By Chuck Colson
Texas Insider Report: Washington D.C. Its time to put down that snow shovel gather round the television and participate in the annual national bonding event known as the Super Bowl. Now Im not talking about the game itself but about something far more important to most Americans: the commercials!
Ah yes! Weve waited a whole year.
While many of us are still in the icy grip of this recession pro footballs championship game hardly seems to have noticed. 30-second spots selling everything from corn chips to luxury cars are going for a cool $3 million dollars each.
That doesnt even include all the money needed to produce these big-budget sales pitches.
Every year however some proposed ads dont make the cut because they are too controversial. Youll recall that one starring Tim Tebow and his mother last year was almost pulled because of its pro-life message.
Thank heavens it aired!
But this year theres one ad Im very glad to say you wont see. Its an ad that promotes the website of a company called Ashley Madison.
This site isnt offering career help or a new line of womens clothes. No Ashley Madison promotes good old-fashioned adultery. In the ad a scantily clad woman played by a porn star apparently is getting excited by the fact that her husband is cheating on her.
The Fox network rightly rejected the ad. Ashley Madison responded by claiming that it is evidence of I kid you not an unfair bias against porn stars.
Folks you cant make this stuff up! I hope there is still some kind of bias against porn stars on prime time television.
The fact is though that in this morally confused culture we face constant pressure in our media in our institutions and in our daily interactions to do the wrong thing to cut corners to indulge in self-gratification to cheat.
For example
a new movie called No Strings Attached starts off with the increasingly popular notion that some of us are just too busy to work on relationships and so having sex with no commitment no strings attached is a perfectly acceptable lifestyle choice.
And we wonder why the rates of divorce and broken families are soaring not to mention sexually transmitted diseases?
Rightly did the existential philosopher Albert Camus warn
A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon the world.
Of course our ethically challenged problems go far beyond our sexual misbehavior. As Ive said many times one of the biggest reasons for the economic crisis is that we-Main Street Wall Street and Capitol Hill and the people-refused to live within our means.
We need to get back to ethical fundamentals in this country-and fast.
Thats why Im very excited about
a new six-part video series weve put together called Doing the Right Thing. It focuses on restoring ethical decision-making in a society that has been from the bedroom to the board room less than ethical.
Doing the Right Thing features Robert George Brit Hume & many other key thinkers on this vital topic and youll want to get a copy for your church or group. Its going to be released in March but you can pre-order Doing the
Right Thing by going to
Colson Center.org today for more information.
When you watch the Super Bowl count how many ads promote doing the wrong thing and how many promote doing the right thing. Im guessing when you do that youll agree with me that we need a re-birth of ethics in this country.
To read more from Chuck Colson or other BreakPoint authors visit BreakPoint.org.
