laughter isn't always the best medicine

my husband recently shared with me something he'd heard on a radio sermon: a hollywood producer was overheard saying that to make a successful sitcom, you have to break at least 3 of the Ten Commandments. then as viewers, we laugh at it... the pastor, adrian rodgers, made this very good point: as soon as we laugh at something, we won't take it seriously anymore.
think about it.

• have you ever been watching a show and heard someone yell, 'O MY G-D!' in a crazy and hilarious way? were you tempted to laugh? or did you bust out laughing without even thinking?
• or how about this? the other night we were watching Wipeout on ABC. they paired a supposedly 'Christian' girl with a guy who claimed to be enlightened and into far eastern religion. the commentators joked about him having a third eye, which, i confess, i laughed long and hard about because they drew an obnoxious eyeball on his forehead. i didn't even notice that i might be laughing at the worship of another god besides God. at one point, he was struggling and the girl said, 'maybe you should pray to Buddha!' ...said as a joke, but not a joke. worshipping another god will result in spending eternity in hell! that's scary, not funny!
• i know i've seen those moments on tv where someone is claiming not to be superstitious, but then the camera cuts to their collection of rabbit's feet, or some crazy shrine they have in the corner of their room... and we laugh at their inconsistency, ultimately at them having an idol.
• as far as the Sabbath day commandment goes, i think so many americans already don't take that seriously that they don't even need to laugh at it anymore to be desensitized...
• 'honor your father and mother.' i'm sure you can think of someone on a sitcom rolling his eyes at his parent or making funny faces behind their backs... we chuckle... no big deal, right?
• we may not think we laugh at murder, but what about shows where the scene suddenly breaks away to show what the person is thinking? a businessman is sitting in his office chair and his boss comes in and complains. the businessman listens intently and promises to make a change. as the boss walks away, the scene shows the businessman wielding a huge machine gun and blowing the boss into oblivion. but then the camera clicks back to reality with the businessman frustratedly watching the back of the boss leaving. and we laugh... partly because we can imagine having that thought. but it's murder.
• adultery? the laughter never seems to stop on this subject. we laugh at men gawking at women they're not married to. we laugh at women cheating on their spouses with the mailman. we laugh at the wife joking about sleeping with a coworker. we laugh at men thinking about another woman while kissing his wife... the list goes on. it's no wonder we don't take marriage seriously in the US anymore.
• have you laughed at a guy surreptitiously looking around to make sure no one's watching before taking someone else's lunch from the work fridge? or how about a kid being told not to touch the cookies mom just baked, and the next scene you see is the mom walking in to find one lone cookie left on the cooling rack? you're laughing at stealing. it might seem small, but it's wrong.
• what about lying? that same scene with the missing cookies might end up with the mom asking the kid if he ate those cookies. 'no,' he says, with cookie crumbles on his face... and we chortle. or how about this recent phone ad that was supposed to be funny: a man is at the office working late and gets a call from his wife, who reminds him that it's their anniversary. he looks shocked; he clearly (to us) forgot. but because of his crazy/amazing phone he can lie and tell her he remembered and tell her he's on his way while he multitasks and looks up restaurant reservations and purchases flowers fast, all to keep his lie alive and mislead his wife. people laugh... he lied and got away with it; isn't it funny?
• lastly, coveting. this one is laughed at and enjoyed almost as much as unfaithfulness. the 'cool kid' walks into the lunchroom at school, in slow motion and glowing, while the outcast kid looks longingly at him. or neighbor couples are having dinner together and one of the men inadvertently lets it slip that he thinks the other man's wife is 'hot.' we laugh at his freudian slip. we laugh at his wife looking horrified. gross. and as i write this, an ad just came on for KFC chicken. a guy and his lady are sitting and eating their chicken. some dreamy music starts and the man looks up wistfully at another woman who is dipping her chicken in all sorts of sauces and putting it slowly in her mouth. suddenly he gets tapped by his lady, the music stops abruptly, and she says, 'keep your eyes on your own chicken.' everyone watching knows the double entendre is 'keep your eyes on your own woman,' but for some reason it's presented as clever and supposedly funny. in reality, you're laughing at coveting, at lust.

sometimes we are laughing at our humanness, at our mistakes, and it's ok to realize we shouldn't take ourselves so seriously. BUT when we carelessly laugh too much, we refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of sin. we are wandering into dangerous waters.
think about what you're laughing at. don't be careless. sin is serious. your soul is at stake. tv may be your way of escaping for a few minutes from your busy world, but we must stay on guard! the spiritual fight doesn't stop when you turn on the tv. in fact, most of the time, the battle gets heated up! Satan knows how to attack when you least suspect it.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, 

but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the powers of this dark world 

and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Ephesians 6:12

don't put down your sword when you need it the most.