I love the VMA’s (here’s why)

I missed out on all the VMA fun last night, thankfully.  We don’t have cable, and I wasn’t even aware it was happening, until I woke this morning to the twittermath.  (aftermath + twitter)  Apparently the producers of the show were a big fan of the recent movie “The Purge“, which I also haven’t seen thankfully.  It’s a movie based on the premise of allowing people freedom to do whatever they want with no legal consequences for a while, as a natural way to “purge” society of it’s “unwanted elements”.

That seems to have been the aim last night, as all sorts of madness hit the stage.  (Which apparently is nothing new, looking at a quick history of the VMA’s…there was never any promise of moral decency.)  Most of what I found about the VMA’s quickly, and rightly so, flagged the content filters we have on our internet.  But just in case they weren’t justified, I was able to read articles on a few news-sources.  Giant teddy-bear dancers surrounding a barely-clothed Miley Cyrus going to great lengths to prove she’s no longer a family-friendly Disney star?  A morbid Kanye West performance with more bleeps than an elevator ride up the Empire State Building?

It seems like something out of a really bad post-apocalyptic science fiction movie. I’m guessing there were other performances of the evening too, judging by the awards given, amount of time JT was on stage, and an NSYNC reunion.  Some of those might not have been horrible.

Unfortunately, the effect of these attention-getting acts is nothing close to a “Purge”.  In fact, the publicity these artists are getting for unbelievably horrible performances only seems to increase ticket and album sales.  I doubt anyone is still lamenting allowing their daughters to be “Hannah Montana” fans.  That innocence was lost years ago.  But I would definitley hope people are realizing that allowing “popular culture” to have influence on their children is much more hazardous to their health and morality than they realized.  And, well, we know what scripture tells us.

But before I come across as a completely cynical “Debbie Downer”, I want to offer a bit of hope.  There are amazing sources of role-models out there “off stage”.  There are women young and old who are caring for others, changing the world, and transforming lives.  There are men and women of all ages making incredibly beautiful art, and creative music that expresses hope, suffering, and other aspects of our humanity.  There are men both young and old who treat women with respect, and know how to use the English language enough to not be overly offensive.

One of the tasks we have as parents, is to give our children older role-models and relationships that will influence and inspire them into who they’re becoming.  This is a VERY important part of parenting, because if you leave this task unchecked…we see what our culture is offering them. Who is someone, either famous or famous-to-you, alive or from the past, that you are purposefully connecting the lives of your children to as they grow??

I’ll start with a quote by one of ours, Phoebe Palmer:

“I see the new creation rise, I hear the speaking blood;
It speaks, polluted nature dies, Sinks ‘neath the cleansing flood.”