Saturday, January 20, 2018

THE SNAKE IS BACK!

THE PRACTICE OF PRESENTING BAD AS GOOD

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Is 5:20)





  

In the story of Genesis in the Bible, the serpent is famous for presenting evil as good, with Adam and Eve falling for it.

Have you been paying attention to the subtle messages in recent advertising? It seems to be that more and more, bad is being presented as good, cute, acceptable or inevitable.

Take, for example, that ad where a young teacher is at wits end with a classroom of screaming, out-or-control and disrespectful children who have basically taken over a classroom. She gives up and goes on vacation to calm down. The implication is that it is the teacher's problem for not being able to handle it.

Have you noticed how many new car ads feature speeding and spinning cars being driven in totally reckless and dangerous situations?

Others are more subtle. Our cable company has many "cute" ads with various monsters as the "heroes" fighting the unfairness of Direct TV. One of the ads has one of the monster parents lamely defending his child who has put obscenities, which she had picked up at home, on her art project as "artistic expression."

Another has a mother with two boys in a garage where she is having the car worked on that shows the two boys totally out of her control in a public place as if their behavior is cute and she is powerless. It is laughed off.

In the race to promote the dignity of women, a cause whose time has certainly come, many think that if women are raised up, men have to be put down. So married men are more and more presented in married couple commercials as wimpish, stupid, clueless, of little consequence and the butt of constant jokes. It is sick version of, "If women win, men have to lose!".Whatever happen to win/win?

Euthanasia, is already getting its vocabulary together so that it can be promoted as a good thing, even a work of mercy - to assist people in their dying process and to ease their pain. Euthanasia makes it sound acceptable because, translated, the word itself means "good death." If you call it good long enough, many will quickly come to see it as not so bad. and slowly graduate to seeing it as a good. The big question then, of course, is who gets to decide?

"It wasn't my fault!" "If my parents hadn't been so defective, I would not have turned to crime!" "I couldn't help it. I was drunk!" "I'm only human!" "I didn't do anything that everyone else isn't doing!" "I don't know! It just happened!" These are regular lines from shows like Maury. From the very beginning, man has tended to project farther and farther from himself his responsibility for the evil that he does and the evil that goes on around him. In the story of creation, Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent for the first sin.

Comedian Flip Wilson has gone the way of all old comedians, but his character "Geraldine" lives on in the many guests of TV shows like Jerry Springer. "Geraldine" used to squeal, "The Devil made me do it!" If you listen to the stream of pathetic guests and hear about their outrageous behaviors, you will realize right away that they have one thing in common - somebody or something else is always responsible.

If they are caught sleeping with their daughter's boy friend, it was because they were drunk. If they are caught in adultery, it was because their spouse wasn't giving them the attention they deserve. If they are discovered committing incest with their sister, it was because "she came on to me."


Besides denying personal responsibility for the evil that we do, or that goes on around us, we project responsibility farther and farther from us by giving our sins new names. Adultery is often referred to "having an affair" or "playing around." Stealing is downgraded to "taking a few things from work" or "creative book keeping" or "taking what I deserve."

Even our government has done it. When the Nixon administration was confronted with "breaking and entering," the White House dismissed it as "misguided zeal." Murder and assassinations in Central America was once renamed by our State Department as "unlawful deprivation of life."

It was only a matter of time! On November 19, 2017, I saw my first ad from the DIGNITY funeral people of Louisville advertising a "celebration of her life" rock music dance party to celebrate the passing of a loved one who loved rock music, instead of a traditional funeral service that focuses on an "after life!" Is this the American version of an "Irish Wake?" One website called such a practice a "curious cultural blend of paganism and Christianity." Amen! That's pretty much sums it up!

This year's new "Christmas movie" is entitled The Man Who Invented Christmas. Here is what the advertisements says. "The film shows how Charles Dickens mixed real life, inspirations with vivid imagination to conjure up unforgettable characters and a timeless tale (here's the clincher), forever changing the holiday season into the celebration we know today." Really? Charles Dickens invented Christmas? Scrooge is the real hero of the season?

A few years ago, a new Christmas movie came out called BAD SANTA - a truly sick, foul and twisted take on a beloved symbol for children. Why am I not surprised to find out that a company by the name of TREETOPIA has an upside down Christmas tree for $169.99! Here it is in all its twisted glory!


Just when you think you have seen it all, there is a pseudo-icon of 
"Saint" Judas Iscariot - the one who betrayed Jesus! He is holding the rope he hanged himself with!


PET SMART promises to give 60,000,000 meals to "pets in need" if you buy some of their pet food. Meanwhile, 16,000,000 American children do not have enough food to eat!
Black is white! White is black! Up is down! Down is up! Bad is good! Good is bad! Fake news! Government lies! No wonder we are confused!





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