The real Jersey Shore that is. I grew up on the Jersey Shore – I mean I literally grew up on the southern shore of New Jersey. Until the very mature age of twelve, I lived one block from the beach at Barnegat Bay, with my parents, two older brothers, and my little sister. Our cousins and grandparents lived about two miles down the beach, over in Sands Point Harbor. The towns around the area I lived were named places like; Ocean City, Ship Bottom, Sands Point, Beach Harbor, Surf City, Seaside Heights, Lanoka Harbor, Barnegat, Forked River, and Beachwood.
I lived in Waretown which was part of Ocean Township, which is in Ocean County, New Jersey. Our house was on the corner of Nautilus Road just off Lighthouse Drive, which was about 2 miles off of U.S. Route 9. I have some great memories of growing up on the Jersey Shore. There was boating, swimming at the beach, skiing, crabbing, fishing on the pier at oyster creek, treading for clams in seaweed flats, walking on the docks, getting candy and a quarter pop at the marina bait shop, bmx bike racing, skate boarding, 99 cent movie theatre, riding go-carts / dirt bikes in the clay pits, and building forts in snapping turtle woods.
We would hang out at the local pizzeria where the owners, the Silvio brothers, spoke little English but taught us how to make a real pizza and calzones from scratch. They paid us with good food to take out the trash, clean up bathrooms, and mop the floors at closing. My older brothers taught me how to appreciate Skynard, Zeppelin, Boston, Sabbath, and the Doors, from the 3 plays for a quarter juke box in the corner and the eight track player in my oldest brother Dennis’ 72 Nova. Black Dog was not our pet, but our anthem to rock and roll music. Twelve shiny new eight tracks for one penny – Columbia House Records – ohh yeah.
Some of our best childhood friends were Italians. The Mondellis’ lived in the big three story house at the top the hill on Nautilus way. Father Guido Mondelli was a butcher, Mrs. Mondelli was like a second mom, and spoke Italian when she got upset. Guido Jr. had a black 55 Chevy with pure white leather interior. Little Ricky was my middle brother Walt’s best friend, but sometimes mine when they were fighting. It was a fun place to live and grow up (remember I was a kid).
OK back to the blog now. I said all that to try and communicate this; let’s just say that the words “Jersey Shore”, evoke certain emotions which stir up great childhood memories from a time in my life when things were good, fun, harmless, and for the most part morally responsible (well maybe except for the mind altering 60’s rock music). So when I kept hearing about this show that everyone was crazy about called by that name, I thought I need to check this out. First things first – I find out it is a hit on MTV – uh ohhhh – that raises a red flag already. MTV programming – another blog for another day.
I had a professor in Bible College that said, if you serve in youth ministry today, you should probably watch MTV at least one day a month, because chances are a good number of the children & youth you are trying to reach are watching it every day. Are children and youth really watching this stuff? Let’s just say that the season three premiere was viewed by a record 8.1 million, up about 3 million from the season two premiere. It set a record for the most watched series telecast in MTV’s history. By the way, if the 20-30 somethings in this show seem a little too old to attract our children, no need to worry, MTV is ready with their newest series “Skins”, which premiers next week.
So here goes – preview and review time. Well let’s just say, sorry Dr. Adams, but I don’t have to smoke crack cocaine to know that it going to be a really bad thing. I guess about a few minutes (maybe seconds) was all I needed to confirm a bit more than what I was prepared for. To be honest I did not even get to watching any part of a real episode. All I did was watch a sneak preview (on MTV.com) highlighting the new season, and truthfully that was too much. It was about as pointless and morally void as any show, reality or fiction, that I have ever experienced. It appears that premarital sex (hetero and homosexual), drinking, partying, fighting, and constant f’words, s’words and every other word are the reality of this supposed reality show. And as for reality, to me it appeared very acted. It appeared nothing more than an exercise in acting out the extremely immoral in the most shocking way possible.
As I have said in other critique blogs, I am not very surprised when a lost and non-believing world soaks this stuff up. But to Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, be they teens or adults, I’ve got to seriously ask, how can this possibly come anywhere close to aligning with Philippians 4 kind of living?
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things” Philippians 4:8.
When God saved my degenerate soul at the age of twenty seven, even from the clutches of Credence Clearwater Revival, I became a new person, with new likes and dislikes. Christians are certainly not perfect, but we should be on a path of seeking that which pleases God, and making a habit of seeking Godly living, which means we make no provision for the flesh.
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” Romans 13:14.
I realize it’s not 1976 anymore, and I’m not trying not to be the old Christian prudish preacher who just don’t get it. But I really don’t get it. Lost people act lost because they are lost, but how is it that we live in a world when so many see no problem with proclaiming, “Christian” as their religious view and then tagging “Jersey Shore” as one of their favorite television shows?
Let me say for the record, the people in the show are adults (not in the “act like adults” sense) and not 12 -16 year olds, like me and my brothers were growing up on the Jersey shore. But my recent observations and research indicates that this age group is the primary audience (targeted or not) of this show. We have a generation of young teens (and sometimes adults – go figure) laughing about and even praising their love and devotion, for this morally obscene show. As for dismissing it as nothing more than entertainment, well the bible likewise states that only fools make fun of sin.
Fools mock at sin, But among the upright there is good will. Proverbs 14:9
Now you might say watching some young people use of barrage of four letter words, fighting, barley dressed, hooking up, sexing it up, and drinking it up on the Jersey shore is just a little guilty pleasure. But as for me, when I lived on the Jersey Shore a little guilty pleasure consisted of getting a slice of pizza and hanging out with my big brothers listening to rock music. In the words of the great theologian from my time – Bob Dylan – The Times They Are a-Changin’.
