How it must grieve our Father’s heart: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, etc.

By: Steve Huston

Personal note:

I’ve been through the parenting years with children under my watch care. I won’t soon forget the increasing pressures that I experienced as I tried to train and protect my children from the increasing onslaught of indecency and pornography.

It grieves me more and more when I see what the airwaves have become. I’m thankful that Christ got ahold of my heart and that I began to realize that it grieved my Heavenly Father when I viewed things that were plain and simple — dishonoring to God.

I believe that it is a vital part of the Christian life to be discerning and to increasingly detest that which is detestable to our Lord and Savior.

Parents have a great charge to model right behavior and choices.

I just came back from a visit to my daughter and son-in-law and grandchildren out in Pennsylvania.

Those grandchildren have hearts that are largely untainted from television. How thankful Jan and I are for the example and standard these young parents are setting!

Those three kids (7,6 and 5) are tender, caring and respectful of their mom and dad and one another.

I thought of our families (yours too) as I read Parent Television Council’s webpage article entitled: “Happily Never After”

MAJOR FINDINGS:

Across the broadcast networks, references to adultery outnumbered references to marital sex 2:1.

Although the networks shied away from talking about sex in the context of marriage, they did not shy away from discussions of masturbation, oral sex, anal sex, manual stimulation, sex toys, bondage or kinky or fetishistic sex – there were 74 such references during the study period.

The Family Hour – the time slot with the largest audience of young viewers, where one might reasonably expect broadcasters to be more careful with the messages they are communicating to impressionable youngsters – contained the highest frequency of references to non-married sex as opposed to references to sex in marriage, by a ratio of 3.9:1. During the 9:00 and 10:00 hours, the references to non-marital versus marital sex averaged 2.5:1.

Visual references to voyeurism (a third party present, watching or taping while sex takes place), transvestites/transsexuals, threesomes, kinky sex, bondage and sado-masochism, and prostitution outnumbered visual references to sex in marriage by a ratio of 2.7:1.

Content descriptors, which are intended to alert parents to inappropriate content and work in conjunction with the V-Chip to block such content as parents may find unsuitable for their children were often lacking or inadequate. Every network had problems with the consistent and accurate application of the “S” and “D” descriptors.

Of all the networks, ABC had the most references to marital sex, but many of the references were negative. References to non-marital sex, by contrast, were almost universally positive or neutral.

In 46 hours of programming, NBC contained only one reference to marital sex, but 11 references to non-marital sex and one reference to adultery.

References to incest, pedophilia, partner swapping, prostitution, threesomes, transsexuals/ transvestites, bestiality, and necrophilia combined outnumbered references to sex in marriage on NBC by a ratio of 27:1.

On NBC, there were as many depictions of adults having sex with minors as there were scenes implying or depicting sex between married partners (a 1:1 ratio).

Fox broadcast only one reference to marital sex in 24.5 hours of programming, but 18 references to non-marital sex and five references to adultery.

Throughout much of the history of broadcast television, the networks adhered to a voluntary code of conduct which stipulated that respect should be maintained for the sanctity of marriage and the value of the home; that divorce should not be treated casually or justified as a solution for marital problems; that illicit sex relations should not be treated as commendable; and sex crimes and abnormalities should be viewed as unacceptable program material. Even with the limitations of the NAB Code of Conduct, television writers were able to tell relevant, meaningful stories that explored the vast expanse of human experience.

Today’s television programming is squarely on the opposite end of that spectrum. Sexual content on television is predominantly extra-marital; the institution of marriage is regularly mocked and denigrated; adulterous relationships are treated sympathetically; and criminal sexual behavior such as sex with minors or prostitutes fuel story lines on many popular series.

Broadcasters, knowing television’s ability to influence behavior, could be more careful in their treatment of sexual situations during prime-time hours when impressionable children are in the viewing audience, opting for less graphic visual content, and favoring storylines that don’t celebrate promiscuity, glamorize criminality, or denigrate monogamy. The American people should hold the networks and their local broadcast affiliates accountable for pushing questionable content into their homes over the publicly-owned broadcast airwaves.

Advertisers, too, must be held accountable for the messages they underwrite with their advertising dollars, and the social cost of supporting those messages. Sponsors unquestionably do have a say in broadcast content. When all is said and done, the broadcasters’ audience is not the American television viewing public – it is corporate America, and the networks’ success as a business depends upon their ability to sell their product to advertisers. As long as advertisers are willing to associate their brand names and corporate image with salacious sexual content, networks will continue to produce it. Only when corporate sponsors band together in the name of responsible entertainment can we expect to see meaningful change from the broadcast industry.

It is too late to put the genie back in the bottle – and no one is advocating a return to the halcyon days of Father Knows Best, but television can and must do better… because our children are watching.
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/sexontv/main.asp

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In closing, may this serve as a quiet reminder of the casspool condition of America’s television airwaves. May God touch hearts and strengthen our resolve “not to place wicked things before our eyes.” [Psalm 101:3a]

There is so much at stake.

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American Decency Association
Bill Johnson, President
P.O. Box 202
Fremont, MI 49412
ph: 231-924-4050
https://americandecency.org

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