Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century, or maybe the wrong half century!! Things I hate about modern pop-culture:
- Tattoos!! It's amazing that people would mutilate themselves with these hideous things.
- Body Piercings!!! - even more gross!!
- Metal music. Not so much for the style, which I don't care for either, but rather more for the content which seems to tend toward the very dark and evil side of life. Is "Death-Metal" a redundant term?? Most metal seems to glorify death, sort of like our culture does.
My main principle for life-style is "does it glorify the Lord, does it respect the temple that are bodies are for the Holy Spirit? also -- Would it cause my witness as a Christian to suffer, or my example as a father to suffer, or my relationship with my spouse to suffer?? " I try to live my life as an open book. I'm not always successful, but I usually go to bed at night with a clear conscience.
I have my own sins that I struggle with. The overt sexuality in our media is one. You'll be watching some mystery or comedy on TV and suddenly you are watching a scene that would have been considered porn 20 years ago (and sometimes not even "soft" porn). I'm attracted to that, as most men are, but I'm trying to be more conscious of it and turn to something else or turn it off when we are being assaulted with un-wanted titillation and sensuality. It's important for men to guard against what the eye is attracted to, we can be so easily seduced from the righteous path.
I won't even mention the Internet, where it's even more insidious, except to say -- Men, invest in good blocking software, and then forget the password once you set it to block porn and violence!! Have your wives set the password if need be. The content filter we have is a good one, and I highly recommend it -- BSafe Online -- it's a good product and seems to work well with few problems ( http://www.bsafehome.com ). It also has antivirus, anti-spam and popup blocking features too.
I do find that the more in-tune with Christ I am, the easier it is to fight against the culture's influence in your life. I've been trying to be more deliberate about my spiritual life -- Christian walk -- lately. I'm striving to make spiritual disciplines more a part of my life than they have been. It's been heartening to see almost immediate affects too from that effort, Praise the Lord. Christ really is the only path to the Light of righteousness. We are ill-equipped to fight the Deceiver apart from Christ's strength.
Soli Deo Gloria!