What MTV is selling, besides music, movies, and soft drinks, is a socially liberal worldview in which personal autonomy, especially in sexual matters, is the highest good. And it’s in a unique position to succeed in its mission because, as Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone has written, MTV has been “handed endless generations of young people who are blank slates.”
Of course, kids are not supposed to be “blank slates.” Parents, communities, and churches are supposed to teach them what they need to know and believe. MTV’s success is proof of how the Church and our culture has failed in its most basic mission.
It’s also a challenge to all of us as Christian parents. We need to know who we’re up against. We need to know what our kids are being taught during school and after school. The lessons go far beyond how to spend their disposable income; they go all the way to “how now shall we live?”