Posted on 10/13/2015 11:11:47 AM PDT by fwdude
HBO's Game of Thrones won the Emmy Award last Sunday for Best Drama. What does its popularity say about us?
Writing for The Atlantic, Christopher Orr recently asked, "Why does the show feature so much sexual violence?" (his italics). Fans claim that Game of Thrones merely reflects the novels on which it is based. But Orr notes that the show's writers "have gone out of their way, time and time again, to ramp up the sexual violence well beyond their source material."
Why? What do the show's producers know about our society?
Pornography sites receive more regular traffic than Twitter, Amazon and Netflix—combined. When I was a child, pornography was confined to Playboy and similar "adult" magazines. Now it's a click away on any Internet device. Child pornography is a $3 billion industry. Premarital sex is more accepted than ever before. Adultery is more common than ever before. The Supreme Court has redefined "marriage" to include homosexuals. Polygamy is next.
What does God think of our Game of Thrones culture?
Ezekiel 16 is an extended parable in which Israel is an abandoned young woman whom God rescues and clothes. As a result, the Lord says to his people, "You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you" (vs. 13-14).
How did Israel respond? "You trusted in your beauty" rather than the One who bestowed it (v. 15). The people engaged in all manner of sexual immorality, proud of their licentiousness when they should have been ashamed of their decadence.
And their lust was never satisfied (v. 29). Rather, it enslaved them and forced God to bring judgment against their nation: "You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the Lord" (v. 58). Israel's destruction at the hands of the Babylonian Empire was the result.
But that was twenty-six centuries ago. Does Ezekiel 16 apply to America today?
"If any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up and destroy it, declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 12:17). "Any nation," at any time.
As God saw Israel's sins, so he sees ours: "The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man" (Psalm 33:13). God demands that we "flee from sexual immorality" (1 Corinthians 6:18). The Lord warns that "he who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself" (Proverbs 6:32). He instructs Christians: "Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints" (Ephesians 5:3).
Game of Thrones is so popular because the sexual immorality it exhibits is so popular. What is our only remedy?
"Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!" (Psalm 33:8). Why? Because "the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love" (v. 18). In short, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" (v. 12).
Can God bless America today?
It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the violence is purposely gratuitous. The rest of the article puts it in perspective.
I've heard this quote attributed to his wife Ruth, and while I understand the sentiment -- and the wildly misinterpreted and errantly applied Scriptural quotation -- behind this quote, it is terrible theology that borders on heresy. GOD ALONE is worthy to determine when and where HE will pass judgment, and there is no circumstance even imaginable where He owes anybody an apology.
I do not want to see cruelty and bloodshed on television or anywhere else. I do not want to see children destroyed psychologically. I do not want to see rape. I am ready for the rapture: God, I have had enough. Bring it on!
G.O.T. Ping!
I think I read that posted at the DUmp, once.
As I believe Billy Graham said, “If God doesn’t pass judgement on America, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.”
Exactly. Remember the 110 inches of snow in Boston last winter? Or the flooding that recently happened in Charleston, SC? Nothing is a coincidence. This won’t be the first time God removed His protection from the USA. The Protestant theologian Beverly La Haye once pointed out that God allowed Satan to almost destroy the USA over the sin of slavery. Of course, most Americans are so stiff-necked they refuse to put 2 + 2 together.
HL Mencken’s witticisms have only been around a hundred years, so it’s possible you may have missed even more of them.
I quite enjoy the show. Yes, the nudity is way over the top. I have no doubt that they look for moments in which to sneak it in. But, it has a great cast, and the locations and sets are remarkable. Looks much more like an A-list movie than a cable series. Still, it is dark and violent, and not for everyone.
Never watched it beyond the first season. Mindless sex and violence and pseudo-serious political drivel.
And George R R Martin is a huge lib...And the ‘R R’ tag tells me he’s a Tolkien wannabe.
Doesn’t really say much of anything. As with so much in life people go way out of their way to not actually know what in the hell they’re talking about. For one thing the “popularity” off the show is ratings of around 8 million viewer. Figure maybe you get half that again for viewing methods that don’t trigger ratings, and what you still have is around 4% of the population of the country. So functionally nobody, it’s a big country, small fractions make big numbers.
As for the “time and time again” there’s actually a lot LESS sexual violence in the show than the books ( http://io9.com/someone-has-done-a-statistical-analysis-of-rape-in-game-1707037159 ). It’s a brutal story in a brutal world. In an equivalent time (Roman Empire) in our world rape was pretty common place too.
As for your claim of “wildly popular in the pagan masses” not really. Certainly not any more so than most other demographics. There’s a lot of highly liberated women in the pagan masses that complain a lot about the rapes. So apparently everything you need to know is absolutely nothing.
There’s no such foregone conclusion. Not all violence in story telling is gratuitous. Some stories NEED violence. Certainly war stories need violence. And in the end GOT is a war story, actually 3 or 4 overlapping war stories.
It tells you he added his confirmation name to his birth name when he was 13.
I've never read where God considered slavery a sin. I believe God expected those who had slaves to treat them well and allow them the Sabbath to rest.
I would be interested in the scripture that speaks directly to slavery as sin.
It concerns me that Christian moralists confound sex with adultery. One is good the other evil and they are not the same. Nudity is not evil, beauty is not evil, what is evil is sex outside the bounds of marriage and coveting that which belongs to another. Sex and nudity are beautiful as a Bach symphony, it is dualism and that would say other. There are appropriate settings for each and inappropriate as well, but that does not permit a wholesale denigration.
In like manner these moralists decry violence, but what is the human fallen condition but violent. They fail to differentiate violence from sociopathic brutality. Recall that Christ comes back in violence. War is necessary for peace in a fallen world, but war is violent.
To witness the violence or the sexuality of fallen man is not evil, anymore than watching a documentary oh Hitler is evil. Just because the subject matter is evil does not make the watching evil. But as a steady diet of pop culture might deter one from a more beautiful and godly expression, so one should take care to make wise choices to preserve your appetite for what is good, beautiful an right.
Can God bless America today?
Answer: Leviticus 21:22-24
‘”You are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live (dwell in it) will not spew you out. Moreover, you shall not follow the customs (walk in the statutes) of the nation which I shall drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them. Hence I have said to you, “You are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples.’
So, is America now a land of pagans and is the land going to spew us out?
I enjoy Game of Thrones but dislike the constant sex and gore in my face however that is the way the world was, is and will be till we reach the end as GOD promised we would.
Of course there’s no sex or violence in the Bible.
Ditto except I also know it is produced by the entertainment media which, along with the news media, is actively trying to destroy our culture and country. That's all I need to know.
 |
 |
 |
|
| Send FReepmail if you want on/off GOT Ping List GOT Ping List to be maintained only so long as the TV series runs |
|
| No spoilers of events that havenÕt yet happened on the TV series, please Violators to be removed from the list |
|
| Game of Thrones WIKI GOT WhoÕs Who, Seasons 1-3 GOT Hi-Rez Speculative Map |
|
| The List of Ping Lists | |
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
