Why does America love death so much?

Do you ever wonder why American society is fascinated with death? From movies to entertainments to conversation to society in general, it's a culture of death.

I'm old enough to remember life, culture, and entertainment before our national fascination with death. In the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, Movie posters used brighter colors. Blood and gore were normally absent. Discussion about death or dead people were done in reverent tones. It was a serious subject.

If a character on a highly rated television show died, it was a cause for "a very special episode." When the 1983 television film "The Day After", a film depicting a nuclear war on American soil, was broadcast, warnings about the devastating emotional effect accompanied it, along with telephone numbers for people to call counselors.

Back then, people were sensitive to death. It wasn't sought out. It wasn't treated lightly. It certainly wasn't light entertainment.

By now, in 2017, it is.

One of the top rated TV shows (on Netflix) is 13 Reasons Why,a graphic depiction of a teenager's life which includes bullying, rape and then suicide. Many viewers and critics say that the show, while striving to present the issue of teen suicide in a mature light, actually glamorizes it. Death occurs in action movies and even cartoons as a standard event. Promotion posters are usually dark, using black and gray colors, with graphic sprays of blood and other disturbing images.

Why has the nation taken such a turn for the worse in its entertainment choices and daily images?

Here is the answer.

For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the LORD,
but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.
(Proverbs 8:35-36)

Jim Osman of Kootenai Community Church (in Idaho) preached last week a sermon called, The House of Mourning, (Ecclesiastes 7:1-4). He made an observation I'd like to pass along to you.

I think we'd all agree as Pastor Osman stated that America is a Romans 1 nation, meaning that because we have rejected God, He has turned us over to our sins, nationally. He's abandoned us so to speak. John MacArthur talks about this kind of wrath as the "wrath of abandonment." You can read about the progression of national and individual rejection in Romans 1:18-32.

Becuase God is life, when we reject Him, we remain dead in our sins. The proverbs verse stated that very clearly. "All who hate Me love death." It can't be clearer that that.

Our national entrancement with death is a clear sign of our spiritual state. All who hate God love death. America loves death, from top to bottom, inside out.

There you have it.



Above collage is an excerpt from a larger piece called "Images of our human spirit before salvation," by EPrata.

Comments

  1. Well said.

    -Carolyn

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  2. The KJV says in Proverbs 8:36, "But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul..." Much more serious than 'he who fails to find me injures himself'. Good pair of verses though. I also believe the infatuation with death has to do with the vast number of tattoos we see now. In the law, cutting and marking flesh was forbidden because the pagans did it in honor and mourning over the dead. Now we're to bear the marks of Jesus Christ in our bodies. It's definitely something you can't help but notice.

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  3. Hi Anonymous,

    I agree with your good point about the tattoos. They're ubiquitous now and ugly.

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