Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

• Isaiah 39:8

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

• Hebrews 12:7-11

Somehow the second Scripture fits, but I am not sure.  As for the first, how can we have peace when everyone yells and screams, and violence solves every issue?  And maybe the second Scripture fits in that the discipline needs to be a period of unplugged life – no gaming systems, no television, no screen time.  A time to focus on an unseen God instead of our false gods, the ever-present screens, large and small.  I usually never turn the television on three days each week.  It takes some time to get used to it, but it is wonderful discipline.

I have visited my grandchildren in Tennessee.  They are hooked on anime.  Their parents review things before they let the children watch it.  They have that much control, but I do not think the superhero cartoons that my sons watched when they were growing up were this violent.

And the conversation is all yelling at each other.  Maybe that is how people communicate today.  From the media news clips, it would seem yelling is the norm.  But the voice actors must have a raspy voice and yell at the top of their lungs.  When I was trying to work in another part of the house, it would be distracting until it all blended into something along the lines of a stadium of rabid fans.  You hear no words, just an intense noise.

So, yelling is the normal means to talk to someone.  And they seem to resolve every issue with violence.

Now, my son has been having seizures for months, and he had found episodes of some anime series that induce seizures.  Anime has been charged with this issue in the past and they have supposedly “corrected” those problems, but not in my son’s case.  And, yet, since the children want animation entertainment, he previews new series at his own personal risk.

And in seeing a minute here and a minute there, it is almost impossible for the Japanese writers to not weave Japanese culture and mindset into their writing.  Does it agree with a Christian ethos?

I feel that I should have not had the boys watch so many television shows and movies about superheroes.  I liked them and I could separate that entertainment from my Christian beliefs, but the message today does not seem to be balanced.

Have we gone too far?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.