Chapter 16

Sports and Entertainment

1, 2. (a) What sports or other entertainment do you particularly enjoy? (b) What is there about Jehovah’s handiwork that indicates that he wants us to enjoy life? (Psalm 104:14-24)

THERE is a worldwide interest in various sports and forms of entertainment. Each year billions of dollars are spent on enjoying them. Do you share an interest in these things? Do you, for example, like to go skiing or boating? Do you enjoy swimming, playing tennis or participating in other sports? Or do you perhaps find pleasure in going to movies or watching television programs?

² Some persons would say that such pleasures are wrong. What do you think? Why, some persons even claim that the Bible disapproves of these things. But, frankly, such persons have misrepresented the Bible and its author, Jehovah God. God’s Word speaks favorably of young people deriving pleasure from recreational activities. For example, in describing God’s blessed people, the Bible says: “The public squares of the city themselves will be filled with boys and girls playing.” Also, it says that there is “a time for dancing.” (Zechariah 8:5; Ecclesiastes 3:4, New English Bible) Obviously, God purposed that we should gain pleasure from wholesome recreational activities. One of the fruits of God’s spirit is “joy.” (Galatians 5:22) And our enjoyment of healthful recreational activities is normal and natural.

GUIDANCE TO ENHANCE PLEASURE

3-8. (a) What balanced counsel on recreation is found at 1 Timothy 4:7, 8? (b) How is “bodily training” beneficial? But what can happen when a person becomes too serious about sports? (c) What problems can confront a person if he gets involved in playing on a school team? What should help him to decide wisely as to whether this is what he will do?

³ To help us to gain pleasure from such activities, God has lovingly provided us with guidance. For example, so that we would avoid the unhealthful results of overeating, God’s Word counsels: “Do not come to be among . . . those who are gluttonous eaters of flesh.” (Proverbs 23:20) Similarly, he gives us this wise counsel in connection with recreational activities: “Be training yourself with godly devotion as your aim. For bodily training is beneficial for a little; but godly devotion is beneficial for all things, as it holds promise of the life now and that which is to come.”​—1 Timothy 4:7, 8.

⁴ So the Bible shows that “bodily training,” such as we get in sports, has its place. It is good for us; it can help us to develop physical coordination, flexibility, muscle tone and strength. Also, it can refresh us mentally, especially if we spend a lot of time studying. But note that the Bible cautions that “bodily training is beneficial for a little.” What can happen if such Bible advice is ignored and you become totally absorbed in sports?

⁵ For one thing, it can spoil the fun, making sports “serious business” rather than a welcome recreation. Pointing to the effects of overstressing competitive games, sports psychologist Bruce Ogilvie said: “I once interviewed the rookies in 10 major league baseball camps and 87 per cent of them said they wished they’d never played Little League baseball because it took the joy out of what had been a fun game.”

⁶ Also, some sports, such as football, can be dangerous, especially when your body is in the process of developing physically. Science Digest reports that about 12,000,000 American children, before they turn eighteen, suffer some permanent physical impairment from engaging in sports! One of professional football’s most prominent players would not let his two sons play in the children’s football leagues. “Parents don’t stop to think of all the things that can go wrong for a young fellow,” he said. “For one thing, he can come home with a handful of teeth.” What has made some sports so dangerous is the extreme competitiveness​—the win-at-all-costs attitude—​that is often encouraged.

⁷ Another thing to consider is the associations to which playing organized sports may expose you. Locker-room talk generally has the reputation of being sexually immoral. Furthermore, when a team takes a trip to play another school, one may for an extended time be in the company of persons who have little regard for faithfulness to God. This is something to think about, since God’s Word stresses “training yourself with godly devotion as your aim.” And how practical would it be to get involved in something that could easily damage your moral principles and your relationship with your Creator?

