BY PER W. NAESHEIM

RIOR TO OUR VACATION LAST SUMMER we spent some time perusing catalogues that described various holiday destinations. These were colorful publications that informed us about hotels, beaches, shopping, excursions, culinary temptations, prices, entertainment, and nightlife. Most tour operators gave a lot of attention to entertainment, which seemed to be a matter of great importance, especially when the target group was young people. Norwegian newspapers recently carried stories from one popular destination where catering to the youth is especially featured and where persons are employed for the purpose of making sure there is plenty of alcohol and arrangements to facilitate feasting and fornication.

Why this emphasis on entertainment? If people generally were struggling from dawn till dusk to earn a living and had no room for recreation in their daily lives, one might understand that they would be yearning for some lighthearted living during their holiday. But for most, this is not the case. In a radio program recently one researcher reported that Norwegians are sleeping considerably less than before. Studies indicate that a major reason is the multitude of television stations that are beaming a steady stream of programs into people’s satellite dishes or through their cable television connections. Many are so enslaved by the screen that they operate the remote control into the late hours of the night, trying to digest as much as possible of the “rich” fare of entertainment offered. In addition, there is a plethora of options out on the town. There never seem to be enough taxis during the early hours of the morning to get all the people with alcohol-impaired driving skills home from bars, discos, and the like.

The Transition
One may wonder about the background for this preoccupation with entertainment. It is not, of course, an entirely new phenomenon. The Greeks had their theaters, and the Romans their gladiator fights. And although later centuries often have been characterized by a more serious mood (possibly because putting bread and butter on the table required most of the average person’s time and energies), interest in entertainment has always been there. But a significant change began to take place at the end of the nineteenth century.

Entertainment began to be more than an occasional interest or an activity at the periphery of life and gradually became a central concern in the lives of families and society. We saw the transition from “the Age of Exposition” to “the Age of Show Business.” The former was characterized by a serious interest in communication of ideas through speech and writing, lectures and sermons, whereas the latter is marked by an interest in lighthearted entertainment.¹

No doubt there are persons with a serious message to convey who choose some form of entertainment as a communication channel. It is also understandable that in a fast-paced, stress-filled age, people feel the need for a break from time to time. And some forms of entertainment may be fairly innocent, performing a useful function in calling forth laughter—good for both body and soul.

But there is much that does not meet biblical quality standards. One aspect is the increasing use of violent scenes in films and television programs. One film critic complained recently that it has become so bad that members of that profession ought to demand a hardship allowance for filthy working conditions.

Paul was concerned about people who were hooked on culinary extravagance and “earthly things.” “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things,” he wrote (Phil. 3:19).²

Paul was no killjoy. The letter to the Philippians is an ode to joy. Fourteen times the apostle used the word “joy” or a related term in this short epistle. He was no long-faced ascetic who begrudged people pleasure. But he would not have us settle for cheap worldly pleasure that leads to destruction. He recommends a better alternative: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4).

Worldly Pleasures
Seventh-day Adventists have traditionally been skeptical of “worldly pleasures” and have put more emphasis on lectures and sermons than the cinema and the theater. Some would say that we have been too puritanical and unnecessarily negative toward various cultural expressions because we suspected that anything that was not taken directly from the Scriptures or red books was “worldly.” But while the more open attitude toward the world around us, common today, has its advantages, it may prove to be a greater threat to our Christian faith than our earlier restrictiveness.

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
          —Alexander Pope

When there is no longer any stigma attached to going to the movies, and when much of the entertainment available is piped right through loudspeakers into our homes, it is easy to relax one’s guard and move from disgust to embrace.

In some Christian circles the urge for entertainment even influences what happens in the house of worship. It is, of course, important to meet people where they are and to have attractive services and interesting sermons. There is no virtue in hurling the sermon at the audience like an unhewed stone, as a German theologian once remarked. And it is generally a “christened” form of entertainment that is brought into church. But it is possible that the spirit of the age of entertainment may leave an unholy influence, both by its effect on what happens in church and by legitimizing what the world offers outside the church.

Paul’s advice to the Philippians is most relevant in the “Age of Show Business”: “Finally, brothers, 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).

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¹ See Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (New York: Viking Penguin, 1985), p. 63, quoted in John F. MacArthur, Jr., Ashamed of the Gospel (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1993),p. 67.
² All Bible texts in this article are from the New International Version.

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Per. W. Naesheim is the editor of Advent Nytt, the Norwegian Union Conference paper.