 Find
the Lie
You won’t get
rich playing this game, but you’ll end up a winner.
My mother was a quiet,
pious, fundamentalist lady who loved to read her Bible and go to
prayer meetings. She was kind and generous, and had a hug for
everyone. Mom only had one annoying habit. She scolded the
television. We’d be watching a show — let’s say, “The
Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” — and Jacques would say:
“No one knows where zee giant squid leeves.” That’s when Mom
would start up.
“God knows where the
squid lives,” she would say, “God made the squid.”
When Carl Sagan explained during a “Nova” program that man is
utterly alone in the universe, Mom gave the TV a brief but
energetic homily from Romans 1. “Mom, puh-leeze!” I
complained. “Can’t we watch TV in peace?”
“Of all the crazy
things for a scientist to say,” said Mom, ignoring me because
she was so troubled by Carl’s deficient theology. “The heavens
declare the glory of God, Psalm Eight. Poor man. We need to pray
for him.”
Many years later, with
two kids of my own, I am ten times worse than Mom. I critique and
comment on everything that is counter to Catholic truth: whether
it’s on the radio, in the newspaper, in an ad, or in the lyrics
to a song. I don’t want to raise sponges who soak up the bad
right along with the good, and who don’t know the difference. I
want my children to grow up to be good culture cops, just like
Grandma.
So, I invite my kids
to comment. I challenge them to find the flaws in the statements,
actions or attitudes of everything from NPR broadcasts, to old
Star Trek videos, to magazine ads for Levi’s. My constant
question is this: “Can you find the lie?” I hear some pretty
good answers like:
“Fat people are ugly.”
“Immorality is normal.”
“Parents don’t understand their kids.”
“All religions are the same.”
Afterwards, we talk
about it. That’s the best part. Finding the lies is a great
stimulus to good family conversation.
Following Christ doesn’t
mean turning our backs on our own culture. We lay people aren’t
called out of the world, rather we’re called to live the love of
Jesus Christ in the midst of society — at home, at work and at
play. In order to be effective witnesses, we have to be able to
sort out the good from the bad in our culture. We can’t be
sponges. We have to be culture cops, critically examining the
messages that daily bombard us, in order to reject the lies and
walk in the light of truth. We also have to teach this crucial way
of seeing to our kids. |
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In
order to be effective witnesses, we have to be able to
sort out the good from the bad in our culture. We can't be
sponges. We have to be culture cops, critically examining
the messages that daily bombard us, in order to reject the
lies and walk in the light of truth. |
|
Some friends of ours made a game out of developing this attitude
in their two pre-teen daughters. The parents put two jars on top
of the television set. One was empty, the other was filled with
dimes. If either girl detected a false message during a program,
or the accompanying commercials, she would yell, “That’s a
lie!” and then explain in high speed what she meant; like this:
“Sassing-your-parents-isn’t-funny-it’s-defiance-towards-authority.”
She would then collect one dime for herself, and put one dime into
the empty jar. When the second jar was filled, the family gave the
money to the local crisis pregnancy center, and Dad refilled the
first jar.
Those girls turned out
to be tremendous critical thinkers. And everyone who visited that
home, and wondered aloud about the partially-filled jars of dimes,
got a thorough explanation of the game and its purpose.
Want to start a
conversation about Christian family life? Get dimes.
e |
