"Our children are learning to kill and learning to like it; and then we have the audacity to say, 'Oh my goodness, what's wrong?'"[1]
"A group of third grade boys and girls have been caught conspiring to do physical harm, if not kill, their teacher.... The plot was hatched in retaliation for the scolding of a student for standing on a chair.... The eight to ten year olds intended to do violence to their teacher, and even delegated individual responsibilities in a plan to knock her unconscious with a crystal paperweight, bind her with handcuffs and tape, and then stab her with a knife!"[2]
A "dying" lake may look clean on the surface, while algae and decay spreads in the dark water below. But by the time the scum stains the surface, most of the lake is corrupt.[3] Sad to say, a similar process is transforming America.
Today we see the signs of spiritual and moral corruption all around us. The latest warning seems especially shocking, because the children are so young. Only eight to ten years old! Yet, they have already learned to despise authority, trust their feelings, and shamelessly follow their own destructive way.
This particular conspiracy involved nine "learning disabled" third-graders at Center Elementary School in south Georgia. Wanting revenge, they actually conspired to attack and harm -- apparently even kill -- their teacher. As a team, they had planned their roles and were armed with the tools and weapons needed for "success." Some were assigned to stand guard and clean up after the attack.
"We're not sure at this point in the investigation how many of the students actually knew the intent was to hurt the teacher," said Police Chief Tony Tanner. "But because they are kids, they may have thought this was like a cartoon — we do whatever and then she stands up and she's OK."[4]
It makes sense. In the "creative" minds of many children today, there is no real separation between reality and fantasy. The surreal worlds of television and role-playing games [RPG] seem far more familiar and exciting than the physical world they actually inhabit.
Deceived by fantasy
Before television and video games won the hearts of children, real life was learned by observing nature. Children discovered the basics of physics by climbing trees, jumping off rocks, building mud castles, bridging creeks, making kites, etc. They would read stories and hear some fables, but they knew enough about real life to separate fact from fiction.
Through contemporary entertainment, life and learning have been turned upside down. The emphasis is now on feelings and fantasy, not on facts or reality. In comparison, the latter may seem downright boring. Children learn to identify with magical creatures instead of down-to-earth heroes. They imagine mythical powers that prompt them to distort (either inflate or deflate) their own strength. So they shut their eyes to an unwanted reality, choosing instead the virtual experiences that feel better than the truth.
Through group "dialogue" (which start in kindergarten) children learn to measure good and evil by group consensus -- and that consensus is often based on the level of excitement, not on moral values. God's Word summarizes the results: "You love evil more than good...." Psalm 52:3
"After the Jonesboro shootings, one of the high-school teachers told me how her students reacted when she told them about the shootings at the middle school. 'They laughed!' ...
"A similar reaction happens all the time in movie theaters when there is bloody violence. The young people laugh and cheer and keep right on eating popcorn and drinking pop. We have raised a generation of barbarians who have learned to associate violence with pleasure, like the Romans cheering and snacking as the Christians were slaughtered in the Coliseum."[1]
Toying with Death
"Are we training our children to kill?" asked Lieutenant Colonel David Grossman, an expert in the field of killology. For many years, he has "traveled the world training medical, law enforcement, and U.S. military personnel about the realities of warfare." He contends that point-and-shoot video games actually train young players to accurately shoot and kill human targets in spite of their natural, God-given resistance. His statistics validate his frightening conclusions:
"Children don't naturally kill. It is a learned skill. And they learn it... most pervasively, from violence as entertainment in television, the movies, and interactive video games.
"Killing requires training because there is a built-in aversion to killing one's own kind... Within the midbrain there is a powerful, God-given resistance to killing your own kind.... When we human beings are overwhelmed with anger and fear, we slam head-on into that midbrain resistance that generally prevents us from killing. Only sociopaths -- who by definition don't have that resistance—lack this innate violence immune system....