⁸ So sports are much like other things that are good when they are kept in balance​—when they don’t dominate your life so as to overshadow more important things, or expose you to damaging situations. How exhilarating it can be to play a fast-moving sport and experience the thrill as one’s body responds and performs feats of skill! It can provide a joy and satisfaction that is long remembered. And it can help you to appreciate our grand Creator who made us with the capabilities to do such things.

MOVIES AND TELEVISION

9-14. (a) When selecting a movie or TV show to watch, against what sort of thing does one need to be on guard? (b) How would it affect a person if he watched as entertainment things that are morally corrupt? Why? Even though we know that such acts are wrong, why should we not underestimate the effect that watching them could have on us?

⁹ The type of movie and TV entertainment we choose can also affect our relationship with God. Some movies and TV shows are delightful entertainment; some may even enhance our appreciation of our Creator’s marvelous handiwork. But no doubt you have noticed that many shows have exploded with stories featuring adultery, fornication, lesbianism, homosexuality, violence and mass killing. These may be viewed as entertainment. But how do they affect a person?

¹⁰ Well, ask yourself: How have you become the person you are today? Is it not by your environment and education, by what you have been taking into your mind, especially through your eyes and ears? Yes, to a large extent you are what you feed your mind. The more you are exposed to a certain thing, the more likely it becomes part of you.

¹¹ You wouldn’t think of choosing to eat a meal of filthy garbage, would you? What, then, if you are continually exposed to mental garbage? It is bound to become part of your thinking. When watching a motion picture, you are, in effect, associating with the kinds of persons being portrayed on the screen. And movies are deliberately designed to involve you emotionally with the characters, often arousing sympathy for the wrongdoer​—the fornicator, the homosexual, even the murderer. Do you want to get deeply involved in such a way with homosexuals, lesbians, fornicators, adulterers and criminals?

¹² Still, as you watch some act of sexual immorality or violence on the screen, you may think: “Why, I’d never do a thing like that!” True, right now it might repel you if someone were to suggest that you steal from your neighbor, lie to your friends or commit fornication. But what if you were to keep company with thieves, fornicators and homosexuals long enough, listening to their distorted thinking? In time, you might well become sympathetic toward them. What at first seemed repulsive might not seem that way in time. And consider this: How did the majority of homosexuals get to be that way? By spending time thinking about it and by associating with others who were that way.

¹³ You may feel that you would not engage in immorality. But what if you go to motion pictures with persons of the opposite sex and watch repeated acts of necking, petting and immorality? What will you be more likely to do after such movies, especially if you also have access to alcoholic beverages, which lower inhibitions? You know the answer. In effect, many of today’s films shout out: “We’re going to engage in badness! We’re going to break all laws, even God’s!” Is that the kind of influence you want working on you?

¹⁴ Do you honestly think that you are above being corrupted by bad influences? Remember, millions of once-decent, hardworking Europeans were “brainwashed” by Nazi propaganda to commit or support terrible crimes against humanity. So do not underestimate the effect that the corrupt propaganda spread through motion pictures on sex and violence can have on you.

FILLING THE NEED FOR RECREATION

15-19. What are some wholesome activities in which we can satisfy our need for recreation?

¹⁵ Our Creator made us with a need for recreation. But he never purposed that it should center around moral filth or violence, around the breaking of his laws. True, if you exclude movies and TV shows that feature these things, you may find that you are excluding a great many films and television programs. But there are still many wholesome forms of recreation that you can enjoy.

¹⁶ After all, what good is recreation or entertainment if, after it’s finished, you don’t feel refreshed or if it leaves you feeling disturbed or upset​—as the saying goes, with a ‘bad taste in your mouth’? If someone offered you something to eat and it looked good and tasted nice but after eating it you felt sick, would you go back for ‘seconds’? Be selective, then, as to how you spend your free time in recreation and entertainment. Don’t just “kill time” by settling for any kind of entertainment that happens to be on hand, but put some life into that free time by doing something that will bring real enjoyment and refreshment, something that you can look back on and remember with pleasure.

