Quotable

[It has been said] that the more a man has in his own heart the less he will require from the outside; excessive need for support from without is proof of the bankruptcy of the inner man. [Thus] the present inordinate attachment to...entertainment is evidence that the inner life of modern man is in serious decline. The average man has...no inner strength to place him above the need for repeated psychological shots to give him the courage to go on living....

The [fantastic] growth of the amusement phase of human life [is] a threat to the souls of modern men. It has...greater power over human minds and human character than any other educational influence on earth, [a] power almost exclusively evil, rotting the inner life, crowding out...eternal thoughts which would fill the souls of men....[It] has grown into a veritable religion...against which it is now dangerous to speak....

For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it [as] a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience...divert[ing] attention from moral accountability....But of late...she appears to have join[ed] forces with...the great god Entertainment....So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God...and hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.

From The Best of A.W. Tozer, 126-28