A couple of thoughts as a parent of two kids this morning. Frankly, I'm scared to death for their sake. To place this conversation into context you have to understand that I come from a generation where "M*A*S*H" was considered racy fare due to the presence of well placed expletives and an even more well placed "Hot Lips Houlihan". I remember the first time I ever saw anything resembling pornography was in the 9th grade at my high school. One of my classmates had ripped a page from his dad's Playboy and folded into his books to bring to school. Call me sheltered; call me whatever you want. But I can tell you that my attitude towards women and sex and intimacy is in worse shape today because of what we are exposed to in our culture. And it makes me fear for the well-being of my children. YES, I do want to shelter my son from those images. I'm not ashamed to admit that. And, quite frankly, some dad, somewhere is going to thank me on behalf of his daughter for doing that. Yes, I do want my daughter to remain pure and untainted for as long as she can. Some man, somewhere, some day will be glad I did. And...if they aren't. Who cares? As a parent I recognize that somebody has to do something to protect my kids from some of the following:

• F/X channel has a new show called "Dirt" which, incidentally, is probably where it belongs. Already they have shown two males interacting in appropriate ways in a public place (I'll try not to get too graphic with my description here because I want my blog to be family friendly. If you need more details, write me.) Today, they announced that the star (Courtney Cox) and her friend (Jennifer Aniston) will be participating in a similar lesbian tryst for the season finale. This is just filth. And it's even stupid for the show. In an attempt to get more viewers, they are appealing to a segment of the market that makes up less than 4% of Americans. How stupid is that?
• The halftime show of the Super Bowl. Do you realize how funny it would have been to suggest such a thing just 5 years ago? But, beginning with the wardrobe malfunction of 2004, the halftime show has caused the FCC to take notice and parents to hold their breath as they viewed what should be a family friendly evening of entertainment. There was Mick Jagger singing his sexual overtones and, then, this year's entertainer--Prince. You remember him? The artist formally known as Prince. The one who regularly sang of sexual escapades. He's the one who wore yellow pants to the MTV awards show with his cheeks hanging out for the world to see. He's become a Jehovah's Witness now, which makes him "safer" according to CBS's reckoning. Are is this more of an indication of how morally depraved our culture has become when the man who sang "Little Red Corvette" (no, it was not a song dedicated to die-hard Chevy fans) is considered safe, family friendly entertainment?

These are just a few examples of what concerns me. But can I tell you what concerns me even more? That the church quite often becomes just as enthralled by what Hollywood and Madison Avenue feed us as the rest of the world. Ask your church friends what their favorite shows are and you will likely here names such as "Grey's Anatomy", "Desperate Housewives", and "Sex and the City". These are shows that frequently thumb their collective noses at morality and promote there willingness to highlight sin. We've lost our minds...more importantly, we are losing our hearts to a generation of sex and immorality, filth and "enlightenment". I, for one, hope that this is one area where my kids stay ignorant. I pray, for their sakes and the generations that follow, someone in the church will ignite a fire that leads to a more holy bride and a stronger commitment to real purity--not the kind that's played on TV.