The Naked Truth
By Jessica Greer
MTV has once again pushed a boundary that should be considered irredeemable.
They have introduced a new show to their teen and young adult audience that has been accused of presenting child pornography.
Accurately named Skins, the show is about what MTV argues is the “reality of teen life”: sexual promiscuity, drugs, alcohol, and all other imaginable forms of debauchery.
Their defense of this show as an “exposé of social teenage life” is a lie.
It is simply an exaggeration and glorification of sexual and drug-related activity.
Even the promotional trailer is nothing more than a high-fashion seduction ad.
The actors look like runway models in the most fashionable clothes, posing as though they are promoting a persona that all teens chase but never catch.
What can be more real than teens who not only escape their acne and awkward phase, but get themselves into deadly situations just to have a great time – yet never face the first consequence for a decision that in real life could leave them pregnant, diseased or dead? MTV has managed to outdo their recent reality hit, Teen Mom.
Even Kim Kardashian, a famous face for no reason, criticized MTV saying, “It’s not trendy to be a teenage mom.”
It would be easy to shrug our shoulders and blame the ways of the world for becoming more deviant every day, but the issue at hand is that 3.3 million viewers watched the opening pilot for this show, which ended in a backlash. Most were viewers under 20.
The truth is that no one is telling the truth anymore.
The deception behind this type of controversial and shocking show is that it comes in the name of truth.
Psalm 52:1-4 says: “Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God? You who practice deceit, your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor. You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth. You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue!”
When entertainment fused with reality it skewed truth for many young people.
Teenagers do not have the maturity and life experience to discern the counterfeit culture that bombards them on a daily basis.
The reality is that all realities portrayed on television are more likely a fabrication, because ultimately they are selling a product.
New technologies give predators access to children at higher rates – not just predators that physically destroy our children but (even more so) those who make a profit selling them a lethal product.
Truth is the most important fundamental value one can have.
When you enter higher education, the most esteemed work is the unadulterated search for truth. The challenge is that many who claim to present the truth are peddling confusion.
Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
How can teens sift through manufactured “truths” in order to find the real truth?
Reading the Word of God is the only way to connect yourself to the anchor of all truth, and from there wisdom will help them distinguish between truth and lies.
John 1:1-5 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Truth is a light in the darkness. When all the lies of confusion blend together, the truth does not. It stands out like a bold flavor that cannot be swallowed without taste.
The words of God can be used as a weapon to defend truth.
There is an assault in our culture to undermine truth by holding its value equal to all other words.
Take a stand against the violation of truth, whether in the media or your school.
Truth is infallible and does not need a believer to make it true.