Suddenly realizing you’re more conservative than you used to be.
Jul 12th by JonI was surprised by my reaction to Jack Black’s prayer to satan. Not that I expected a certain reaction, I hadn’t planned for that moment, but my response still caught me off guard.
Last year at an MTV awards ceremony, actor/comedian Jack Black came out ridiculously dressed in a crazy muscle outfit. As part of a gag, he asked the audience gathered there to pray to satan. Here’s the transcript of what he said:
“Since we’re giving a rock reward tonight, who wants to pray to the devil with me? Who’s in with me. Come on. Let me see those horns. Metal! Metal! Alright, now take the hand of the person next to me. Dear dark lord satan, I hope everything is good with you. I’m doing fine myself. Just want to say hi. And ask you to grant tonight’s nominees continued success in the music industry.”
To be honest with you, in my early 20s I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about that. Not that I ever take praying to satan casually, but prior to really focusing on my relationship with Christ, stuff like this didn’t phase me. But when I read those words of Black recently, I found myself unexpectedly bothered.
I liked his movie, “School of Rock.” I often find him funny, but to be honest with you, the prayer to satan thing is just not something I can get behind. And you can call it satire or a joke, I completely get that. Playing a murderer in a movie doesn’t make you a murderer, but I’ve seen the power of satire too often to write it off. For two years, we’ve collectively used satire on Stuff Christians Like as a way to engage each other in a real conversation about our savior. Comedian Chris Rock has often said that humor allows you to get people to listen to things they wouldn’t listen to if they weren’t laughing. I can’t spout off about my belief that satire is a powerful communication tool and then pretend Black doesn’t know that exact same thing.
And as I started to work through these thoughts, it hit me … I’m a lot more conservative than I used to be.
When did that happen? When did I start to care about things I used to ignore? The Black prayer is actually a bad example because it’s so extreme, but other smaller things have started to bother me. When did I start to feel frustrated by stuff like this? I’m not talking about in a political way, but when did I get so conservative?
The prayer isn’t the only thing I’ve noticed. Here are some other signs of my shift:
1. There’s a Christian radio station in Atlanta who has the motto, “Safe for the whole family.” I used to think that was funny until I had a “whole family.” Suddenly I was happy that I wouldn’t have to explain to my 4 year old what a “booty call” was because some DJ, who inevitably has the word “Dawg” in his name, does a segment called “Today’s hott hott booty call!”
2. I’m having a harder time justifying questionable television. I’ve written about this before, but I think “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is the best-written show right now. But it’s not that uplifting. (Feel free to quote Paul’s verse about what’s permissible.)
3. I’m actually happy when movies avoid unnecessary nudity. (Sorry 7th grade Jon Acuff, the day you thought would never come has. We’re happy about movies without nudity.) The other night when we rented, “From Paris with Love,” the main guy kisses his girlfriend and then they moved to another scene without any pointless topless scenes. Bravo, I say, bravo.
My wife swears this is maturity or sanctification and maybe she’s right.
But have you ever found yourself becoming more conservative? Has an album you loved suddenly lost some charm because the lyrics just don’t feel right anymore? A favorite movie, become not so favorite?
Am I the only one who has suddenly realized they are more conservative than they used to be?
Comments
I believe Jack Black's comment/prayer was more a shot at the music industry than it was a prayer.But it was lost to the majority,as is most truth.
[...] Suddenly Realizing You’re More Conservative Than You Used to Be I was surprised by my reaction to Jack Black’s prayer to satan. Not that I expected a certain reaction, I hadn’t planned for that moment, but my response still caught me off guard. Here’s the transcript of what he said: “Since we’re giving a rock reward tonight, who wants to pray to the devil with me? Who’s in with me. Come on. Let me see those horns. Metal! Metal! Alright, now take the hand of the person next to me. Dear dark lord satan, I hope everything is good with you. I’m doing fine myself. Just want to say hi. And ask you to grant tonight’s nominees continued success in the music industry.” [...]
Call me crazy, but wouldn't Jack Black pulling a move like this get people to acknowledge Satan's role in rock & roll more than they would otherwise like to admit? It seems like this may have been an unknown by-product to Jack, but it seems like this is the kind of satire that could even be appropriate for SCL.
Been there (when I started seminary).
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!
lol this post made me feel very conservative. Im 22 and consider myself to be very Liberal in my political views, and I thought I was fairly liberal when it came to lifestyle too, but reading this I guess im pretty conservative when it comes to things like this. I feel the same way about every point for sure (and i don't even have my own family yet!)
I would venture to say you are becoming more Christ-like, and the world does define that as more conservative, so it makes sense. The more you discover about Jesus the more you strive to be like Him. You begin to hate what God hates (ie. sin) and love what God loves. This is definitely a recipe to become more conservative.
That depends on what you mean by "conservative". In the United States, "conservative" means "angrily oppose all government social welfare programs", even though such programs improve the lot of the poor.
This started happening to me about 4 yrs ago when I met my husband. We don’t care for movies where the actress has cleavage in every scene. It’s annoying to us both. It’s not that those movies are bad, we just don’t care for them. Our date night always consists of a kids movie now. I may be labeled conservative because things like that bother me, but who really cares? I’m the onethat has to go to bed at night knowing I did the right thing and lived with a good conscience about it all.
You know, when Jesus railed at people who failed to do the right thing, he didn't even mention modesty or cleavage. Sexuality seems to be an ENORMOUSLY overrated aspect of morality.
If you guys are really concerned about your childrens' minds, I would suggest you study cognitive science. The human brain is not really different from an animal brain. It's bigger and more complex, but it still works in basically the same way. We still respond to Pavlovian conditioning techniques, which is why we form habits (it's also responsible for the phenomenon called "muscle memory", where something you've repeated enough times becomes so automatic that you can do it without thinking).
Given that knowledge, it is obvious that "exposure" to something is really not a problem at all. It's constant repetition (particularly when cognitive aids are included, like catchy short nursery-style musical rhymes) which alters the mind, not mere "exposure". In other words, if your kids watch a program which contains a bit of objectionable material, that will have pretty much no significant effect on their mental development. You should worry far more about the COMMERCIALS. They use all the tricks: flashy visuals, catchy nursery-style tunes, and of course, massive and precisely identical repetition, so that the child will see the exact same commercial thousands of times.