Difficult Times
November 18, 2001
Dear Friends,
These are difficult times we live in. A few weeks ago, I went to our local library and brought in five videos to donate. The tapes were from the WCF Video Library and deal with basic Bible teachings such as the Kingdom of God and the promises made to the Patriarchs. The tape titles were “Conflict in the Middle East – To be Resolved By God!”, “Bible Prophecy is Reliable – And Affects Your Salvation!”, “The Return of Christ – Soon!”, “The Kingdom of God on Earth – The Christian Hope!” and “God’s Land of Promises for You.” The librarian said she would take them to the review committee and get back to me.
My hope was that it would provide a central repository for the tapes for all brethren as well as an excellent vehicle to learn more about the Bible for any interested library patrons unfamiliar with these basic Bible doctrines. This was a gift to the library. All they were required to do was add them into their computer system and put them on the shelf. They refused. The content was not suitable for the public library.
What makes matters worse is that the library has an extensive video/DVD collection numbering some 7,599 “suitable” titles on their website. Among the family-oriented titles on the shelf at the public library are “Sex and the City” (a wholesome story of four promiscuous women in New York City), “Silence of the Lambs” (a real family treat about kidnapping, psychopathic killers and cannibalism) and “The Exorcist” (a “feel-good” story about one women’s struggle against being possessed by the Devil). You want movies defaming Christianity? They’ve got it. You want scenes containing nudity, incest, rape, murder, adultery, homosexuality? They have movies by the hundreds if not thousands. You want devil worship, witchcraft, decapitation, torture and the like? Come and get it!
If the ban on religious titles was consistent, you might be able to wink at it. However, the library has religious titles too. These are not just the “normal” Judeo-Christian religions. There is a Scientology video sitting on the shelf entitled “How to Use Dianetics” by L. Ron Hubbard. If you are not familiar with Scientology, it is a cult that includes an odd mixture of psychology, reincarnation, science fiction and business (Scientology fought the IRS for years and years to gain tax exempt status as a religion). Wouldn’t want to miss that one! Two thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert! A real cult classic!
I find it hard to believe that we can fill our libraries with total garbage and refuse to admit something concerning the Kingdom of God. I’m not trying to keep the general public from getting their hands on “Die Hard 13″ from the library, but you could at least let one tape in on the Kingdom of God. Surely, you would think that a library containing nearly 8,000 videos would want one, just one, tape on the Hope of Israel. All the while, our collective government (national, state and local) promotes itself as promoting “family values” and “religious freedom.” What religious freedom means to the government is freedom FROM worshipping God, not freedom TO worship God. The original premise was that the government would not force you to worship God in a predetermined way. Now, the government has changed to promoting immorality and secular humanism while actually thwarting the worship of God.
Any person that saw such an offensive title on the shelf such as “God’s Land of Promises for You” could simply exercise their rights and not check it out. They can then waltz right over and exercise their religious freedom to check out the more suitable “Lolita” (banned in many countries for the subject matter – pedophilia). However, this will never happen as “God’s Land of Promises for You” is not going to be on the shelf.
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:1-7)
Have a great week!
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