Forget Something?

Apparently MTV is now 25 years old. I'll never forget as a junior high kid, when my small Missouri town got cable TV. I then was explosed to a steady dose of Nickelodeon, The Brady Bunch reruns and MTV. I still remember the MTV video interlude--a rocket exploding upward, followed by an MTV flag waving on the moon, overdubbed by a rockin' guitar riff that will likely never escape my mind. Then came the music. I am an 80s kid. Now, when I see hear one of the melodies of my youth, it's often combined in my head with a video I saw during those formative years. Who can forget Cyndi Lauper's band of girls in "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun?" Who can forget Michael Jackson's "gang fight" in "Beat It?"

MTV used to play music. Now when you turn on the network, you get a steady barrage of sleazy reality shows. Rap videos have given way to house tours with rap stars. Where's the music? Many have noted how significantly MTV has impacted pop culture today. It has helped create a shallow, plastic, immoral "pop" culture.

My question for "By Grace Alone" readers: how much has MTV in particular, and pop culture, in general, shaped the church? Could not one visit many evangelical churches today, even those that have relatively conservative theology, and leave thinking, "Where's Jesus?" Video killed more than the radio star. It killed the video star. Has an absorption of pop culture into our churches led to a disappearance of the "Bright Morning Star?"