I think some of these people must have taken the “Hypocritic” Oath.
Let’s see. Milestones of indecency:
- Madonna and Britney Spears tongue-kiss on MTV.
- Bono used the ‘f-word’ during the Golden Globes.
- Janet Jackson’s breast is revealed during the Super Bowl.
Let’s start with the Britney/Madonna thing.
Why is such a big deal being made over this? Is it because it’s kind of creepy for two people to kiss when one was a major rockstar before the other was born? If so, okay. If it’s just because they’re both women, GROW UP.
Even if one takes homosexuality to be immoral, but how many of the people protesting at a female/female kiss on television allow things like Joe Millionaire to air without so much as a peep? Lying is an immoral act (one that nearly all people would agree is immoral, which isn’t something one can say about two women kissing), and we have shows that glorify that!
As for Janet Jackson’s breast and Bono’s live cursing, I think that both objections lose a lot of weight when you consider the things that we deem okay.
Imagine you were looking at our culture from the outside, having only television and our reactions to it to judge us by. What would you learn? It’s okay to make it blatantly obvious that two people are having sex if you don’t see crotch areas or the woman’s nipple. In fact, seeing a woman’s nipple area, even outside of a sexual context, is something so horrific that any child exposed to such a thing would be scarred for life.
Similar ideas are portrayed with the way language is used. Speeches with lots of hateful rhetoric (e.g., the way any two contestants on any reality show talk about one another), condemning people for whatever flaw one chooses to focus on, are perfectly okay as long as a dozen or so words are avoided.
Personally, I’m more concerned about the things our children could learn by watching the news than I am about the idea that they might have seen Michael’s sister’s bare breast. It’s one thing to tell a kid that violence should always be the last resort. It’s something else entirely to let them hear you praising the “Christian” president who believes that, when you get bored with trying peaceful solutions, you should just go in with helicopter cannons blazing. (“Turn the other cheek,” anyone?)
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