"During World War II, US Army Brig. Gen. S. L. A. Marshall had a team of researchers study what soldiers did in battle.... They discovered that only 15 to 20 percent of the individual riflemen could bring themselves to fire at an exposed enemy soldier. Men are willing to die, they are willing to sacrifice themselves for their nation; but they are not willing to kill. It is a phenomenal insight into human nature; but when the military became aware of that, they systematically went about the process of trying to fix this 'problem.'..."The training methods militaries use are brutalization, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and role modeling. ... Just as the army is conditioning people to kill, we are indiscriminately doing the same thing to our children, but without the safeguards."[1]
1. Desensitization & Brutalization
In the military 'boot camp,' "brutalization is designed to break down your existing mores and norms" and cause you "to accept a new set of values that embrace destruction, violence, and death as a way of life," explained Col. Grossman. "In the end, you are desensitized to violence and accept it as a normal and essential survival skill.... Something very similar ... is happening to our children through violence in the media—but instead of 18-year-olds, it begins at the age of 18 months. At that age, a child can watch something happening on television and mimic that action. ... When young children see somebody shot, stabbed, raped, brutalized, degraded, or murdered on TV, to them it is as though it were actually happening.”[1] He gave this example:
"The Journal of the American Medical Association published the definitive study on the impact of TV violence. It compared two nations or regions that were demographically and ethnically identical; only one variable is different: the presence of television. 'In every nation, region, or city with television, there is an immediate explosion of violence on the playground, and within 15 years there is a doubling of the murder rate.
"Why 15 years? That is how long it takes for the brutalization of a three-to five-year-old to reach the ‘prime crime age.’"[1]
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation published another revealing study last fall: "43% of the kids age 2 and younger watched TV on a typical day and... 26% had a TV in their room. The median amount of time spent watching: two hours a day."[5] Small wonder our elementary schools are changing!
"... 93% of the 39 schools that responded to the survey said kindergartners today have 'more emotional and behavioral problems' than were seen five years ago. More than half the day-care centers said 'incidents of rage and anger' had increased over the past three years. 'We're talking about children—a 3-year-old in one instance—who will take a fork and stab another child in the forehead.'"
"Violence is getting younger and younger," said Ronald Stephens, director of California's National School Safety Center. "Initially, it was high schools that created these schools [for disruptive students], then middle schools. Now it's elementary. Who would have thought years ago that this would be happening?"[5]
Actually, Col. Grossman did. He cited a study by Journal of the American Medical Association on the impact of TV violence:
"Hundreds of sound scientific studies demonstrate the social impact of brutalization by the media. The Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that 'the introduction of television in the 1950s caused a subsequent doubling of the homicide rate, i.e., long-term childhood exposure to television is a causal factor behind approximately one half of the homicides committed in the United States, or approximately 10,000 homicides annually.' (June 10, 1992)."
Consider these sad statistics:
-
"The average child watches 27 hrs of TV each week."
-
"The average child gets more one-on-one communication from TV than from parents & teachers combined.
-
"60% of men on TV are involved in violence.... 11% are killers."
-
"15 years after introduction of TV in USA, homicides, rapes and assaults doubled."[1]
2. Classical Conditioning
You may remember Pavlov's dogs. Week after week, those four-legged Soviet laboratory specimens were fed at the sound of a bell, and eventually they learned to associate the ringing bell with their tasty morsels. Once conditioned, they would salivate whenever the bell rang. This study—together with the Hegelian dialectic process—helped lay the foundation for Communist brainwashing. Col. Grossman explained its relevance today:
"What is happening to our children is the reverse of the aversion therapy portrayed in the movie A Clockwork Orange. In A Clockwork Orange, a brutal sociopath, a mass murderer, is strapped to a chair and forced to watch violent movies while he is injected with a drug that nauseates him. So he sits and gags and retches as he watches the movies. After hundreds of repetitions of this, he associates violence with nausea, and it limits his ability to be violent....
"We are doing the exact opposite: Our children watch vivid pictures of human suffering and death, learning to associate it with their favorite soft drink and candy bar, or their girlfriend's perfume....
"Television violence... conditions you to derive pleasure from violence."[1]
3. Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning is based on the simple psycho-social formula: stimulus-response, stimulus-response..... A modern example of this procedure is the use of flight simulators to train pilots. "An airline pilot in training sits in front of a flight simulator for endless hours," wrote Col. Grossman. "When a particular warning light goes on, he is taught to react in a certain way. When another warning light goes on, a different reaction is required. Stimulus-response, stimulus-response, stimulus-response. One day the pilot is actually flying a jumbo jet; the plane is going down, and 300 people are screaming behind him.... But he has been conditioned to respond reflexively to this particular crisis."
