Truth Really Matters

Below is a slightly updated version of an essay I wrote about 25 years ago. But it’s still timely. The spiritual battle looks much the same from generation to generation.

A generation ago, Bill O’Reilly asked several of his Fox News guests, “Why is Hollywood so liberal?” He did not get a satisfactory answer. Conservative commentators are more blunt and honest today. The term ‘liberal’, thankfully, has gone out of fashion in favor of more descriptive terms such as ‘leftist,’ ‘socialist,’ and even ‘communist.’

The question, though, is puzzling on its surface. Rationally, the entertainment industry’s prosperity – even its very existence – depends on free speech, a historically conservative value, ultimately sourced in a biblical, Christian worldview. (Christian evangelism and discipleship are rooted in persuasion and free will. Communism and Islam – not.) Don’t the media magnates see that their future depends on an America unfettered by intrusive government? Don’t they connect intrusive government with censorship and “political correctness”? Isn’t it obvious that attacks from these philosophical quarters are more likely to come from a Democrat-run government? All this applies to news media too, of course.

In recent years it is clear that “cancel culture” originated among leftists. It was conservatives getting cancelled everywhere. Under Democrat dominance, especially in the media and in the universities, culture seemed to be racing toward Mao-ist China’s “Cultural Revolution,” which brutally forced group-think, public confessions, and loyalty oaths. (See my essay on Mao, in the 2018 archive.)

If entertainment and news media thought it through from a simply selfish perspective, they might realize that the political left is their natural long-term enemy. An alliance with socialism leads to totalitarianism and a loss of liberty that would put them out of business. Or else turn them into Pravda – the state-run propaganda arm of the Soviet Union. Do aspiring news anchors truly desire to read from mundane scripts generated by low-brow political commissars? Yet – whenever you see identical talking points repeated ad nauseam by buy disulfiram in india all the leftist news media, the spirit of Pravda lives!

One thing that would change – while the battle for America’s soul still rages, media panders to the base instincts of viewers. Degradation is part of the communist playbook to sow chaos into western civilization. This would change if totalitarianism triumphed. The Hollywood fare of graphic violence and sex is emphatically banned from such socialist “utopias” as Red China, North Korea, and various Islamic republics, as it was in the former Soviet Union and its satellites. Social media, too, is severely restricted for young people in China – the commies know how destructive it is.

If American media do consider the long-term consequences of their alliance with communists, they likely reassure themselves that in the new world they will be part of the ruling elite. There does seem to be a revolving door between political and media jobs.

Most wealthy actors identify with socialist causes, don’t they? Why aren’t they more concerned about confiscatory tax rates? After all, rich businesspeople care about tax rates. But tax rates are a secondary issue to the media elite. Successful business folks begrudge losing millions to the government because, as entrepreneurs, they know how much more they can build and accomplish with the money. They also create plenty of jobs for ordinary people, too. The typical rich entertainer is not a builder, though. He’s a spender. Once wealthy, there’s a point beyond which it’s not all that easy to spend the money.

They do spend it, of course. We wonder why so many huge homes, so many cars and yachts . . . I guess they’ve got to spend it on something. The entrepreneur, in stark contrast, never runs out of constructive ideas on how to employ resources. But entertainers tend to be extraordinarily self-centered. Have you noticed the tendency toward hedonism and self-congratulation? Is there any other industry that self-worships as extravagantly as we see in the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, etc.?

What are the consequences of this me-first mindset? They don’t want the burden of caring for those less fortunate. Let the government care for the poor, raise the children, provide universal medical coverage, and bequeath universal pension plans. Especially if the feds are going to tax at those high rates!

Conservatives dominate the ranks of people who give money and time to help out people who need help. Consider the for-profit abortion community. If a woman “chooses” to give birth to her child, how much help does she get from the left’s advocates of “choice”? There are no profits from ‘that choice.’ Help from the private sector with food, clothing, shelter, and/or adoption comes almost entirely from the ‘religious right.’

Hollywood hates conservatives somewhat more than conservatism. And it hates conservatives, particularly Christians, viscerally – it’s not entirely rational. Christians and a Bible-centered worldview – those are the real enemies. Christianity necessitates a real God, an absolute morality, and a personal accountability.

Both profits and lifestyles on the left coast depend on promoting immorality. On the east coast the political left is mad about power. So they are natural allies in the short term against “self-righteous conservatives who are trying to cram their morality down our throats!” Most of the visceral loathing flows from the no-rules, promiscuous, drug-drenched lifestyle chosen by many of the rich and famous. I’m sure it would be a surprise to many in Beverly Hills that most Americans don’t envy the prevalence of divorce, discontent, and ruined lives that result from choices that are foolish, immature, and self-destructive.

