At the Movies

I am not an overwhelming fan of Bill O'Reilly from Fox News. He has his moments but his style of "discussion" leaves something to be desired. However, I have to admit that his teaser drew me into last night's show. He had a segment discussing the recent increase in graphic horror/torture movies on the big screen. Now I'm no prophet, but my wife and I have discussed this several times over the last few weeks and months and I was pleased to see Mr. O'Reilly take issue with it. I don't have too much more to add to his commentary which you can read at www.foxnews.com, but I would like to point out one bit of evidencial support for his concern about the direction our culture is headed.
Long before SAW III or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, symptoms of a sickening in our public mind was readily apparent at your local Blockbuster. Doubtful? Check it out for yourself; take a stroll around the perimeter of the store, where they proudly display all the new releases. You will be shocked at the sheer number of horror flicks on the market. I have not personally counted, but I would guess by my observations that the horror genre is represented by a wider selection than any other genre sitting on those shelves; that's more than comedy, romantic comedy, drama, even action. It is troubling that enough Americans "enjoy" this type of demonic, sadistic entertainment to make it such a big, and growing, industry.
Why have segments of our culture embraced such shameless evil? One of O'Reilly's guests, a psychotherapist, made some relevant points but seemed to miss the "heart" of the matter....

"The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

I don't think we should be too surprised that when something evil becomes socially acceptable, people begin to gravitate towards it. It was always there, in their hearts, and is only revealed now that the social consequences have been removed. And that's a problem no amount of censorship can fix.