In Proverbs 8, as well as in many other passages of the book, wisdom is extolled. Consider the brief sampling below, in which wisdom is personified and speaks.
Listen, for I will speak of excellent things, and from the opening of my lips will come right things; for my mouth will speak truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; nothing crooked or perverse is in them (6-8).
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate (13).
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver (17-19).
The first three verses cited above stress that genuine wisdom means moral excellence, which contrasts with verse 17, in which it is pointed out the unwise are filled with pride, walk in the evil way, and possess a perverse mouth. [What an appropriate description of Hollywood’s finest!] The third passage stresses the results of pursuing wisdom.
The first definition of philosophy given in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is “Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual wisdom and moral self-discipline” (985). Sounds rather lofty and noble, doesn’t it? Thinking, reasoning, and the pursuit of wisdom are just about lost arts in today’s society.
Moral excellence is not a phrase in everyone’s vocabulary, either. When people think of the concept of morality at all, it is usually in a subjective sense. In other words, the things I do and the way I live are moral; it’s only other people who do sinful things. If I cheat on my taxes or gyp an insurance company, that’s standard operating procedure. If my neighbor steals my power tools out of my garage, that’s immoral. If I have an affair with a young nymphet twenty years my junior, that’s merely a mid-life crisis. However, if someone sleeps with my wife, that’s adultery. And although I may skirt the truth a little, other people tell outright lies. What it all boils down to is that anything is moral if I think it’s moral; it doesn’t matter what others think.
With each individual being his own autonomous and subjective judge of right and wrong, there is very little consensus in society as to what is moral or immoral.
But the Word of God defines morality! How fortunate that it does for us who are living in a topsy-turvy age. What Isaiah described to Israel (about to go into captivity for her sins) is exactly what we see in our age.
Woe to those who call evil good,
and good evil;
Who put darkness for light,
and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet,
and sweet for bitter!
(Isaiah 5:20)
Name the worst perversion imaginable, and someone will defend it and accuse you of being judgmental.
Actors and actresses make poor philosophers because: 1) They possess no moral excellence (with butfew [if any] exceptions); 2) Generally speaking, they are even more deficient in wisdom and philosophy than morality (this latter may account for the former). Three examples follow.
Goldie Hawn
Although she has starred in several hilarious comedies, her preferred lifestyle is immoral. According to The Dallas Morning News of December 16, 1996, she and Kurt Russell have been living together in “unmarried bliss” for 14 years (2A). The Bible, just to inject a note of reality into this surreal scene, says that fornication is sin. It appears in several lists of sins (concepts that most Hollywood types cannot seem to fathom; perhaps that’s why they don’t do any Biblical movies any more), such as Romans 1:29, 1 Corinthians 5:11 & 6:9, Galatians 5:19, Colossian 3:5, and Revelation 21:8. Furthermore, the Word of God says, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. 13:4).
What is Goldie’s “philosophy” that allows her to live in such a manner? She told Vanity Fair: “I don’t believe we own anybody. I don’t think Kurt sexually only has eyes for me. . . .” Of his being with other women, she comments that it would be “unnatural not to have those tendencies.” One can only wonder what a typical week for this couple is like.
She: “What’s your schedule like this week, sweetheart?”
He: “Let’s see. I’m having dinner with Genevieve on Tuesday and Sally on Thursday. How about you?”
She: “Karl is taking me to dinner on Wednesday.”
He: “Oh, that’s nice. I hope you have a good time.”
She: “Oh, by the way, I hope you haven’t made any plans for Saturday.”
He: “I’m sorry, my pet. I promised Colleen I’d take her dancing.”
She: “Oh, how could you? And on the fifteenth anniversary of our being happily unmarried!”
Kurt Russell was not without comment on their “open” relationship. Follow this logic: “Men are not supposed to see one woman and desire only one woman. . . . that’s just science. If the species doesn’t mutate, it will die.” Say what? Exactly what does promiscuous behavior have to do with mutating? No wonder these people make a career out of memorizing lines written by someone else; their brains don’t quite function properly.
