BOOKS:
EVIL; READING: DANGERS OF

Just what part evil literature has played in this present moral breakdown throughout our land will never be known till men are called forth to answer to a holy God for their unholy deeds. For thousands of young people, the first doubt about God and the Bible came with the reading of some evil book. We must respect the power of ideas. Printed ideas are as powerful as spoken ones—they may have a longer fuse, but their explosive power is just as great.

What all this adds up to is that we Christians are bound in all conscience to discourage the reading of subversive literature and to promote as fully as possible the circulation of good books and magazines. Our Christian faith teaches us to expect to answer for every idle word—how much more severely shall we be held to account for every evil word, whether printed or spoken.…

The desire to appear broad-minded is not easy to overcome, because it is rooted in our ego and is simply a none-too-subtle form of pride. In the name of broad-mindedness many a Christian home has been opened to literature that sprang not from a broad mind but from a little mind, dirty and polluted with evil.

We require our children to wipe their feet before entering the house. Dare we demand less of the literature that comes into our home?

Matthew 12:34–37; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 2:8–9

This World: Playground or Battleground?, 36, 37.