¹⁷ There is a variety of outdoor sports that you can play. Many folks have had hours of enjoyment hiking in the woods, playing handball and badminton, or pitching horseshoes. Some have set up a Ping-Pong table or pool table at home and invited their friends over to play such games. If you check with your parents, you may find that they will welcome your doing this.

¹⁸ You may also be able to visit museums or other places of interest that both entertain and inform. Have you visited a chicken farm, a dairy, an auction or a printing plant? If you live in a city, there may be government departments that can give you facts about places of interest in the city. They may tell you about the industries in your vicinity that welcome visitors. In addition, trips to scenic spots such as lakes, mountains and beaches can be delightful recreation, especially when families can enjoy these things together.

¹⁹ Of course, there is the need to exercise caution so that these pleasurable pursuits don’t become the chief objective in our lives, and we thereby fail to receive the benefits that they can provide. Yet how grateful we can be that our Creator has made us with the capacity to share in and enjoy such a wide variety of recreational activities! These can indeed make life more worth while.

Chapter 17

The Music and Dancing You Choose

1-3. (a) In what way is it true that the Creator has built music into our natural surroundings? (b) Give examples to show that the Bible speaks with approval of dancing.

MAN’S Creator built music into human surroundings. Not just the clear, flowing tones that spring from the throats of birds, but the gurgle of brooks, the whisper of the wind in the trees, the chirp of crickets, the croak of frogs and the calls of many others of earth’s creatures​—all of these have a musical sound to them. Not surprisingly, then, the development of musical instruments dates all the way back to the dawn of human history.

² Dancing, too, has an ancient history. In Israel, Moses’ sister Miriam led the women “with tambourines and in dances.” Also, after God helped King David defeat depraved enemies “the women began coming out from all the cities of Israel with song and dances.” It is evident, too, that Jesus Christ approved of dancing, since he mentioned it as a part of a proper celebration in his illustration about the prodigal son. Jesus spoke of “a music concert and dancing” being arranged when the prodigal returned. The Bible shows that some dancing was by individuals or by groups of men, or of women.​—Exodus 15:20; 1 Samuel 18:6; Luke 15:25.

³ Does that mean that all music and dancing are necessarily good? Or do you need to be selective in the music you listen to and the dances in which you might engage? What can help us to determine? How much does it really matter?

CHOICE IN DANCING

4-6. (a) What could make some dances objectionable for Christians? (Colossians 3:5, 6) (b) Why have certain modern dances been compared to ancient fertility dances?

⁴ There is a wide variety of dances​—from graceful waltzes to lively polkas. There are Latin-American congas, rumbas and sambas, also merengues, beguines and bossa novas, many of these having an African background. There is also rock ’n’ roll, as well as more recent dances. Is there good reason why you might have objection to certain of these dances?

⁵ There is if the dance arouses you sexually and brings a temptation to commit sexual immorality. It could cause you many problems.

⁶ Ancient fertility dances, for example, were designed to incite sexual passions, and certain modern dances have been reminiscent of these. Some years ago Time magazine observed:

“The Twist at first was an innocent enough dance . . . But the youngsters at [a certain New York nightclub] have revived The Twist and parodied it into a replica of some ancient tribal puberty rite.”

7-10. (a) If a person shared in such dancing, on what basis might others be attracted to the individual? Would you want to attract persons of the opposite sex on that basis? (b) Even in ballroom dancing, why is caution needed?

⁷ Many dances in recent years have been variants of the Twist. The dancers do not touch, but the hips and shoulders may gyrate in sexually suggestive ways. A young person’s passions may easily be aroused by watching a body perform these gyrations. A girl, for example, may not think anything about it, simply being caught up in the movements of the dance. But she shouldn’t ignore the effect on onlookers, and on what they might think of her, as this letter to the editor of the New York Times Magazine observes: “Let’s hope that the young (and not so young) bodies of our Twisters are lying, that their minds do not behave inside the way their pelvises and pectorals do outside.”

