'Grand Theft Auto' - Are You Kidding Me?

Thursday's Glenn Beck program. Fantastic. Right up my alley. Apparently he is concerned, as am I, about the new video game release, Grand Theft Auto. I still don't get it. I will never be okay with my son playing a game where the main objective is to steal cars, a felony punishable by prison time, to sleep with prostitutes, and then beat them to death if you feel like it. There's respect for women. . You've got to be kidding me! But there it is, in billboard sized 'glory?' in the window at Blockbuster. I wonder if it bothers anybody else. . Yeah. . Our boy has a friend who collects these types of 'games'. His grandparents seem to be okay with it. Evidently they 'didn't know just how bad it was until they'd already bought it. . .' So what do you do? You THROW IT AWAY. He still plays it. Clint doesn't hang out with him so much anymore.

The other day I was driving my teen-age son home from school. He was wanting to listen to some pretty hard music on the way home. I wasn't so hip on the idea. "Aw, 5 minutes won't kill you. . " he complained. "Everything you do influences you, one way or another." I told him. Influences the way you think, the way you speak, the way you act. Period. I've learned this from experience. I am appalled by the wave of rampant evil that is attacking our children today, without signs of letting up. And people everywhere are ignoring this phenomenon. I have great respect for Glenn Beck, and the fact that he is unafraid to speak his mind. So many people just wave it away, and go on with their lives, thinking "Oh, it's not so bad . ." or "What can I do, I'm just one person?". . I am so encouraged by Glenn's courage, and his ability, or decision rather, to speak the truth. Even his producer was giving him a hard time. Unbelievable. You'd have to be completely desensitized not to be able to see it, on some level. . Our kids face a great challenge, what with all the distractions they have to fill their impressionable minds. And these distractions are not usually good ones. I don't know how they do it. Some days it seems like they, and we, are being attacked unrelentingly, from all sides.

Our family doesn't watch prime time television anymore. We can't. Who'da thunk, 30 - 40 years ago, that television would have to have ratings? And if pornography is the literature of the devil, many of the video games out right now are evidence that he is branching out. I am afraid for our children. I am concerned about how will this affect their minds. . . and their spirits. It's an age old fact. Ya think it, ya say it, ya do it. And I ain't just whistlin' Dixie. After 36 years of watching our world not-so-slowly descend into moral oblivion, (living through more than a quarter century, a terribly colorful, and disturbing, I might add, quarter of a century), I think I have right of passage. We've gotta take our kids, and turn 'em around. We've got to fight the blatant evil that is surrounding them, and us. They have been desensitized, but it would be impossible, if a person had any feeling left at all, not to notice the craziness that is all around us. It's got to be close to impossible to be numbed up to this extent. You'd have to be spiritually . . . dead. . not to see it.

I think maybe that's the goal, that's where we're headed. I think we are living it, my friends. This is it, the time spoken of in the Bible, when 'evil will be called good, and good will be called evil.'

Can we fix it? I don't know. But we can fight it, one Mama at a time. We can vouch for good and for beautiful things. We can make our homes a safe haven for our children, for our families. We can establish decency and honor and all those other 'lovely intangibles' in the minds and hearts of our loved ones. I'd say that's a power . . for good. FYI, This is obviously not being underestimated by the destroyer, considering his constant attacks on those of us who want to claim the title of "Mother."

A couple a weeks ago I went into Game Crazy to get a game 'buffed' for my son, whatever that means. . and I was taken aback by the onslaught of blatant evil that assaulted my senses. Skulls everywhere, red and black everything, half-naked women, demons. . . Of course they throw a little Lego Star Wars in the mix to keep things from spontaneously bursting into flame. . . and the couple of kids working there seemed like nice enough young men, but I cannot, for one second, believe that all those hours spent in that . . store, looking at all those mind-bending propaganda, could have little or no effect on them, or on their minds. Things like a game slogan which advertises 'Deceiver, or Deceived?' I bet you can guess who they're sympathizing with, who they're referring to. . . Could it be any more obvious?! I didn't speculate. It was truly astounding. If this is what our young people today are dealing with, on a daily basis, then I'm incredibly concerned, and ever so grateful that I am not 15 years old . . at this time. . . I was blown away.

In our society today, evil is, according to tradition, rampant and unapologetic. It will take your children, if you let it. . . We've got to see it for what it is. And teach our children to see as well. And you do what you can. . . I make it a habit, every time I go to the grocery store, or Target, or where ever, to cover some of the more racy magazines in the checkout lines with more uplifting periodicals, such as Woman's Day, Ladies Home Journal, etc. I especially like Martha Stewart, or anything to do with Scrapbooking. : ) And then of course there's Everyday, with Rachael Ray! My kids think I'm nuts, or at least a little off base. . But they know when I've been there, because there ain't a Cosmo or a Maxim in sight! : ) And you know what they say. . . Out of sight, out of mind. At least while they're in the checkout line. . .

So you're welcome.

If, as he says, society is pushing in this direction. . Well. . . I'm pushing BACK.

p.s. Recently, I read that Stephenie Meyers has never seen an R-rated movie. I think her influence is fairly far-reaching. . . Go Mama! That's one for the team!