Lofland bLOG

I have recently witnessed yet another family who spent most of their years of existence running from ‘evil’ suddenly caught by it.

They avoided all modern media, nearly all movies, all forms of “rock” music, youth groups in churches, and just about anything else that could possibly be considered anything short of “perfect.” This running from evil was part of what they ate, what they wore, their education and everything.

Then, all in one day, they discover, that despite (and maybe even because
of?) their constant running from anything with the slightest hint of anything evil, evil found them. In fact evil had caught their familiy in ways that few families are caught. Things that the most liberal soul outraged!

Seems I heard someone say recently something to the effect of “You can’t run from it, it will hunt you down and catch you like a dog.” I know the word he used was “sorrow,” but it seemed to really be a good synonym for “evil” in both that scenario, and the ones I speak of now. If you haven’t seen The Village, do. If you don’t get it, either A. You are in a BAD way, or B. You are lucky enough to have not experienced what I’m talking about.

I really start to wonder if God ever intended for us to run from evil in the way that these people have. We don’t all hide in a “village,” but many hide behind high standards that keep them from living in our world.

I’m not advocating that we all start indulging in pornography, eating pepperoni pizza three meals a day, listen to music full of foul language or become nudists.

I am saying, though, that maybe the reasons for your decisions needs to be based on your knowledge of your relationship with Christ, and not on your fear of a relationship with the devil.

“Hey mom, look who’s on TV. The devil!” - Oh, did I quote another movie?

Everything in our culture is not evil, and running from everything in our culture will not protect you from evil.

Recently I heard on the radio that the motion picture association is going to start legal action against those it can find swapping pirated movies on the Internet.

It somehow strikes me as very ironic to see artists pulling in the law to defend them against the theft of music and movies that glorify breaking the law.

I mean, isn’t it kind of odd to think of being arrested for stealing “Gone in Sixty Seconds”? Or to have the police show up at your door and haul you off for pirating music that talks about selling drugs?

Seems like they are fighting the culture that they are promoting, with the weapons that they criticize the most.

It is very tempting to post a copy of some song ranting against the police on my web site, and wait for them to show up to haul me off for doing it.

I’ve finally been taken in by the “weblog” fad.

I have posted my “doings” in the past, but I hope for this to be more of just “my thoughts” on various topics.

My two reasons for this are:

1. To have some place where I can easily jot down my random thoughts on life for myself to keep and others to muse over.

2. To make it simple for anyone who feels the urge to make comments on my random thoughts.

So, check back here from time to time to see what nonsense I have put up, and please do leave your comments for me and all to see.

I will be “moderating” the comments, so they won’t show up until I read them and hit the “approve” button. That will eliminate the trash that tends to show up in these things (”grow hair fast!”). Also, if you don’t want your comment to be public, just mark it as PRIVATE in the title, and I’ll see it, but I won’t release it for the world to see.