⁸ Even though you have no wrong motive, if you participate in such dances you would be wise to consider the kind of attraction you may be to other young persons. For example, are they attracted to you on the basis of the sexual arousal they get from you, a type of arousal they can get from persons who dress in tight clothing, and gyrate their hips and make various erotic gestures? Do you want to attract someone simply on that basis? Or do you want the kind of person who likes you for what you are? for the things that you feel are important in life? for your conversation? Are you interested in someone who takes pleasure in doing things for you, or only in what he can get from you?

⁹ Even ballroom dancing, which emphasizes foot patterns accompanied by graceful movements of the body and in which partners hold one another, may sometimes be sexually stimulating due to close physical contact. So, if you participate in such dances, considerately recognize the possibility that your partner could be stimulated improperly even though you may feel that it is not close enough for you to develop sensual pleasure from the dancing.

¹⁰ It’s a fact that most dances cannot be classified as either proper or improper. Many of them can be done either in a decent, proper way, or in a way that violates the counsel of God’s Word to behave in a clean, wholesome manner.

CHOICE OF MUSIC

11, 12. How does music exercise power? Cite examples.

¹¹ Just as with dancing, care and thought are also necessary in your choice of the music you listen to. Why? Because music has power. And, like any other power, it can serve for good or for harm.

¹² Where does music’s power come from? From its ability to cause a certain feeling, mood or spirit in people. Music can relax and soothe, or refresh and enliven. You can almost “feel” the difference between a vigorous march and a soft serenade. Music can stir every human emotion​—love, tenderness, reverence, sadness, anger, hatred and passion. Throughout history men have recognized music’s power and have used it to move people in certain ways. For instance, part of the triumph of the French Revolution is frequently credited to what one writer calls “the bloodcurdling call to arms” of the song La Marseillaise. And schools often have their “fight songs” used before athletic contests.

13-16. (a) How is the counsel at Proverbs 4:23 related to one’s choice of music? (b) How can music be a “catalyst,” and sometimes with lastingly harmful results?

¹³ In the Bible the heart is closely associated with emotions and motivation, so God’s Word counsels: “More than all else that is to be guarded, safeguard your heart, for out of it are the sources of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) Since music’s emotional power is a fact, our guarding our hearts requires being selective about the music we choose.

¹⁴ True, music’s moving effect is only temporary. But it is often long enough to give a decided push in a certain direction, or to lower resistance to a certain attraction or temptation. If you studied chemistry in school you learned about “catalysts.” You learned that the combining of two or more chemicals can often be achieved only by using some other ingredient that, in effect, brings the chemicals together. That ingredient is a “catalyst.” Now, we all have certain weaknesses and wrong inclinations, and so we feel tempted at times to do certain things that are wrong. Suppose circumstances come up that encourage you to do a wrong act. Music can be the “catalyst” that will cause desire and circumstances to combine​—resulting in something you may afterward seriously regret. On the basis of her studies, one researcher for a government commission studying pornography said:

¹⁵ “Music, by playing on girls’ emotions to arouse love and affection, frequently serves as a catalyst for love and thereby a stimulus for sexual arousal in the adolescent female. . . . The music surfaces this feeling.”

¹⁶ Yes, the impulse that music supplies, though temporary, may be all that is needed to trigger you into a course or way of life that is itself long lasting or that produces results that are. So, is it not worth your while to use discernment where music is involved?

THE PROBLEM OF DECIDING

17, 18. By listening to a piece of music, how can you determine whether it is something that is good for you or something that is bad?

¹⁷ Actually, no one can provide you with a list that immediately identifies what music is good and what is bad. The reason is that among practically all kinds of music there is none that can be stamped as “all good” or “all bad.” You have to use your mind and heart for discerning the individual value of certain music, and be guided by principles such as those already considered. And your choice tells others something as to the kind of person you are.

