While preparing this issue of Activated, someone brought to my attention the following statement made in 1958 by Edward R. Murrow, the U.S. journalist who helped pioneer broadcast reporting in the early days of television:

“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable, and complacent. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it may see a totally different picture too late. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends.”

With all the talk there is these days of declining moral values and the part that the entertainment industry—particularly television and Hollywood—has played in that, Murrow’s words seem prophetic. We are seeing a very different picture today. But is it too late?

For society at large, I’m afraid so. I say that not out of pessimism, frustration, or despair, but because this trend away from a clearly defined and universally accepted standard of right and wrong is one of the signs that Jesus said would signal His soon return. “Because iniquity [sin] shall abound, the love of many shall wax [grow] cold” (Matthew 24:12 KJV).

But what about you and yours? Is it too late for you? That depends largely on your choices, whether you decide to just “go with the flow,” or buck the tide. You can’t control what’s out there, you can’t control what’s on TV or in movies or on the radio or in print, but you can control what you take in. You can’t determine society’s values, but you can determine your own.

Keith Phillips
For the Activated family