One wonders how the masses register and understand the symbols that are directed toward them, or that they direct. More specifically, what does a person value out of visual pop culture originated in that person or others, that creates a message or direction? Is it interpreted in such a way as to affect or present values – preferred ideas and conducts? As this is being written there has emerged a parental volume of criticism of a leading manufacturer of exotic clothing for women. That company has issued bikini swim wear for girls, beginning at three years of age. Advertisements show the children in poses that formerly were limited to young adults. At first the symbol was the sexy collegian throwing off formerly less revealing swim wear for the bikini. The introduction was pressed to the public so that the style became accepted generally as a liberating gesture. The way was opened to push the envelope further, so to gain new business. Take it to the children. The tiny product was offered to the public at prices significantly above the cost of materials, production and proper profit expectations. The company responded to the public criticism that: It was all done in fun. The administration of the company must have been educated by a school of mermaids. Girls three years of age are being presented as strutting bodies in front of adoring mothers – and others.
We live in a world of symbols. Whole ideas are reflected in symbols, as the Golden Arches represent McDonald’s Hamburgers and French Fries. We are told that men buy cars that are symbolic of their status or attitudes. At this writing, boys are attracted to spiked hair, tattoos, denim, leather, and oddities like chains. Girls are routinely attracted to special forms of clothing, odd hair arrangements and make-up, subjecting themselves to sometimes questionable surgery so to meet current styles. This story can be extended. The body becomes the symbol. It is not done to lead culture, but to mimic it in some way. What is it that is being followed? The symbols may be variously interpreted. The result may become a slippery slope indicating a direction that we may not want to go. Studies suggest that these approaches make many young men and women unemployable and not taken seriously. Their symbols may not get for them what they want from life. That symbolic pattern may even relate to their level of language, the uses of electronic gadgets, to interpersonal relationships, and other vital contexts of life. Symbols may manage them, and they likely blame others and prejudice or fuddy-duddyism for the negative results. There is something important left out in the nurture of current young generations – the need to understand that life is serious business, best managed when we move from fun contexts to responsibility, to deliberate maturity.
Our major interests on these pages relate to the lives of Christians, the effectiveness of the Church in society, and the advancement of values that honor both society (persons) and God. The symbols of casualness that have taken the general public; the adoption of much of the popular culture in the ministry of the church in prayer, sermon and music, even in architecture; the decline in biblical knowledge and application, as demonstrated in numerous polls and studies – all suggest that even the traditionalist may be on a slippery slope that also may exact loss of ministry to the general public, and the nurture of Christians to the standards of life. We are concerned about spiritual patterns. The Christian seems slow in joining the secular world to present the Christian message of redemption, righteousness, and duty to God and mankind. Christian consequence is more satisfying and liberating in matters that count to human beings than the transient symbols that seem important to the current society – symbols that have attracted so many to shallow waters. Christians are called to launch out into the deep to gain the richer meaning of life, of love, of virtue, of acceptance, of hope, of service to self and others. Current character and meaning may be at stake. Even serious humanistic critics are sounding alarms. The issues run deep, and our leadership seems not to have any clear idea about what is to be done. Bullying in school is common. Murder by young gang groups is follow up of earlier inhumanity found in social history. The murdered during Prohibition were mostly gangsters and low-lifes – now they are members of our families. We now have more violence in general society than we had in mobster years. We have work to do to find social peace. In legal admission of negative social offerings many innocent persons will suffer. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020