Christianity and the "Safety Shield"

At what point did Christianity become a faith that "preaches" that we should be ignorant about the culture around us? At what point did Christianity become a safe, isolated, and enclosed environment where culture is "bad" and everything should be "family friendly"?

I helped to facilitate a workshop at the Bishop's Confirmation Rally this past week about teens and media. The people that originally designed the workshop where there to guide us along before we were in charge of our group of teens and their parents, youth leaders, and pastors. One of the people actually boasted that, in fact, he had never seen Titanic because of the nudity shown in the film. Remember, this is one of the number one movies of all time, and the nudity was shown in an artful setting, and not necessarily sexual. Another person boasted that she refuses to watch rated R movies because "she doesn't want to put that stuff into her head." Are you kidding me? Some of the most powerful, theological, and wonderful films happen to be rated R, and we are teaching young Christian teenagers to simply put off this kind of media to shield them...from what exactly? Culture? Insight? Thinking outside the box? Giving us ideas that force us to think about life's tough situations? Giving us ideas about what it really means to be a teenager and trying to figure out who they are and what their purpose is? To love themselves?

We used Glee as an example for the workshop, and I asked what some of the positive messages of the show might be. I got the answers such as: acceptance, don't bully, love yourself, love everyone, etc. Negative messages included: teen sex/pregnancy, drinking...and then a mom in the back of the room shouted out, "Homosexuality!' Really?! We had spent the majority of the day at the rally discussing that God is love and therefore we should love others. Even the kids mentioned acceptance as a positive theme in Glee, and she had the nerve to "share" that someone's sexual orientation is a negative message of the show. Ignorance like this always amazes me. Needless to say, I did not write that down as a negative message of the show.

Instead of telling our teenagers what they can and can't watch, what they can listen to or not listen to, instead of telling them that all rated R films are trash and that all art forms are "non-Christian," why don't we talk to them about what it means to be Christian in a world that is not always so kind in the way media is used? Why not encourage them to be educated about the world around them instead of trying to get them to close themselves off?

I'm all for helping teenagers discern what is right and wrong, what is good or bad for them, and what choices might glorify God and what choices won't. But let's not get stuck in this mentality that we should constantly shield them from the media in our world that gets them to think outside the box, and gets them to understand what it means to share their faith even in the midst of media that might not be so positive.