[DoughtyOne]

“This is a security issue because being so morally depraved makes us more vulnerable. Really violent games are very detrimental to the spirtual well being of our country. I think this is more important then trying to reform education, because issues like these are at the root of children not being motivated to learn. I think No Child Left Behind is a lousy idea because it doesn’t get at the root of the problem. I am not saying this is the only root, but it is one of the roots. I respect Mitt for his vision and I am sure this comes from being a life-long family man with strong spirtual roots. You can degrade him if you want to, but it won’t change the way I see it.”

Video games are not the root of any problem.

They are contributory to a very big problem.

The problem is bad parents.

I'm not sure if you've been a parent or not yet, but that's a fantasy.  There are plenty of bad parents out there to be sure, but this is not solely an issue of 'bad parenting'.

The root of this problem has been the same since the beginning of humanity: the sinful nature of man. See what your father does that is sinful, but don’t do as he does. Therefore, your children won’t do it. Make yourself like Christ as much as you can, and your children will have a good role model. If an adult has no control over his sinful passions, then his children will have even less control over theirs.

How to say this as kindly as possible... this is empty rhetoric.  You simply cannot control everything your children are exposed to, because if it exists, they will be exposed to it whether you are a good parent or not.  As a society, we have deemed it reasoned to produce the vilest of products aimed at children.  If you choose not to procure those things for your home, you cannot keep your kids locked up in it.  Children go to school.  Their friends bring in materials that introduce them to shadey concepts.  And then you lose them as they feel deprived and venture off into uncharted territory on their own.  You simply cannot prevent this due to the prevalence of these materials.

There is one, maybe two video games in the history of such games that has content that is truly morally disturbing.

Oh cut it out.

Yet, that content is nothing compared to the standard fare of prime time television shows. Even more frightening, children will be exposed to worse morality in an average public school. You can try to ban all entertainment rated R and above, but how do you ban the bad morality in life itself?

So your resolve on this issue goes something like this.  Murder exists, so it's pointless to try to eliminate rape.

Of course there is bad morality in television shows.  Why is that?  Is it going to damage your ability to judge things political if the cursing, sexual enuendo, and violence is eliminated, during prime time hours?  There are some shows I really enjoy, but they include murder and other violence starting at 8:00pm.  In the midwest it starts at 7:00pm.  Is that really necessary?

If you care enough about your children to feel the need to protect them from moral corruption, you need to monitor everything they watch, listen to, and play.

And why is that?  What you are saying here is that you know there is a very real problem, but it's the parent's fault if their children are exposed to it even if that problem is pervasive in our society to the point that children must essentially be locked up in their own homes.  Do you realize how idiotic that sounds?

You must also home school them and have at least one parent at home with them at all times.

While I agree that is what it has come to, I question most strenuously that our society should have come to this.  I object.  So does every person who home schools, which is precisely why they do.

It goes without saying that you need to have both a mother and father for every child, those parents must be practicing Christians, and they must be married in a Christ centered relationship. As an added bonus, children raised this way will be better schooled than the public school valedictorian.

I don't disagree with this, but that's like saying water out of the tap that is tainted, is just fine as long as we can go purchase bottled water.  I don't disagree with the notion that society would be far better off with good Christian homes where kids were home-schooled, but the schools should be such that sending kids off to them wasn't ultimately destructive.  I spent time in some excellent public schools.  They weren't trying to propagandize me and tell me my parents were the devil's spawn.  They weren't undercutting my parents, and my parents were not put in the position of having to undercut the propagandist materials presented by them.

This is the only way that will repair the spiritual well being of America. No law or other quick fix will work. With an upbringing as described above though, our children will have no interest in bad morality to begin with.

Do you understand that peer pressure by the third or forth grade has grown to be almost as powerful an influence on children as the most well intentioned parent?  Are you aware that teachers are teaching children today that parents mean well  but are often very wrong about important issues?  Are you aware that propagandist materials are presented to those children that refute what their parents have taught them?

We have a society that has been corrupted at every level, and then blame it on the parents.  Both of us realize that there are certainly problematic or even missing parents, but even two parents being of a same mind cannot block out what has become so pervasive that it's like asking a kid to stop breathing to try to prevent the incredibly bad influences from creeping through.

You and I both support blocking inappropriate influnces on children.  Tell me, is it then okay for them to be introduced to the world at 16-18 to find what a vile culture ours has become, one that is so far from a healthy environment, that grown adults cannot even recognize it for what it is any longer?

You seem to recognize a problem.  You seem to think parenting is the best way to combat it.  Yet you don't seem to understand the problems with trying to do what you have suggested, or what the results will ultimately be if you have been successful and those kids are then turned lose into what has essentially become quite a corse society.

We need to back it off a little...  well, actually a lot.

I expected a lot of disagreement over this.  There are a lot of people who see it your way.  I still wanted to voice an alternative view.

I do appreciate the response. Take care.

[Outership]

A lot of what you say is the same thing I’m saying, I think we agree on most of this issue.

It’s true that my answer to amoral television, movies, games, books, and behavior is to flee from it. I make my own decision on what is amoral. I understand that you want to fight amoral media and behavior. You want there to be a law that states what is amoral and a ban on same. We both agree that amorality is bad.

I never meant to suggest that children can be completely shielded from amoral material. I feel that if a good example is set at home and amoral material is not welcome there, a child will learn right from wrong even if they choose to do wrong. Eventually they will mature into moral beings, or so goes the hope of every parent who cares about morality. Of course, some children don’t achieve morality no matter what the parent does. Never did I state that what a child turns into is the parent’s fault. I only stated that bad parents disadvantage children and good parents increase their chances for becoming moral individuals. Ultimately, it is up to every person to choose on their own if they will follow Christ or not. It is the point of life. The morality of society reflects how many have chosen wisely.

I’d really like to see your list of video games that you feel are amoral, and the reasons you have for feeling that way. This is coming from a person who doesn’t watch television anymore due to how offensive it has become. Almost all video games are clean.