SIX

FROM THE WALKING DEAD TO A CULTURE OF LIFE

Choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

—DEUTERONOMY 30:19 NLT

For many years I heard the claim, based on a 1999 senate report, that “an average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18.”¹ I have never been able to verify those figures, but I do know that since 1999 TV has gotten more violent, not less. A recent study found that “77% of the violent and graphically violent depictions that aired during primetime broadcast[s] on TV-14 rated shows” included scenes with “child molestation, rape, mutilation/disfigurement, dismemberment, graphic killings and/or injuries by gunfire and stabbings, violent abductions, physical torture, cannibalism, burning flesh, suicide, beatings, guns and bladed weapons that were depicted but not used, and dead bodies.”²

Even programs that don’t focus on violent acts often focus on death and corpses and mutilated bodies, and so a child is exposed to a disproportionate and unhealthy emphasis on death during a formative period in his or her life. Added to this are the shows where the heroes are the living dead (vampires) and the shows where the enemies are the undying dead (zombies). And then there are the ultraviolent video games where players get to slaughter both the bad guys and the good guys to their hearts’ content.

Shortly after the 2013 release of the mega-popular video game Grand Theft Auto V, James Delingpole, a British columnist and novelist, wrote of his experience playing the game in England:

Yesterday, in the process of robbing a bank, I beat up an elderly security guard before shooting dead perhaps 15 policemen, exulting in their murders with the flip dismissal: “Shouldn’t have been a cop.”

After that, I stole a succession of fast cars, evading my pursuers by driving on the wrong side of the road, mowing down passers-by and killing more police by ramming straight into them.

Then I went home for a change of clothes, a nap, a beer and a joint before getting into my stolen vehicle to wreak more mayhem, pausing briefly to enjoy the services of a prostitute.³

But he was just getting started (and note that his report said nothing of the profanity-filled dialogues):

Had I kept going with this spree of orgiastic destruction and drug-fuelled violence, I would have got the chance to use much heavier weaponry, take stronger drugs, and not only murder people but torture them by pulling out their teeth with pliers, waterboarding them with flammable liquid, kneecapping them with a monkey wrench and making them scream with electric shocks.⁴

All this is experienced in vivid, living color and is played by the hour by video-addicted kids and adults. It presents a graphic (and disturbing) picture of today’s culture of death: Millions of young people who could be outside enjoying nature or taking an intellectual journey by reading a captivating book instead sit in front of a computer screen (or, worse still, wear virtual reality goggles), shut out from the real world by the blaring sound track in their headphones, immersed in a fantasy world of gushing blood and exploding bodies and headless victims. And when they tire of all this, they can watch a Hannibal Lecter movie (or TV episode from the series that ran for three years), rooting for the diabolical hero and wondering if Lecter is eating animal meat or human meat when he dines.

We can say without exaggeration that America in the second decade of the twenty-first century is a country awash in death and dying, and it is not limited to Hollywood and video games. It is lurking on our streets and breaking into our homes. Just ask this bereaved mother from inner-city Milwaukee:

Tamiko Holmes, a mother of five, has lost two of her nearly grown children in apparently unrelated shootings in the last eight months. In January, a daughter, 20, was shot to death during a robbery at a birthday party at a Days Inn. Six months later, the authorities called again: Her only son, 19, had been shot in the head in a car—a killing for which the police are still searching for a motive and a suspect.

Ms. Holmes said she recently persuaded her remaining teenage daughters to move away from Milwaukee with her, but not before one of them, 17, was wounded in a shooting while riding in a car.⁵

This is no video game or scene from a movie. This is reality for millions of Americans today. Even suicide is on the rise.⁶ How can we replace this culture of death with a vibrant culture of life?

Let’s return to the subject of abortion, where the life of our most vulnerable and innocent citizens is violently snuffed out in the one place where they should enjoy ultimate safety: their own mothers’ wombs. With good reason Mother Teresa said, “Abortion kills twice. It kills the body of the baby and it kills the conscience of the mother. Abortion is profoundly anti-women. Three quarters of its victims are women: Half the babies and all the mothers.”⁷

Could it be that our indifference to the life of the preborn—really, our all-out assault on those precious little lives—has desensitized us on a national level? Could it be that there is a fine line between killing a baby in the womb and killing a baby outside the womb? (The infamous abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was guilty of both, yet he felt he was doing women a service.) Could it be that we are reaping what we have sown, now that physician-assisted suicide is becoming increasingly acceptable as yet another manifestation of our culture of death?

