The other night the missus and I went out on a date. We went to a local comedy club for "Clean Comedy Monday". For $20 a head, you get dinner and a show afterwards. We were quite surprised at the overall demographic of the audience. In the small group of about 30 or so, approximately half were families. The kids there ranged in age from 10 to 15 years old. Another noticeable trait was prayer. We noticed that at least half of the groups prayed before their meal. My wife wasn't surprised. She brushed it off, saying, "Who else would be looking for something advertised as 'Clean Comedy'." She's got a point.
As you walk in, they have a rating posted on the door, similar to what you would find at a movie theater. The show for that night was advertised as rated PG. The headliner for the evening was a master hypnotist. Come to find out, he was the same performer advertised on the club's website for the "X Rated Hypnotism Show." I have no desire to even know what that means.
Honestly, the show was not that great. The people who volunteered to be hypnotized were doubtful in their credibility. After about 30 minutes of listening to this guy talk in his smooth hypnotist voice and snapping his fingers every 5 seconds, he finally ended that portion of the routine. He proceeded to tell a few jokes to end the show. He obviously struggled to keep it clean. You could see him correcting himself split seconds before saying the wrong thing. All his jokes were quite prejudicial or poked fun at disabilities.
Now, if you know me personally, you know I am no prude. You also know that I like to make fun of people with the best of them. This guy was uncomfortably cruel in my opinion. He made jokes about people wearing turbans, advocating violence toward them. Yes, I know. He was only joking. But do we need to make light of violence prompted by hatred? I became disgusted at his imitation of the person with a disability who worked as a Wal-Mart greeter. I don't know. Maybe I'm becoming a stick in the mud and need to loosen up.
Needless to say, we were disappointed as we left the show that night. We had hoped for a fun-filled evening of clean comedy. The comedy aspect was questionable, and while it may have been PG, it didn't feel very clean. At least not dignifying. Which leads me to this thought. Why is it so difficult to be clean?
I think the nature of our society is growing increasingly comfortable with those things that only 20 years ago would have been unthinkable or at least unmentionable. It is not so much that we have become immoral, but
amoral. Few things have any moral value associated with them. Cultural diversity has lead to extreme relativism. There are no standards, it seems, to govern what is acceptable.
I'm not just speaking as some ultraconservative Christian who would be obviously concerned with such things. I had a staunch atheist tell me one time that morals were necessary for the functioning of society and in fact good for business. He was a successful management consultant. As he explained, in the same manner he advised his clients, if you want someone's business or desire a business partnership with them, they need to be able to trust you and your moral conduct. Makes a lot sense. The last five or six years have seen the collapse of several big corporations because of the lack of moral conduct.
So, why it is so hard to be clean? Is it from lack of desire? Is it from looking for it in the wrong places? As they say, wrestle with a pig and you both get dirty. But only the pig likes it. Is the lack of clean-ness a result of trying to make chicken salad with . . . well . . . you know?
Our faith journeys can help us with that. Our journeys usually have several washing stations along the way. Sort of like a drive through car wash. If you are looking for clean-ness and can't find it, maybe the journey you are presently on is not the right one. Just a thought.