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Anyone who thinks it is shameful for human beings created in the image of God to conduct themselves in a way worse than animals and then try to justify their immoralities with “science” (all the while ignoring God’s placement of one man for one woman for life in the garden of Eden) might conclude that things can’t get any worse. [After all, if Adam and Eve could be monogamous for over 900 years, why can’t Goldie and Kurt (or anyone else) make it a paltry 50 years?] But it does get worse, as the following Dallas Morning News article from December 9, 1996, reveals.
Cuba Gooding Jr. has no trouble with nudity–on screen or off. Asked if he was embarrassed by having to strip down in Jerry Maguire, Mr. Gooding responds by dropping his pants. “As you can see, it doesn’t bother me a bit,” Mr. Gooding told the Daily News for a printed story Sunday. “We all came into this world naked, so what’s the big deal?” (2A).
Notice that the two conditions mentioned at the outset of this article have been met. The man displays no moral excellence, and he couldn’t think his way out of a maze with no dead ends. But at least he is an honest degenerate. So many “stars” perform in the nude and then act so modest in public–as though anyone in the world who cared to see them couldn’t buy a videotape and ogle to their heart’s content. Mr. Gooding is having none of that hypocrisy.
Of course, there are these laws we have about indecent exposure, but, hey! we all came into the world naked; so what’s the big deal? While this “philosophy” may work well at a nudist colony (and on movie theater screens), it doesn’t work very well in public.
Furthermore, there’s an important fact this Hollywood luminary has overlooked–we also came into this world innocent, just as Adam and Eve were created. The newborn do not understand nakedness or shame; children, teenagers, and adults usually exhibit great modesty, blushing at the mere thought of impropriety. People can only get over such feelings by searing their consciences to the point where nudity no longer bothers them. [Psychiatrists call this process losing one’s inhibitions. How about that? Modesty and inhibitions have become synonyms.]
But perhaps Mr. Gooding’s lapse of common sense can be explained. While doing somersaults off of the trampoline during rehearsal, he landed on his head. Even though he was wearing a helmet, he said it made him feel really numb. That could explain his subsequent reasoning skills (or lack of them). Not only is it disturbing that such people are “loose” in society; even worse is the publicity they receive. Why would a newspaper even publish such ludicrous behavior as if such an attitude is acceptable?
Ellen Degeneres
For several months many have anxiously waited to see if the character she plays on ABC’s Ellen would come out and admit to being a homosexual. According to The Dallas Morning News (which seems to take delight in reporting sleazy stories) of January 16, 1997, she made the admission while taping an episode of the show, although it will not be shown.
In the third take, she belted out, “So here’s what I have to say. . . . And by the way, I’m gay. It’s OK. . . . I’m gay, I’m gay, I’m gay.” Her antics were met with wild applause from the studio audience” (2A).
She and the studio audience remind one of the question that Jeremiah asked, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? NO! They were not at all ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush” (Jer. 6:15a). Is it not bad enough that so many people don’t care if the perverted lifestyle of homosexuals has become acceptable? But was there not one person in the audience with enough shame not to applaud? Was there not even one with enough courage to walk out?
Imagine! We have become so ungodly that the mere mention of perversion brings applause!
Perhaps Hollywood and its “sophisticated” fans should be told of another gathering in which they will individually face the holy God of the universe. On that day, there will not be anyone rejoicing to shout that they are homosexuals. If anything, they will be looking for a place to hide. But everything will be confessed (2 Cor. 5:10). Men glorify the flesh and wallow in fleshly lusts like a sow in the mire, but in that day the light of truth and God’s glory shall shine.
The contrast of God’s holiness to man’s sinfulness will be apparent, and all will bear the responsibility of their actions. And when someone confesses the shameful acts of homosexuality, or public nudity, or a lifetime of sexual indulgence, no dim-witted, evil-thinking crowd of sycophants will be applauding.
Wisdom is lacking in the public market place. Moral excellence has all but disappeared. And people’s rationalization for their sins has become ridiculous. Most of the movies that are made today should carry the U rating: Unfit for human consumption, Unbearable to have to endure, and Ugly and Ungodly to behold.
Television fares no better. One newspaper cartoon suggested G for garbage, R for revolting, and NC for naughty cable. Another editorial cartoon suggests that the ratings problem for television be solved by hitting the “off” button. Any time the temptation strikes to watch some program, remember that the fear of the Lord is to “hate evil” and to steer clear of the arrogance of the Hollywood elite, with their perverse mouths.