Camille Paglia is an outspoken journalist and professor. She is also a pro-abortion lesbian, feminist—and an atheist. Yet she wrote:

Although I am an atheist who worships only great nature, I recognize the superior moral beauty of religious doctrine that defends the sanctity of life. The quality of idea and language in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, for example, exceeds anything in grimly utilitarian feminism. In regard to the Commandment “Thou shalt not kill,” the Catechism says: “Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God. . . . God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being” (#2258). Or this: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person—among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life” (#2270).⁸

Mother Teresa, then, was not exaggerating when she said that “the greatest destroyer of love and peace today is abortion,” explaining that abortion “is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself.” As she explained, “By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. . . . Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.”⁹ And she asked, “If we can accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”¹⁰ How indeed?

In the last chapter we saw that our dignity as human beings is based on our being created in God’s image, which means that our social status or ethnicity or fame or wealth do not determine our human dignity or worth. We learn this from the Scriptures, and from these same Scriptures we learn that God’s desire was for us to live forever. He is a God of life! That’s why Genesis, the first book of the Bible, tells us that in the middle of the garden of Eden was the tree of life (Gen. 2:9, emphasis added), and that’s why Revelation, the last book of the Bible, tells us that in the middle of the heavenly city called the New Jerusalem—the place where God’s people are destined to live eternally—is a river of life and a tree of life (Rev. 22:1–2, 14, 19, emphasis added). And that’s why the closing invitation in Revelation (and therefore the closing invitation in the whole Bible) says, “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Rev. 22:17, emphasis added).

For good reason Jesus described himself as “the bread of life” and “the resurrection and the life” (John 6:35, 48; 11:24–25), and John tells us that (1) in him was life; (2) whoever believes in him will have eternal life; (3) the water he offers us leads to eternal life; (4) he gives life to whom he wills; (5) those who partake of his body and blood have eternal life; (6) he has the words of life, even eternal life; (7) whoever follows him has the light of life; (8) he came that we might have abundant life; (9) he is the way, the truth, and the life; and (10) to know him and his Father is eternal life.¹¹

Significantly, the Greek word for life, zoē (pronounced “zoh-ey”), is found thirty-six times in the gospel of John and another thirteen times in 1 John, which is a very short book. So these two books, which focus so closely on Jesus, have a disproportionate emphasis on life. As John wrote toward the end of his gospel, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30–31 HCSB, emphasis added). This idea is echoed in the last chapter of 1 John: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:11–13 HCSB, emphasis added). To quote the words of Jesus once more, “whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life” (John 4:14 HCSB, emphasis added).

This emphasis on life flies in the face of a common (but misguided) representation of the Bible as a book of death and destruction. Instead, it is a book of life—really, the book of life—and by following its precepts, we live. As the Lord said through Moses, “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD” (Lev. 18:5).

Why, then, did God destroy the earth in Noah’s day with a flood, wiping out every person on the planet except for Noah and his family? It was because the human race was destroying itself, and if the Lord didn’t intervene, we would have wiped ourselves out, bringing about the end of the human race. By saving one of the only men on the planet who had not become corrupt (that alone tells you how bad things were), God was able to save the human race, and Noah’s sons and their wives gave birth to a brand-new generation. God’s goal was life, not death, and he took extreme measures to preserve life on earth.

And note these striking words from Genesis 6 describing the state of the world before the flood: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. . . . Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” (vv. 5, 11–12, emphasis added).¹² Isn’t it interesting that, of all the great evils on the earth at that time, the one sin that is specifically mentioned is violence?

Similarly, before the Lord brought judgment on Jerusalem in the sixth century B.C., the prophet Ezekiel asked the angelic messenger if the God of Israel would actually pour out his wrath on his own people and his own city. The angel replied, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice” (Ezek. 9:9). As explained in the book of Numbers, “Bloodshed¹³ pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it” (35:33 NIV).

If we understand this, we understand why God brought judgment on Israel and the nations in times past. It was not because he was “a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser” (as claimed by atheist Richard Dawkins; see chapter 4). To the contrary, it was because he was bringing judgment on those who destroyed innocent life, and to bring judgment on the wicked is both just and good. It would be like our military defeating ISIS: while we would mourn the lost estate of these radical Muslims, we would be glad that their terrorist acts were stopped. No more blowing up babies in airports. No more burning captives to death in a cage. No more kidnapping and raping young girls. The destruction of ISIS would be life-giving and liberating.

In the same way, we learn from the Scriptures that God hates the shedding of innocent blood because he is a God of life and because human life is precious. And so, if we are to rise above today’s culture of death, we must celebrate and cherish life while viewing death (including gratuitous violence and bloodshed) as an enemy.