Those that do put on a show of religion might “worship” under the guidance of someone like Laura Geller, once the Senior Rabbi of the (Reformed) Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills. On a C-SPAN special exploring spirituality, Bill Moyers asked a simple question: “Do you believe in God?”

Rabbi Geller’s response – imagine a delivery in an intellectually nasal tone – “For many sophisticated people we understand the God we once believed in when we were six years old. And as we grow up that notion of God no longer makes sense to us. But we haven’t continued our own intellectual and theological development to find other ways of understanding God. When you talk to people more and more, people do have the space in their lives for orienting themselves, a source of value, a source of meaning, a source of energy and creativity. Within my religious tradition that’s what God is really about.”

I see . . . I think. The older we get the dumber we get, assuming that we are sophisticated. But if we deign to take the time to create our own individual version of God, then we can make Him out to be anything at all!

God, however, is competent to reveal Himself to us. That’s why even a six-year-old can comprehend the essentials! Compare the rabbi’s assessment with that of Jesus – who, by the way, is the Almighty-in-the-flesh who walked the Earth so that we can obtain eternal life, and have an assurance that does not depend on our own pitiful intellects. In Matthew, chapter 18, we find truths that humble us yet enable us to rejoice at the same time:

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little one which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!”

The Lord is not impressed with the legion of religious philosophers who draw their salaries from the offering plates, but offer no answers and no hope. Psalm 50 and Isaiah 55 are particularly instructive.

The pseudo-intellectuals of the media left not only miss the boat themselves, but they offend millions of others . . . including children. Countless movies, TV shows, and pop songs ridicule God, the Bible, and Christians. One curious mode of attack I’ve noticed in two popular movies. In Michael and in City of Angels we are supposed to believe that angels (‘good’ angels, that is) lust after a life on Earth that they are excluded from. The sensual joys of the flesh – especially sex – are desired far above the apparently sterile existence they suffer in Heaven.

What is the implicit message? Stay in the moment. Grab all the gusto you can in this life. There’s no point thinking about the future. Even if Heaven exists, it’s boring. And sex and sensuality are everything. (I heartily recommend the book Heaven, by Randy Alcorn, for a richly textured and fascinating look at how the Bible describes Heaven.)

God’s word has much to say about degraded culture. In Paul’s letter to the Romans (Chapter 1, verses 16-32), we see what happens when those that profess to be wise turn out to be fools. The fool elevates man and worships him. Lust takes control. Rules disappear. There is no limit to the ensuing destruction. Go ahead, read the passage. If you’re not a Christian, you’ll really get mad!

Hollywood works to ridicule and distort the truth. A determined evolutionary worldview permeates the product. The Evolution Scam (there is no justification for calling it a scientific theory) is wedded to the philosophy of hopelessness so eloquently expressed by William Provine, Professor of Biology at Cornell University:

“Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear . . . There are no gods, no purposes, no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That’s the end for me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning to life, and no free will for humans, either.”

Wow, that’s cheerful! But consider the extent of Provine’s conclusion-jumping. The so-called scientific study of biology, with a mindset of evolutionary origins, allows him to conclude no gods, no point to life, no life after death, no ethics, and no free will? Amazing, isn’t it, how he can “know” all that from observing bugs, birds, and beavers! Actually, what Provine clearly does is to exalt his atheistic, materialistic philosophy first. Then, if there is no God, you have to come up with some crazy idea about how we all got here. Evolution is pitifully weak, but it’s the best they can come up with.

Hollywood worked to settle the evolutionary paradigm once and for all with the movie Inherit the Wind, a distorted interpretation of the 1925 Scopes trial in Tennessee. The biblical viewpoint was ridiculed ad nauseam and a deliberate implication was made that the creation / evolution debate had been settled once and for all. See my free ebook on this site, Creation vs. Evolution: No Contest! to see whether evolution can stand up to an honest inspection.

The unholy alliance of the political and media communists is here to stay, as long as Satan and his fallen angels are allowed to run amok, pending the return to Earth of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the meantime, we Christians have been given the mission to wield the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, preaching repentance from sin, faith in the Lord Jesus and in what He accomplished on the Cross and in the Resurrection, offering an assured hope, plus an eternal life that can start for anyone, today.

As Democrat pundit James Carville is fond of saying, “It’s a war!!” So be it. As Shakespeare’s Antony said, “Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war.”

• drdave@truthreallymatters.com