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Looking at the Issue from All Angles

Cultural Trends Divisiveness Gospel

Source: By Nicole C. Mullen, for Our Daily Bread Video Devotions, ODB.org, retrieved 6/13/22

Link to Source: Click here to view source

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2022-06-13

Scripture: Ephesians 4:2 ; Ephesians 4:3

Author: Nicole C. Mullen
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ILLUSTRATION

In a video made for Our Daily Bread, Nicole Mullen shares the following devotional.*

You may have heard of the metaphor of looking at an issue from all angels. I think of it like this:

You know, if there were four of us and we were looking at an elephant, all from the front, our description of him would, or could, be similar.  You know, though one might describe, you know, his trunk, another his tusks, somebody else his legs, someone else his eyes, but for the most part we would be describing the front of him and we could all attest to the others' narrative, because we have witnessed the same sight. 

Now, if the four of us were to spread out and I stood behind him, you stayed in front, and the other two on the sides of him, then our descriptions would change according to what we've seen and experienced. We would be describing different parts of the same elephant.
 
Now, I have to be careful not to discredit my neighbor's description, because they had not seen the creature from my vantage point. But if i choose to lean in and learn from their experience, then my view of the elephant grows and so does my knowledge and my wisdom.

*Click here to link to the full video.

APPLICATION

“When it comes to cultural diversity,” says, ODB.org, “we’re all going to have different experiences. In order to show the love of Christ we need to listen and respect each other, and do as Paul says in Ephesians 4:2–3”: 

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (NIV).


ALTERNATIVE APPLICATION:

When introducing the Gospel message to the world, the Lord was careful to give us the same story from several different vantage points. Like the four witness Nicole spoke of, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all looking at the elephant — the Gospel account — from a different perspectives. It’s not until we look at the Gospel from all angles that we get the fullness of its message. 

A Slap In the Face of Morality

Morality Marriage Cultural Trends

Source: "Will Smith violently defending his wife's honor while letting other guys have sex with her is maybe the perfect encapsulation of the awful post-sexual revolution landscape" by Daniel Payne, published on Not the Bee, 3/28/2022

Link to Source: Click here to view source

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2022-04-07

Scripture: Proverbs 6:27 ; Hebrews 13:4

Author: Illustration Exchange and Daniel Payne, writer for
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ILLUSTRATION

The OSCARS are a failing and fading symbol of Hollywood's death grip on American culture. Ratings have been steadily falling for years, in large part because of the way they love to lecture and berate the rest of us for our supposedly antiquated, unsophisticated morals and world view, all the while hypocritically value signalling and flaunting their own. Viewership has dropped over 80% over the last 20 yrs.

But the 94th Annual Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences hit a new low, catching the public's interest for an on-air physical assault, as presenter Chris Rock took the stage and made a joke about actress Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head. "Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see it."

Ms. Smith suffers from hair loss due to a physical condition, Alopecia, and she took great offense. Her husband, famed actor Will Smith, initially laughed at the joke, but then quickly recoiled, ran to the stage, and unceremoniously cold-slapped Chris Rock across the face.  

"Will Smith just smacked the [profanity] out of me,” said a stunned Chris Rock.

“Keep my wife’s name out of your [profanity] mouth!” said an indignant Will Smith, twice.

Rock, in an effort to diffuse the situation, said the assault made for "the greatest night in the history of television." 

 

 

"Hollywood has never been comfortable with traditional morals and values, so it is rather amusing seeing the industry struggling to figure out how to respond," says Not The Bee's Daniel Payne. 

Payne continued:

Is Will Smith an heroic husband defending his wife's honor before a global audience? Is he a patriarchal caveman helping perpetuate toxic masculinity by using his fists to solve problems? You can see the tension there. Yet beyond the hopelessly convoluted politics of the moment is a deeper and more troubling dichotomy at play here: Will Smith's aggressive defense of his wife on the Oscars stage occurs alongside his complete and utter spousal neglect of her off the stage.

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith share a long history of marital dysfunction, engaging now, for years, in what they call an "open" marriage, i.e., they mutally agree to both date and have sexual relations with other people outside of their marriage.

"There are few more potent and enduring symbols of emasculated weakness and of bad husbandship," says Payne, "than a man standing by while other guys [take advantage of his wife] and make a mockery of their wedding vows."

We should note that Will Smith presumably [has affairs] with women in his own right, but of course that simply degrades his own personal integrity even further—if you can't defend your wife and your marriage from the impulses and the ego of your own sexual appetites, you're not much of a man or a husband, whatever else you may be.

