A Crooked Tree

He who has a crooked mind finds no good,
And he who is perverted in his language falls into evil. Proverbs 17:20

I have struggled with the question of what effect watching movies with perverted language in them has upon a person. Here I believe is a connection. First we must answer the question of how do we get a crooked mind? Since I am a Christian, I believe that all men are born into a fallen world full of the effects of sin. We have a sinful nature, a bent towards selfishness. This can clearly been seen in the youngest child, who has to learn to think of others. He is self-centered. He needs parents to develope his conscience. They spend a great amount of time "civilizing" the young person, teaching him manners, right and wrong, and how to relate to other human beings. If this child sits for hours in front of a television, listening to evil speech and perverted language, or indeed, if his parents talk this way to him, his mind is formed in a crooked manner. His language will also be perverted and Proverbs says that he will fall into evil.

It is fairly obvious what happens to a child whose mind has been ill-formed, but what about adults? How about the person who was raised in a good home, has been well-educated, and has learned to distinguish good from evil? This too seems obvious to me. What we fill our minds with eventually comes out of our mouths. It may take a while to blot out a good up-bringing, but inevitably as we fill our minds with perversion, they will become crooked.

Upon reflection, we see that we are bent from the beginning and only become more so in this crooked world. As Paul says, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!...There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 7:24, 8:1

Rococo