Fear of Exposure

Recently I have been reading George Barna's book "Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions" and one of the things that has stuck with me as of late is the idea of "Worldly exposure." For those of you who are reading this that are not Christians, let me let you in on this idea. First of all this is not an offical title to what I am about to explain, but an idea that is birthed from the following phrase, "Be in the world, not of the world." Jesus Christ said in the book of John (from the Bible) that he was not of this world. This statement had two meanings: 1. He was physically not of this world, this was stated so that those around Him would know that he was not just a man but much more, i:e the Son of God and 2. He was not invested in or influenced by the world's ideas. Some Christian's tend to see the latter as a reason to isolate themselves from anything that is not Christian at it's foundation, but what we forget is that eventhough Jesus was not of the world he did come to save it. (John 12:47) To save it means to he had to be in it enough to know what he needed to save it from.
Now, with that being said, George Barna states that," by the age on nine years old most of the moral and spiritual foundations of a child are in place." On reading this my first thought was, "well, I guess I should shield my child from secular TV and movies for the first ten years so that I can fill their head with clear spiritual ideas." While the the filling of a child with clear spiritual ideas is appropriate, I believe that shielding them from the worldly media sources is a bad idea. I think that allowing them to watch certain age appropriate secular shows and movies under parent supervisor is a very healthy thing. During and after the shows narrate and translate what they are seeing and have just seen through the Christian worldview. This will teach them to watch the worldly things through this lens at all times, thus allowing them to see what the world needs to be saved and yet still protecting them from being molded into it's ideas and standards. "Be in the world, not of it."