“This is only a test..”
One of the worst things in existence is the testing of the Emergency Broadcast System over the television channels that you watch. It always seems that the station selects a time when you are almost asleep on the couch on a Sunday afternoon to blare that confounded buzzer over the speakers of your television. Sometimes it is in the middle of your favorite television show, and it blocks off all the sound so all you hear is the buzzer followed by the all too familiar message. The resounding words… “This is only a test…” If we are exposed to that often enough we begin to ignore the message from the station, and we could eventually ignore any type of helpful message that comes across the television in this way. It all has to do with exposure to the message.
We are assaulted daily by various messages both verbal and subliminal, and through the messages we develop and reshape our view of the world. However, a message does not need to be true to become a change element in our outlook. Repetition becomes a theme that plants a seed of change into a person’s heart and mind. Marketing companies know this and is why they will structure add campaigns around certain ideas with a catchphrase to reaffirm their product. The message becomes repeated so many times that the individual eventually believes that they need that product, and the ads continue to have a subliminal effect on the consumer. Products are not the only things that use the ideas of repetition to seed thought into people’s minds, but values and ideas can use the same process to sway the moral and spiritual compass of some people.
Christians are constantly assaulted with ideas that are contradictory to the calling of God, and because of the repetition and frequency of these messages modern Christianity is accepting them as acceptable in the sight of God. A primary example of this is the acceptance of homosexual couples and even clergy among many Protestant and Evangelical churches. We live in a media culture that assaults us with an idea that it is cool to be a practicing homosexual, counselors who tell teens that it is who they are when those questions arise, and that tolerance of this practice stating that everyone must accept and accommodate this practice. However, God stands in opposition to this practice and the people who support such things (Rom. 1:22-32). We struggle with these things because we have become desensitized to them, and after a while we stop paying attention to serious problems (Heb. 3:12-13). We must be cautious not to fall victim to the assault of ideas that we face each day, and it requires that we are selective in our choice of media, music, and company.
