{purpose of fighting}

A couple of weeks ago I babysat the two young boys of a sweet family from our church that also homeschools. Well we had a good time playing games and watching movies. But as I pondered the events of the day I had to pause and go deeper into the issue of violence. One of the video games we played was Monster Wars and while I am sure it was rated "E" I found it to be very violent. Granted, there was no blood or guts, but I was slightly stunned at the intensity of fighting. I need to clarify that I'm not a person that shies away from violent material. I enjoy watching movies like Lord of the Rings, Batman Begins, and other "hero" films. But the senseless fighting I was confronted with in Monster Wars bothered me. After thinking over it for a few minutes I realized that the video game, and others like it, had no purpose in their warfare. On the other hand characters like Aragorn, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, etc. are fighting for something. There is a purpose to their violence. They were not out there decking some Joe Bloke just for the fun of it. No, they singled out those that were threatening what is good in this world and fought with them to put an end to their malice. And the same thing applies to real life. War is not something we want to engage in, but when we run into a force that seeks to do evil we must confront it and do what is within our power to end it. Whether this war is fought across multiple countries against an army that seeks to destroy us and all that we stand for or it is a small scale battle between a handful of people does not matter. What matters is that we recognize the true purpose of violence and know its proper place and time. And when evil has been defeated we go back to our daily lives of peace and contentment. I think one of the saddest tragedies of the day and age we live in now of video games and gory movies is that we have desensitized ourselves to why we fight. No longer do we read of the glorious deeds of King Arthur and Robin Hood and the tales of their fighting against injustice. We have consumed the kind of wrong violence and now we are reaping what we have sown. Men no longer look to protect women, instead they take advantage of them. Recently on a "Primetime: What Would You Do?" episode, the example was a couple out on a first date and when the actress is in the restroom the actor slips a "drug" (actually sugar) into her drink. They wanted to find out if anyone would notice and if they did what would they do about it. It was sad to see people ignore, and in one case encourage the actor. But then when someone did step in to protect the actress you wanted to cheer. Our kids get in fights and shoot or stab each other over petty things instead of keeping an eye out for wrongs being committed and seeking to right them. Since they have filled their lives with examples of the violence on video games and movies/tv they no longer know how to stand up against the malevolent forces in this world. What if their heroes were not football players and actors, but figures in history and literature such as Robin Hood, Aragorn, High King Peter of Narnia, Pres. George Washington, Davy Crockett, Stonewall Jackson, King Arthur, Winston Churchill and the like? What if? What is it going to take before we deal with the root issue of the problem of senseless fighting? When will we realize that it is not the violence or fighting that is wrong, but what we use those tools for?