APPLICATION

Payne concludes:

These are, of course, the fruits of the sexual revolution: Disorder and chaos, disgust and decay. This has been known for decades. When you move away from the square-and-sober arrangement of real, actual marriage in favor of sexual licentiousness and mayhem and gluttony, it's never a good show.

And so at the Oscars this year we saw in Will Smith the curious, poisonous melding of the old order and the new, a mix of savage braggadocio and pathetic effeteness: a man striking another man for joking about his wife on stage while he allows numerous other men to make a far more sickening joke of his wife every other day of the year.

Will Smith feeling the need to violently defend his wife's dignity is, in a certain context, an admirable trait: Every man should be prepared to do so for his own wife, under the right circumstances. That he did so while also tolerating the obscenity of an "open marriage" exposes the incident for the meaningless, useless gesture it was.

Chris Rock may have been right when he called the assault "the greatest night in the history of television," if only because it revealed for us just how low our civilization has sunk, and how much lower we'll doubtlessly continue to go.

"Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished" (Proverbs 6:27-29, ESV).

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral" (Hebrews 13:4, NIV).

Putting A Trigger Warning On Truth

Truth Cultural Trends Censorship

Source: "Wokery beyond parody because university slaps a TRIGGER warning on George Orwell's 1984 as it contains 'explicit material' which some students may find 'offensive and upsetting'" by Chris Hastings, DAILYMAIL.COM, January 22, 2022

Link to Source: Click here to view source

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2022-03-21

Scripture: Romans 1:8

Author: Illustration Exchange
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ILLUSTRATION

In a flagrantly glaring display of irony, the UK’s University of Northampton is taking censorship and wokeness to caricaturish new levels by slapping a trigger warning on none other than George Orwell’s classic, dystopian novel, 1984, seeking to spare sensitive students from unwitting exposure to “explicit material.” 

Said “explicit material” is the story of a dystopian future world controlled by thought police, where language is redefined, former events and people are “memory holed,” and history is rewritten to suit the narrative of the ever watchful Big Brother. Truth is no longer objective. In fact, truth (or what used to be recognized as truth) is Public Enemy Number One, and must be hidden from the masses at all costs. 

It is to this novel that this bastion of re-education education has slapped its stamp of censorship -- woke culture’s most prolifically used mark of impending danger – the trigger warning.

This is nothing short of dystopian life, imitating dystopian art, imitating dystopian life. So close to current events have the themes of this sci-fi classic come, that putting a trigger warning on it is like putting a trigger warning on a mirror. Don’t look! You might see reality!

In response to criticism, a spokesman for the university said:

“While it is not university policy, we may warn students of content in relation to violence, sexual violence, domestic abuse and suicide. In these circumstances, we explain to applicants as part of the recruitment process that their course will include some challenging texts. This is reinforced by tutors as they progress through their programme of studies. We are aware some texts might be challenging for some students and have accounted for this when developing our courses.”

APPLICATION

Oh, so it’s the violence and sexuality inherent in the story line from which they want to protect these young adults. Really? Even as institutions of education here in the US and around the world want to teach Kindergarteners about gender preferences, while promoting pornography to middle and high schoolers through libraries and reading lists? 

What are they really trying to shield these young people from? Is the trigger warning actually for the protection of the delicate, fragile sensibilities of the students? Or is it for the protection of the elites and mavens of indoctrination who fear their subjects students might actually be confronted with reality, and rather than cower under the weight of it, embrace it?

Darkness Will Come To Light

Deceived/Deception Evil Cultural Trends

Contributed By: Jeff Lines | Date Posted: 2021-03-28

Scripture: John 3:19 ; Hebrews 4:13

Author: Jeff Lines
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The Half-Life Of Facts

Truth Cultural Trends Gospel

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2017-11-27

Scripture: Isaiah 40:8 ; Matthew 5:18

Author: Illustration Exchange
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Where Have All The Bibles Gone?

Cultural Trends Faith Hardness of Heart

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2017-03-22

Author: Illustration Exchange
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Say It With Beef

Men's Concerns Cultural Trends Valentine's Day

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2017-03-17

Scripture: John 15:12

Author: Illustration Exchange
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iPhone Solves All Of Your Problems

Servanthood Spiritual Gifts Cultural Trends

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2016-08-07

Scripture: Matthew 20:28

Author: Illustration Exchange
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Christianity Is Inconvenient

Discipleship Laziness Cultural Trends

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2016-05-13

Scripture: Matthew 16:24 ; Galatians 6:1

Author: Illustration Exchange
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Crime Does Pay

Motivation God's Love Cultural Trends

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2016-04-23

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14

Author: Illustration Exchange
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