¹⁸ “Does not the ear itself test out words as the palate tastes food?” asked Job long ago. (Job 12:11) So, too, your ear can test out music. Even without the words, you can often tell what kind of mood or spirit a piece is designed to produce, what kind of conduct it encourages. That was the case with the music that Moses heard on coming down from Mount Sinai and approaching the Israelite camp. As he said to Joshua: “It is not the sound of the singing over mighty performance [a victory song], and it is not the sound of the singing of defeat [a mournful singing]; it is the sound of other singing that I am hearing.” The singing actually reflected wild and idolatrous immoral activity.​—Exodus 32:15-19, 25.

19-22. (a) Against what do those who like classical music need to be on guard? (b) As to the effect of some jazz and rock music, what facts deserve thoughtful consideration?

¹⁹ Consider more recent examples. Classical music, for instance, generally has a dignified, sometimes majestic sound. But while much of it may have a rather noble effect on one’s thoughts, some of it deals with and even glorifies the sordid or selfish side of life. It is worth remembering that many famous classical composers lived immoral, even dissolute, lives. And though they generally wrote for an audience that supposedly appreciated the “finer things of life,” it is almost unavoidable that some of their warped outlook and warped emotions would show up in some of their music, with or without words. So, if we want to guard the health of our minds and hearts, even so-called “serious” music cannot be accepted without question.

²⁰ At the other end of the musical spectrum from classical compositions we find the syncopated jazz and rock music. Even here one finds some music that is melodic and moderate. But some of it is wild and strident. That is why musicians themselves distinguish between jazz and rock music that is “soft” and that which is “hot,” “hard” or “acid.” You should be able to tell what kind of conduct the music is promoting​—your ear, your mind and heart should tell you. The words or the tone of certain music is sometimes so obvious that people easily associate it with certain types of conduct or kinds of persons. The Bible, for example, speaks of the “songs of drinkers” and the “song of a prostitute.” (Psalm 69:12; Isaiah 23:15, 16) What about today?

²¹ If, for example, you read in the newspaper about a music concert or festival and the report tells of people screaming, girls fainting, the use of drugs and of the police having to be brought in to keep the theater from being wrecked​—what kind of music would you think was involved in the performance? If you hear of a popular young singer or musician dying of an overdose of drugs​—what kind of music would you think he or she specialized in?

²² You probably know that many young people are drawn to rock music because they believe that its lyrics describe the realities and problems of the world around them. Perhaps more than any other form of popular music, rock music tries to put across a message: on the problems of growing up, the generation gap, drugs, sex, civil rights, dissent, poverty, war and similar topics. It tries to express many young people’s discontent with social injustices and their ideas for a better world. But what has been the general effect? What has it done for most young people? What real solutions have its philosophies brought them? If such music is designed to bring realities into focus, why is so much of it drug-oriented, some lyrics being understandable only to those who take drugs? These are questions to consider.

23-25. (a) In connection with music, what is the point of the counsel at Ecclesiastes 7:5? (b) Whom should we consider when choosing music and dances? Why? (1 Corinthians 10:31-33; Philippians 1:9, 10) (c) So why is our choice as to music and dancing no light matter?

²³ So, your choice of music is no light matter. You can let others decide for you simply by going along with the crowd, choosing what is popular, what has mass appeal. Or you can think for yourself and use care in selecting, guided by the enduring and superior wisdom found in God’s Word. Ecclesiastes 7:5 says: “Better is it to hear the rebuke of someone wise than to be the man hearing the song of the stupid ones.” The “stupidity” the Bible talks about is no mere mental dumbness but means moral stupidity, following a course that can only bring future trouble.

²⁴ You may feel that you can listen to music containing some words that go contrary to what is true and right or that has a sensual, wild sound to it, and still not be affected. You may feel similarly about the dances you dance. But what kind of influence are you on others? Do you feel as the apostle Paul, who said that he was willing to forgo even such proper things as eating meat if thereby he could avoid becoming a stumbling block to others? With what kind of persons does the music you choose identify you?

²⁵ Your choice, then, of the music to which you listen and the dances in which you might engage shows whether you are simply interested in a “good time” or in a good life, an everlasting one in God’s favor.