If Secular Music is Bad, What About Movies or Books?

Good Fight’s Response:

If what you are meditating on and being entertained by are the very things that God hates, at what point does it become a sin problem? How many of your favorite TV shows glorify fornication, adultery, drunkenness, homosexuality, etc.? Same goes for music, movies, novels, and the like. If the things you are entertained by are the things that God hates, we believe there may be an underlying problem.

There isn’t a clear-cut answer that we give a person regarding what shows, books, songs, and artists they should listen to as a believer, but we do provide certain scriptures, scriptural principles, and we pray that they will practice wisdom. 

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. –Philippians 4:8

Is the show/book/song pure, honest, lovely and of good report? Is there virtue in it? Are you willing to praise it? You can always ask yourself, “Would I be comfortable with Jesus sitting next to me as I read/watch/listen to this?” Those are just a few practical questions that we believe are quite beneficial to the believer when they put their entertainment to the test.

But there is an obvious spiritual connotation when it comes to dealing with secular entertainment as well. You see, the Bible is very clear that Satan uses those who are disobedient to the gospel to hinder our walks with Christ. This is why we are commanded not to be unevenly yoked together with non-believers, for we are the temple of God and they are the temple of idols or demons (2 Corinthians 6:14-21). That is not to say that every single non-believer is possessed by a demon, but that they have the ability to be and Ephesians 2:2 tells us that Satan (the prince of the power of the air) works THROUGH the sons of disobedience. If this is true, and we are meditating on the works of non-believers, and those things directly contradict the teachings of Scripture, we don’t think this is done by accident. It is a very unconvincing argument to believe that millions of people are meditating on things contrary to God’s moral law for hours on end and Satan is sitting back thinking, “Man, I wish I would have thought of that!”

For example, it is estimated that companies spend $5 million dollars per 30 second TV ad during the Super Bowl. If those short advertisements did not sway people into buying their product, those companies would go bankrupt very quickly. But the fact is, people buy their products because they are influenced by these short advertisements and companies make millions off of them. How much more will one be influenced when they spend hours (on movies, TV, music), or days (in the case of books), or weeks (CD’s, radio, iPod’s), allowing their heads to be filled with the influential doctrines of the flesh?

See our related article titled, “What If I Still Listen To Secular Music As A Believer?”