The reverse of this principle is used to train both our soldiers and our police force. According to Col. Grossman,
"The military and law enforcement community have made killing a conditioned response.... Whereas infantry training in World War II used bull's-eye targets, now soldiers learn to fire at realistic, man-shaped silhouettes that pop into their field of view. That is the stimulus.... Later, when soldiers are on the battlefield ... and somebody pops up with a gun, they will shoot reflexively and shoot to kill....
"Now, if you're a little troubled by that, how much more should we be troubled by the fact that every time a child plays an interactive point-and-shoot video game, he is learning the exact same conditioned reflex and motor skills.... Our children are learning to kill and learning to like it; and then we have the audacity to say, 'Oh my goodness, what's wrong?'"[1]
A report from the Schiller Institute in Washington D.C. shows an even more sobering side of the problem:
"Recently released medical studies indicate that violent video games damage the brain, possibly permanently.... This national scandal has been covered for the benefit of the $10 billion-a-year video-game industry, of which violent games rated 'M,' for Mature, are the fastest-growing segment. Approximately 20 million Americans, many under 18, play these 'M' games. The studies, many years in the making, show that repeated playing of violent video games 'desensitizes' the activities of the brain involved in reasoning and planning, while activating those functions that respond to violence. The studies include scientific data indicating that these games may actually cause destructive behavior."[6]
Those who are obsessed with point-and-shoot role-playing games [RPGs] learn more than a killer instinct. Many embrace the occultism that drives the myth behind the violence.
4. Role Models
Children who watch television and youth who play violent and occult RPGs find plenty of shocking role models that shape their dreams and mold their values. Britney Spears is among today's best known pied pipers, but the imaginary heroes hidden in popular anime, slasher movies and RPGs can be just as influential—if not more so.
Resisting the Violence
Do you wonder what will happen to our nation and culture when these conditioned youth reach adulthood? Might the civilized world be following a path to corruption and chaos that makes the decadence in ancient Rome seem mild by comparison? Even if our own children refuse to participate in this dark and depraved world of the imagination, will they live in a world eventually subjugated to barbarians and thugs?
We can only touch the children in the sphere of influence God has given us. But we can't afford to be silent! So here are a few suggestions:
1. Pray! Our Shepherd will show each of us what we can do to equip ourselves and our families.
2. Put on the Armor of God. The greatest weapon against the world's deceptions is God's Word. The Armor (Ephesians 6:10-18) provides an outline of the vital truth that can expose and resist any of Satan's lies.
3. Be watchful. Explain the danger of RPGs to your children. Share the statistics and the horrendous consequences of the conditioning process. Show them items in the newspaper that provide current and relevant examples and warnings.
4. Understand the Nature and Tactics of Satan. Children need to be alert to both his timeless and his current strategies. We are all engaged in a spiritual war—and we cannot close our eyes to the realities of the foes that assault us.
5.
Keep praising God who gives us the victory. Know His Names and count on His promises. "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24For more information, read Role-Playing Games & Popular Occultism and The Power of Suggestion
1. Dave Grossman, "Trained to Kill" at http://www.killology.com/print/print_trainedtokill.htm
2. Finn Laursen, "Georgia Third Grade Teacher Target of Student Rage," April 3, at http://christiannewswire.com/news/933316157.html
3. For example: "Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest natural lake, is dying.... On the surface, the 70-kilometre-long lake is breathtakingly beautiful.... But beneath the surface, the situation is very different." Can Mexico's largest lake be saved? Another example: www.bayweekly.com/year05/issuexiii41/leadxiii41.html
4. Ed Pilkington, Cops: 3rd-Graders Plotted Teacher Attack
5. Claudia Wallis, "Does Kindergarten Need Cops?" Time Magazine, December 7, 2003.
6. Schiller Institute at http://www.schillerinstitute.org/new_viol/videos_brain.html
Provided by Berit Kjos
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, but have been very lukewarm in your spiritual walk with Him, you need to immediately ask Him for forgiveness and for renewal. He will instantly forgive you, and fill your heart with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Then, you need to begin a daily walk of prayer and personal Bible Study.
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God bless you.
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