In the realm of Christian beliefs, it goes without saying that sin and its consequences have infected all areas of human life, including culture and art. And one consequence of sin upon human activity and thinking is that each culture, each group and even each individual has a very difficult time recognizing its own vices. American Christians may readily identify the ways in which sin has corrupted, say, Haitian Christians’ beliefs, as the Haitian church wages a constant battle against merging Christian beliefs with Voodoo practices. But what would the Haitian Christians readily identify when they observed American Christians?
One thing they would notice, probably among others, is our love affair with violence. While witnessing violent acts firsthand revolts most of us, seeing them on news stations or TV, or in movie theaters or video games, fascinates and allures us. Military psychologist Dave Grossman in his book “On Killing” says this is a sort of Pavlovian process of conditioning.
“Adolescents in movie theaters across the nation, and watching television at home, are seeing the detailed, horrible suffering and killing of human beings, and they are learning to associate this … with entertainment, pleasure, their favorite soft drink, their favorite candy bar, and the close, intimate contact of their date,” Grossman writes.
No Christian should recoil at the proposition that culture tends to blind us to our own sin. And art — or media — is one of the primary shapers of culture. Thus, it is no surprise that the abundance of violent movies, TV shows and video games in American culture captivate us and condition our minds to think of violence as necessary, noble and redemptive. It should not surprise us when we face serious conflicts in life to find our diplomatic imaginations so dulled by our entertainment that we think violence is the surest way to deal with them.
Some will say my logic is too simplistic and that people can view media without being affected by it. I disagree. A report released in 2008 by the National Academies Press assessed 17 developed countries for instances of violence per 100,000 people. The United States came out on top, with 6.47, three times as high as the next highest, Finland. Plus, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s 2012 Yearbook, the U.S. spends about as much money on its military as the next 14 highest-spending nations combined. The defense budget is over ten times bigger than the budget for diplomacy. So we are more violent and spend vastly more money on solving global issues through force rather than diplomacy. It would be naive to believe media has nothing to do with this.
Many will say that violence in art and media is acceptable when it communicates truths that could not be as clearly or powerfully communicated without it. I agree, but what truth requires the portrayal of violence to be clearly conveyed? I fear the message it often imparts is that violence is necessary, sometimes noble, and often even “cool” when carried out by those with whom we sympathize. That is American culture. But what is the Christian difference? How should we be set apart as a light to America? Shunning all portrayals of violence in art is naive and would result in unrealistic art to which no one can relate. Rather, our portrayals of violence should reflect the often-forgotten truth that those who live by the sword shall die by it, and that, as Hannah prayed in 1 Samuel 2, it is not by might that a man should prevail. Its futility and horror, rather than its necessity or benefit, should be the primary message about violence in our art.
