Anyone who turns on a television or goes to the movies in India cannot help but see signs of America\u2019s cultural clout.<\/p>\n\n
It\u2019s also easy to spot the deep influence of India and Eastern cultures in American entertainment, from Oprah to Disney, from \u201cThe Matrix\u201d to \u201cAmerican Beauty.\u201d The screen stars keep finding the god or the truth that lies within, while striving to lose themselves in love and light sometime before their next reincarnation.<\/p>\n\n
There are many paths to one eternal mystery and all viewers have to do is pick a channel and then get in touch with their feelings. It seems as if most of the seekers who shop in today\u2019s global mall have fiber-optic cables running directly into their souls.<\/p>\n\n
The eyes rule.<\/p>\n\n
That\u2019s entertainment. And that\u2019s spirituality, in the age of the visual.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe medium of entertainment has become the shaper of a generation\u2019s way of thinking,\u201d said Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, speaking at the Rev. Billy Graham\u2019s recent Amsterdam conference for itinerant evangelists.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe are meant to see THROUGH the eye, but WITH the conscience. Instead, today we see WITH the eye and (are) devoid of the conscience,\u201d said the Indian-born philosopher, whose ministry is based in Atlanta, with offices in Toronto, Oxford and Chennai, India. \u201cFrom the Far East to the Far West, our eyes are being tantalized by violence and sensuality. How can the soul not be plundered when such an assault is upon us? I believe we must pause and understand this, or we will lose the eyes and hearing of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It was a complex message, but one that had implications for every evangelist in Amsterdam or, for that matter, any leader in any other faith that claims to be built on truths that transcend human experience and feelings. For here is the essence of Zacharias\u2019 message: this is an age in which the dominant forms of communications technology are hostile to the very concept of doctrine.<\/p>\n\n
The lens and the screen are friendly to emotion, but they almost always undercut dogma. It\u2019s hard to use words to debate pictures. This is sobering news for anyone who steps into a pulpit knowing that he or she is competing with Star Wars and the X-Files, with MTV and Nike.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIf I were to take all that I have said and reduce it to one sentence, it would be this,\u201d said Zacharias. \u201cHow do you reach a generation that hears with its eyes and thinks with its feelings?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Amsterdam 2000 was the third such gathering in the last three decades of Graham\u2019s career. This one drew 10,000-plus participants from 209 nations and territories, with organizers reporting that nearly two-thirds came from developing nations and the Third World.<\/p>\n\n
The 81-year-old evangelist could not attend and remained at the Mayo Clinic for ongoing treatments for Parkinson\u2019s disease and a buildup of fluid on his brain. In a taped message for the finale, he told his evangelistic heirs to, \u201cLight a fire of commitment to proclaim the Gospel \u2026 to the ends of the earth, using every resource at our command and with every ounce of our strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In a final \u201cAmsterdam Declaration,\u201d the assembled evangelists affirmed, among other goals, the need to \u201cencourage new initiatives to reach and disciple youth and children worldwide; to make fuller use of media and technology. \u2026 We pledge ourselves to work so that all persons on earth may have an opportunity to hear the Gospel in a language they understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
But what if the language that unites the world is visual? What if visual entertainment continues to dominate education, science, news and faith?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI am afraid some day we will wake up and wonder how we were so foolish to have missed this powerful influence,\u201d said Zacharias. \u201cAnd we cannot run from it. We are in it. From the pictures that tell the story, to the music that is now visualized, we are in it. The sensations are being propelled through the eye-gate. \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe intellect will be seduced by the imagination. The tower of Babel could be built with one language \u2014 only it will be in pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anyone who turns on a television or goes to the movies in India cannot help but see signs of America\u2019s cultural clout. It\u2019s also easy to spot the deep influence of India and Eastern cultures in American entertainment, from Oprah to Disney, from \u201cThe Matrix\u201d to \u201cAmerican Beauty.\u201d The screen stars keep finding the god […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n