Is Violence Entertaining?

The Colosseum in Rome is just that – Colossal. It wasn’t named because of its size, but because of a ‘colossal’ statue of Nero that once stood nearby. Still, it remains one of the largest monuments to a society’s blood lust ever produced. Here, hundreds of thousands were killed for entertainment.

Is violence entertaining? Of course. Should it be? I’m not sure.

If you are looking for me to answer this question, prepare for disappointment. I don’t have a single, simple answer for you. Still, here are a few conclusions that I’ve come to.

America is Violent

It’s easy to point our fingers at the Romans, who lit Christians up as party lanterns and flocked to see helpless women tossed on the horns of wild oxen. It is totally legitimate to point our fingers at that because it is evil and depraved.

Yet the average Roman, seated high up in the Colosseum, would certainly not have a close-up view of the violence. Americans are treated to close-and-personal views of violence in movies, television, and video games. These are no third-story spectacles, but close-up panoramas of human suffering.

We justify this by saying that no one got hurt. The Romans justified it by saying that those who died were already condemned men – why not turn their capital punishment into a lesson for the populace, and entertainment to boot? But violence is still violence, and we are entertained by it as much as, maybe more than, the Romans ever were.

God Hates Lovers of Violence

What the Divine thinks of violence is a sticky question. The Bible proclaims unhesitatingly that “his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence” (Psalm 11:5). This is surely a broad enough brush to condemn much of Roman and American society.

On the other hand, the Bible contains violent sections. Evidently God isn’t against hearing of, teaching about – or even teaching through – violence. If you doubt this, read the book of Judges.

The violence of Judges is gruesome and gory, but not glorified. It is not presented as entertainment, but as an example of the type of society that the godless obtain. This is violence with a lesson, for a purpose. Violence fills the godless land, and only violence can cleanse it.

Perhaps, then, there is a difference between violence for the sake of entertainment, and violence for the sake of education. Gory video games seem to magnify violence in a godless way, but perhaps a violent movie about the holocaust could teach us much about the character of evil.

The Role of Virtuous Violence

It would be easy – and simple – for me to say that there is no place for violence in the Christian’s life. The Bible does not seem so clear on that. Throughout the Bible, we constantly come across the idea of ‘virtuous violence’ – violence waged with purpose and piety. From David’s defeat of Goliath to the Christian’s ‘violence’ to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, violence has a significant part in the life of God’s people.

I disagree with the politically correct idea that little boys shouldn’t play war. Undoubtedly, the theory goes, little boys who point sticks at each other while make popping noises will grow up as zoo-worthy specimens of toxic masculinity.

Let the little boys play with their sticks. (If God ever grants me any of my own, I intend that they will all be armed to the teeth with slingshots, plastic swords, and dollar-store muskets.) Not because violence is enjoyable, but because there is a place for virtuous violence. I think that we should mentor young boys to understand virtuous violence and be prepared for it.

What I have noticed, though, about ‘playing war’ is that we do it differently today. In the past, ‘playing war’ meant running through the yard with Styrofoam shields, risking a skinned kneecap while capturing the treehouse, or standing firm in the face of repeated blows from plastic swords. Such ‘warfare’ emphasized spunk, valor, bravery, and hardihood.

Today, ‘playing war’ is just as likely to occur from the padded seat of a La-Z-Boy, toggling between screens with one’s thumbs, while bloodied opponents drop before a simulated machine gun. As you can see, something has changed. Such ‘warfare’ emphasizes the grit, the gore, and the impersonal nature of killing.

Let us play war without glorifying violence. Let us teach bravery, valor, manliness, even bravado, for the sake of virtuous violence.

Then, I think, we will be prepared to live in a violent world without loving violence.