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Heath Ledger And Our Cultural Collapse

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By TED BAEHR

Published: February 12, 2008

Heath Ledger's untimely, tragic death is off the front and the back pages of the newspapers, but Heath is just one of the many young people who come from the hinterlands to make their fame and fortune in Hollywood.

Many of them grow up in humble settings even attending church. Often, they are the children of faithful Christian parents when they get smitten by the culture and Hollywood's idolatry. They often forsake the church for the glamour and seductive power of their new world.

Some say they still believe in God, but the church is just a broken, confused place, insular and isolated, and they are glad to leave it behind, even though God calls us into the church, his hospice for those who need him to rescue them from themselves so he can heal their souls.

Some of these young people, like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, become big stars, some die tragically like Heath Ledger, and some self-destruct in other ways, like Britney Spears. They buy the lie that the things of this world are more valuable than the things of God.

One actor recently wrote to us that he wanted to spend the rest of his life watching movies, acting in movies and learning about movies. What a way to spend your life.
USA Today recently reported teenagers are leaving the church in droves, and not coming back. This already has happened in other places around the world in countries that were once bastions of Christendom, like Holland, Scotland, Switzerland, France, Germany and Australia. As popular culture has gained strength, the Christian population has dwindled to an insignificant, impotent minority. Why has this happened?

The pattern is simple - faith and morals help a society to succeed, whether that society is ancient Rome or England, but that success often breeds rebellion, selfishness, greed, envy and lust. The key to stopping this is to get the people of faith and moral values not only to stand against the darkness, but also to march against cultural collapse.

Many people of faith are afraid to do this, because it's easier to just go along with the culture. Teenagers leaving the church are crying out for their guidance. USA Today said that many of the teenagers claim they are leaving because the church does not call them to a rigorous, disciplined, stimulating faith-filled life but to a youth group movie night and a pizza.

Does this change the youths spiritually, or lead them out of the darkness and ignorance? Some actually commend the most heinous movies and entertainment to seduce the youths of America.

Parents, pastors and teachers: The tools to refute the bad and help children choose the good is by helping them be stronger and disciplined in their faith. Children brought up in this manner, according to many testimonials we receive, excel and do not fall pray to the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh.

There is an antidote to the poison consuming the culture and its children, but the pastors and parents have to be honest enough to recognize the problem. Although most cultures die from the collapse of character, some cultures are revived.

William Wilberforce and his friends in the Clapham Sect brought faith and values back to England in the early 1800s. They did so by sounding the trumpet and conducting one of the most effective communications campaigns ever, yet there were only a handful of them.

You too can be part of the solution.

Ted Baehr is author of "The Media-Wise Family" and and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, an advocacy group in Hollywood dedicated to "redeeming the values of the entertainment industry according to biblical principles." www.movieguid

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