Stop Asking ‘How Much Is Too Much?’

“How much is too much” is one of the worst questions to ask about any pop-cultural Thing.
on Jan 29, 2014 · 5 replies
“How much is too much?” Wrong question.

“How much is too much?” Wrong question.

“How much is too much” is one of the worst questions to ask about any pop-cultural Thing.

But how often is it exactly the assumed question behind how we approach stories and media.

Bloggerpastor Trevin Wax dares to touch this topic again at The Gospel Coalition.1

My goal is not to create an artificial line, a legalistic rule that we cling to as a mark of purity. Instead, it’s a question of discernment, and that’s why I am left wondering: Is there anything to which we would simply say, “No matter how much artistry may be involved in this film, it uses copious amounts of sewage to get across its point. Stay away, for your own health.”

On Facebook the column received comments within the usual range, from …

Some days other believers drive me so crazy, that I don’t want to be associated with any of them. This article is one of those reasons. More important things to focus on. Seriously.

To …

Compromising. Plain and simple. Holiness is no longer a popular topic. You cannot drink down the things of this world and expect to be mightily used by God.

“Stop saying that!”

“Stop saying that!”

But I’m a total smashable pagan-rock-music broken record here when I insist that “how much is too much” is the wrong question.

The real question is so absurdly simple that Christians usually gloss over it as if to say: Pshaw, everyone knows that.

We don’t. Of stories and media, we must ask the Ultimate Question. And that Ultimate Question should be:

  • What is the chief end of man?

With its pop-culture cousin close behind:

  • What is the chief end of story?

That may be half the problem solved right there.

The other half begins to be solved when we find a better answer than those partial-truth responses such as “to educate me,” “to entertain me,” “to morally edify me,” “to be Art For Its Own Sake,” or else all of these answers applied to children.2

Update, Jan. 30. A companion SpecFaith column explores this issue further: No Story Is Safe.

  1. Christians and Movies: Are We Contextualizing or Compromising? is a sequel to Trevin Wax’s Jan. 6 post Evangelicals and Hollywood Muck. ↩
  2. My own attempt at the better answer to the Ultimate Question is in Beauty and Truth 4: The Chief End of Story. ↩
E. Stephen Burnett explores fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com and its weekly Fantastical Truth podcast. He coauthored The Pop Culture Parent and creates other resources for fans and families, serving with his wife, Lacy, in their central Texas church. Stephen's first novel, the sci-fi adventure Above the Circle of Earth, launches in March 2025 from Enclave Publishing.

Share your thoughts, faithful reader (and stay wholesome!)

  1. notleia says:
    January 30, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    And I’m over here wondering what the end goal of this separatism is, as opposed to what it seems to actually be doing. Is it purity, or is it stagnation?

    Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      January 30, 2014 at 2:54 pm

      Christians do understand that if they love Jesus, they will be in some way separate from the world. They will live distinct lives and often subvert culture.

      Biblical believers only disagree on how to do that.

      There is not only one way to be separate from the world. As if it’s as simple as saying “just avoid a slippery slope” or “you wouldn’t eat cookies made with only 5 percent dog poop” or even “look at what The World does, then do the opposite.”

      The Biblical Christian’s whole view of life purpose must change from inside-out.

      Reply
      • Julie D says:
        January 30, 2014 at 4:56 pm

        The 5% dog doo illustration drives me bonkers every time.  It’s not that simple. Sometimes it’s more like choosing between the two goblets in the Princess Bride–there’s no obvious clue to which is poisoned
        *spoilers*
        They both are.

        Reply
        • bainespal says:
          January 30, 2014 at 5:12 pm

          Beautiful illustration! All our options are poisoned, but we have to drink of something anyways eventually, or there would be no point to living at all.

          Reply
        • E. Stephen Burnett says:
          January 30, 2014 at 5:56 pm

          Purveyors of the “dog doo illustration” should quit getting their morals from outside the Bible, and instead read Jesus’s explicit rebuttal of this notion:

          And [Jesus] called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

          Mark 7:14-23

          Of course, this doesn’t mean that for all people, hey, it’s all good, and don’t worry about things corrupting you. As with the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus actually reminds us that God’s standard is infinitely stricter than we could ever imagine with all our petty rules. If we could keep out defilement simply by not consuming certain things, that’s still challenging, but not impossible. But if the source of the “dog doo” is actually our own hearts, it’s hopeless!

          … Hopeless, that is, save for the One who changes filthy hearts of stone into clean hearts of flesh, thanks to His life, death, and resurrection.

          Reply

What say you?