Of course, at times we must be confronted with images of the dead and dying, as in a tragic terrorist attack when the devastating footage stares us in the face. By all means, we should look at the ugliness and brutality, and we should mourn with those who mourn. But it is another thing to be entertained by death, to trivialize death, to fixate on death. We must renew our minds with the divine principles of life and look to Jesus, the Author of life and the Giver of life and the very life himself. As stated in the opening verses of 1 John:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life [speaking of Jesus] was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life. (1:1–2, emphasis added)

John described Jesus as the word of life, the life, eternal life—not only as the way to life but as life itself. That is who Jesus is by his very nature, and by focusing on him we focus on life.

That’s why the gospel story doesn’t end with the cross. Not at all! When Jesus rose from the dead, he broke the power of death and now lives forever in victory and triumph. That’s why the angels asked the women who came to the tomb of Jesus after his crucifixion, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5b–6a). That’s why Peter said seven weeks later to the Jewish crowds in Jerusalem, “God raised [Jesus] up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24).

Death literally could not keep him in the grave, and so our focus is not on the grave or on death but on a living God and on a living Savior and on life itself. While this might sound abstract, if we take inventory of our lives and recognize where we have embraced the spirit of the age—specifically, the culture of death—turning our attention instead to the God of life and to eternal life and to the resurrected and living Jesus, we will be amazed to see how our attitudes change.

So, I give you this little challenge: First, go about your normal daily activities, watching and reading and listening to what you normally watch and read and listen to, but this time take note of how much death is involved. How many images of the dead and dying? How many corpses? How much graphic violence? How much death are you seeing (by choice, not by necessity) over the course of a week?

Second, if you realize that you’re being influenced by a culture of death, take a thirty-day break from all forms of death-related media entertainment, be it video games or favorite TV shows or gratuitously violent novels.

Third, immerse yourself in words of life. Read several chapters from Proverbs and the gospel of John each day, noticing the constant emphasis on life. As the voice of wisdom says in Proverbs 8, “For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death” (vv. 35–36, emphasis added).

Fourth, when you spend time in prayer, ask God to flood your heart with his life and to give you his perspective of life, to see the world as he would have you see it.

Fifth, after thirty days ask the Lord how he would have you to live. You might be surprised to see how your perspective has changed. In the words of Paul, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Phil. 4:8 NIV).

Years ago, I received a call on my radio show from a man who had lived a decadent life before he became a follower of Jesus. His life had been filled with drugs and alcohol and immorality, and when he came to faith, he knew he had to give all this up. That was quite obvious to him. But what about the other areas of his life that were not so black and white? What about the other decisions he had to make? He talked with his pastor about it, and that wise leader said to him, “Before you do something, ask yourself this question: Is it light or is it darkness?” As this man said to me on the air, that greatly limited the activities he engaged in, but he found it to be a wonderful way to live. Exactly!

So ask yourself, Is this light or darkness? The entertainment that I enjoy; the decisions that I make; the way I conduct myself: Is this light or darkness, life or death? Is this edifying or destructive? Remember always to choose life!

We can also put this idea into practice in some critically important ways. Here are three practical ideas. First, get involved in the pro-life movement and work against abortion on demand in our nation. If Mother Teresa and others are right, this work strikes at a major root of our culture of death, and by joining together as pro-life Christians, we can see the nation impacted.

But how exactly can we do this? My good friends David and Jason Benham were raised in the pro-life movement because their dad, Flip, was a fearless gospel preacher. He would stand in front of abortion clinics sharing the gospel, urging women not to abort their babies, and offering them a better way. Flip was even used by God to lead Norma McCovey to Jesus—she was the Jane Roe in Roe v. Wade—and had the privilege of baptizing her.¹⁴

Over the years the Benham brothers felt the need to establish a pro-life template that could be used in cities across the nation, and that’s why they set up Cities 4 Life with the threefold vision of Proclaim, Provide, and Protect. If you visit their website (Cities4Life.org), you’ll find ways you can get involved in pro-life work in your own city. Allow me to offer you some suggestions right here. You can volunteer time in a pregnancy crisis center, join with a team that ministers outside an abortion clinic, help to provide baby showers for mothers (or couples) who decide not to abort, donate finances to a pro-life ministry, adopt an unwanted child, educate your local church on pro-life issues, vote for pro-life candidates (and urge your elected officials to vote for life), and pray daily for God’s intervention to turn the tide in America. All of us can choose life for those who can’t choose it for themselves.

