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Actor Ty Burrell told the press the other day he believes ABC's "Modern Family" program is "softening the hearts" of conservatives toward gay marriage and is helping normalize it.
Burrell plays a lead role in the show which attracts about 15 million viewers each week. He also stars in the newly released "Muppets Most Wanted" film.
Modern Family has a "normal" homosexual family with an adopted daughter.
The show also has a large viewership among Republicans, many of whom claim to be conservative and Christian.
In fact, more Republicans watch the show than Democrats. And it isn't about politics, but Burrell says it is changing the culture by changing Conservatives minds.
Ty Burrell told the Telegraph, "It's one of my favorite things about the show. I love it when I talk to conservatives and they're describing all three couples, and they never mention that one of them is gay. That's the brilliance of the writing," he says.
He explains how the show seduces conservatives and Republicans---"In a completely unagressive, apolitical way, they are showing this couple as completely normal, dealing with ordinary stuff. The banality of it is the most revolutionary thing."
Ty Burrell is apparently not a homosexual. He was born in Grants Pass, OR, raised in Applegate, near Medford, is married to a woman and has 2 adopted children.
He is, however, very passionate about changing the culture. And redefining marriage. He also recognizes the power of television and film.
He says he thinks the writers of the show are "making the world a better place."
He says, "The show is creating progress."
My friend Bryan Fischer with the American Family Association is calling Modern Family "poison," not progress.
He says, "It's just like getting a little bit of poison over a long period of time, eventually you get enough accumulation in there where it can be kind of lethal to the organism. And I think that's what you're seeing with a lot of this programming."
Agreed.
But why are so many so-called conservative Republicans watching this program?
In 2010, the Hollywood Reporter did an extensive study on who watches what on television. Among the profiles they developed was one that showed which programs Republicans watched and which Democrats watched.
"Modern Family" was ranked 3rd favorite among Republicans, but was not even on the top 15 list of Democrats.
Does this illustrate, at least in part, why too many in the Republican Party, in recent years, have become so intent on dumping so-called "social issues" from the narrative? And the platform?
Does this have anything to do with Laura Bush, Dick Cheny and a host of other very visible Republicans now publicly supporting the redefinition marriage?
Perhaps too many are watching too much television.
Fischer is right. Poison dripping into the culture will eventually take its toll.
Burrell says he believes television program content has become more "permissive" in recent years, and "that's a good thing."
Cecil B. DeMille, often referred to as the "father" of what we know as "Hollywood" and the modern entertainment industry, also knew the power of entertainment---in his case the "big screen."
In the book, "DeMille: The Man and His Pictures" (p. 160) he's quoted, "It is a sobering thought, that the decisions we make at our desks in Hollywood may intimately affect the lives of men, women and children throughout the world."
After DeMille had premiered his "The Ten Commandments" starring Charlton Heston, he wrote this in reflection:
"More than 3000 years ago, the great charter of human relations was brought down from Sinai on two tablets of stone by one who was also a builder between man and man and between man and God. In the drama that took place there on Sinai you have in the two brothers, Moses and Aaron, a perfect contrast between public relations used to delude humanity."
"Both Moses and Aaron saw the people's need."
"Aaron taking the short view and looking for the quick result gave the people something glittering to worship, the Golden Calf. Moses gave them the Truth. He gave them hardship, privation, a long, parched, sun baked hungry trek through the most forbidding and desolate desert to the foot of Sinai and the Ten Commandments. Between those two, the calf of gold and the Law of God, the struggle for men's minds and hearts continues to this day."
"The outward form of the struggle changes but it goes on in every age, facing all men with the same question. Which do you put first, material values or spiritual values."
I never knew DeMille, but I knew people who had worked directly with him. They all said this statement defines who he was and what he believed.
While DeMille never claimed to be a Christian, he embraced the Old Testament---God's Law.
I met his daughter Katherine DeMille (Quinn). She was a gracious lady who in later life publicly spoke of her love for the Lord. She was active in a prison outreach ministry, the Hollywood Free Theater and the domestic crises intervention ministry Centrum of Hollywood.
The people who created the entertainment industry understood the power of their product.
Unfortunately, those who have followed in the industry also recognize the power of their product.
The struggle for men's hearts and minds continues, as DeMille said it would.
The redefinition of marriage and family, and the devaluing of life is the golden calf of our times, and it stands in direct defiance to God's law and model for marriage, family and the sanctity of life.
This golden calf has been raised high in the market place of our culture. The party and parade is well under way.
The question is, will I party or will I pray---and choose God's way---will I follow the parade or will I travel the path sometimes less traveled?
I have read the last page. In the final scene God's Truth prevails.
Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful. Be Bold. Be Blessed.