For about a year I have been sharing with people an idea I have had for a television program. My pitch is rather simple, if not completely focused. News programming is ignoring the parent with traditional values who is more concerned about raising their children in an insane world than what President Trump's latest tweet is.
The show would implicitly have a world view based on faith and would cover the news of the world in that way, explaining the why through that perspective. More explicitly, it would cover raising our children through this madness without losing them to the world. I am increasingly convinced the world has given up on Christian parents. But it covets your children and wants your children to think your ideas are archaic, outmoded and bigoted. The world comes for them through technology and worldliness. Parents could use some help figuring out things like Snapchat, Facebook, etc. from their worldview perspective.
The show would center around cooking in a kitchen to encourage family meal time and the conversations with guests would be around preparing and sharing the meal. Everyone seems intrigued by the idea, but I have no desire to live in Los Angeles, New York or Washington to make it happen. They can come to Middle Georgia or, at worst, Atlanta.
It has taken some time for me to come to terms with the fact that my career will not be what it could have been and ideas like this probably will not happen because I refuse to move to those cities. But the more I see and hear today, the more I know I made the right decision and what might have been lost career wise has been found soul-wise among my family, friends and church.
Another day goes by and there is yet another story of harassment, assault and abuse within the news industry -- a prominent news interviewer, reporters, producers and more. Then there is Hollywood and the stories of harassment, assault and abuse in that environment. Iconic, famous people that many look up to are suddenly exposed for being terrible human beings and using their power to harm others for their own pleasure.
It makes me not want to be anywhere near the entertainment and news industry. There are really good people in the business. I have encountered them. But I have encountered some I thought were good people and they have turned out to be monsters in the shadows. What's worse is how the behavior seems to be widespread -- lots of people knew about it or were victimized and few people said anything. How many more stories will come out?
Not moving to the corridors of power turns out to have been good for my soul. I do not expect that I would behave in such monstrous ways, but I do wonder how many people in those environments are corrupted by being in those environments. How many good people get slightly corrupted by their proximity to Rome? I see this in politics too with good people defending terrible things and people all because of the tribal influences in their lives.
Times like this should make us all realize we are all sinners and we all have the potential to, in ways small and large, be corrupted. I am reminded of Dumbledore, from the Harry Potter series, who knew himself well enough to be content with the headmaster's position at Hogwarts. He could have had lots of power, but he knew it would be bad for his soul to have it.
As these sad, sick stories keep coming out, I think western society is not so much in decline as it is going back to its origins as a Greco-Roman civilization. It was Christianity that curbed many of the bad behaviors of Western society and, as Christianity fades from public life, those old behaviors are coming back. There are a lot of us not willing to let go of our Judeo-Christian values, despite the mocking and behavior of many. It would be nice if the news media remembered those people, but perhaps the cultural rot has spread too far.