Second, affirm the dignity of every human life by reaching out to the elderly, who are some of the most forgotten and neglected people in our society. In biblical times, older men and women were greatly respected to the point that the law of Moses taught, “You are to rise in the presence of the elderly and honor the old. Fear your God; I am Yahweh” (Lev. 19:32 HCSB). As Proverbs taught, “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life,” and “The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair” (16:31; 20:29). In fact, in biblical times Paul had to urge Timothy not to let anyone despise his youth (1 Tim. 4:12). Today, being a youthful leader is considered cool and chic and cutting edge while being older is equated with being irrelevant and out of touch. Today Paul would have to write to a gray-haired elder, “Don’t let anyone despise your old age!” May God help us recover a culture that honors the elderly.

My mom just passed away at ninety-four years old, and she had been living about ten minutes from me in a seniors’ facility. She was very frail, but aside from day-to-day forgetfulness, her mind was sharp. She spent her time playing card games on her iPad, doing crossword puzzles, and watching TV. By her choice, she never left her room. I visited her a couple of times per week, checking to see what she needed from the store, getting her laundry, and the highlight of every visit, playing cards with her.

During the last few years of her life, in natural terms, she could not do anything for me or my family. She was not there to provide counsel or wisdom; her income was limited; she couldn’t help us with a project; if our grandkids were little, she couldn’t babysit for them. I was there for her simply because she was my mom and simply because it gave her great joy to sit and play cards with me. (And she won more times than not!)

The funny thing is that, by nature, I’m a totally driven “achiever.”¹⁵ But when it came to visiting my mom, nothing was “achieved” in terms of my normal daily activities, such as writing, doing radio, preaching, teaching, studying, praying, mentoring, answering e-mails. I was simply there to spend time with my mom, and I always thanked God for the privilege of being able to be a blessing in her life after she blessed me by raising me and caring for me.

Of course, contributing to my mother’s happiness was certainly an achievement of sorts, but it wasn’t measurable like my normal achievements. To the contrary, it took time away from writing or working on a new project or meeting a critical deadline. But because it was my own mother, it was easy for me to shelve the achiever mind-set for a little while, enjoy our time together, and honor my aged parent.

But would I have been at a facility like that if I didn’t have a parent there? I seriously doubt it. After all, a million things are calling for my attention, and when it comes to spending time with others, I want to pour it into those who will also be producers for the kingdom of God. Perhaps I need a deeper heart adjustment. Perhaps all of us would learn to value life more by giving ourselves to those who have nothing outward to give. Perhaps this is another way to recognize the dignity of each human being. Perhaps honoring the elders—both the active elders in our midst and the inactive elders whom we have to seek out—would help restore deeper health to our culture. When it’s not so much the “rich and famous” who get our attention, then we know we’re getting closer to God’s heart.

Third, get involved with another group that society discards—namely, the poor and the hurting. Many churches have ministries to the poor and the needy, every city has feeding programs and the like, and for the most part they are greatly understaffed. We celebrate life when we bring meaning and hope into the lives of the hurting. We reaffirm that they too are created in the image of God and therefore are of inestimable value and worth. Caring for the poor is something near and dear to the Lord’s heart.

Consider these remarkable verses in Jeremiah, where the prophet rebuked King Jehoiakim, a godless and insecure king who thought that building a bigger palace would make him more of a leader. The prophet contrasted Jehoiakim’s mentality with the mentality of his godly father, King Josiah, asking,

“Does it make you any more of a king that you outstrip everyone else in building with cedar? Just think about your father. He was content that he had food and drink. He did what was just and right. So things went well with him. He upheld the cause of the poor and needy. So things went well for Judah.” The LORD says, “That is a good example of what it means to know me.” (22:15–16 NET)

Did you get that? God equates knowing him with upholding the cause of the poor and needy. What a statement!

I have older friends in Israel who tirelessly reach out to the outcasts of society there with no hope of any earthly reward. They simply do it to share God’s love. They also visit children who have severe handicaps, and in that case the smiles they receive are more than enough reward.

It would do our own kids well to get involved in activities like this too. They can learn to value those who have nothing outward to offer: these people don’t look cool; they don’t smell good; they have no money; they have no social status; they don’t even have any online “friends.” This involvement will help your children put compassion above celebrity and service above stardom.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, during the boat people crisis when refugees fled Vietnam, my family had the privilege of hosting a total of six refugees in our home. The first were a young couple and their baby boy. They lived with us for a period of months (some of the refugees even stayed for more than a year), and they grew up side by side with our two daughters. All of us were enriched by the experience. Years later I heard from another son of that first couple, born to them here in the States. He wanted me to know that when his dad became a US citizen, he chose the name Michael in my honor. I was deeply moved to hear this.

Let us, then, turn away from our obsession with death and instead celebrate life. As people who already enjoy eternal life—the life of the age to come—we can surely radiate that life here in this world. This is exactly what America needs today.¹⁶