcoms. I’m much more into dark comedy, angsty dramas and violent action films. These, of course, have never messed anybody up. But back to my quasi-hypocritical point: humanity-destroying ideas might have an easier time invading and gaining our heart’s approval if they come to us boasting of good things: laughter and love. If we knew that a box in the garage contained loose razor blades, we probably wouldn’t tear into it recklessly like we would a wrapped birthday present. Romcoms promise the gift of harmless fun and heartwarming stories; their soul-cutting content is brightly and benignly packaged, so we’re not as cautious as we should be when our hearts tear into them.

We often decry physically violent movies as destructive and desensitizing – and yes, I freely admit the danger here – especially for young viewers. But we seldom decry media which we might call socially violent, especially if it comes to us relatively innocuously. Some films are “clean” according to typical ratings standards, but they feature carnage of another sort. The casualties in these films are society-sustaining social structures, and the children whom the films prop up as enlightened social commentators, showing us all the moral way forward.

Filmmakers put words expressing their ethics into the mouths of young actors, and seek by force of the child’s cuteness to connect their philosophy with the hearts of their audience. The implicit message is this: kids understand the way the world should work, and grownups need to learn from them.

Read More