OK, there have been a lot of editorials out about the fact that Americans are getting tired of the raunchy things that are in the media, Janet Jackson�s little show just being the straw that broke the camel�s back.

I have a few notes about this that I would like to share �

First of all, every single person that I have spoken to that has seen �Passion� (which I just call the Jesus movie) or read The DaVinci Code is not religious. All of the people that I know that have been associated with these things are trying to get answers for the �other� side of religion, also known as atheists, agnositics or what I like to call the �eh� people. When asked about religion they just say �eh� because they don�t really care one way or another.

I am not saying that I think that people who believe in God, Jesus and religion in general are wrong. I fully support different views because it is what makes the world interesting. I just wish we could all get along despite the differences that we have.

I do, however, have a problem with people who say that religion is �back� because all of the hype for Mel Gibson�s movie and The DaVinci Code. All I really want is some charts, maybe even some numbers, that show the ratios between the people that are believers, the ones that are fence riders and the ones that are �just browsing� for entertainment purposes. I just want to see some hard facts about the audience for these things. I think the media just needs a new thing for people to strive for.

Just because books and movies that are centered on religion are popular does not mean that religion is any more popular than it was a year or two ago before all of the hype. And honestly, anybody who jumps on a bandwagon because of the current media in the world needs to delve deeper into their own mind to find their own real opinion, not one from a movie screen or book critic. I�m all for reading books that are recommended or popular but I respect people more when they form their own opinions, questions and answers after they have absorbed the information.

I guess I just feel that people are taking so many things so seriously lately. All of the sudden it was just terrible to see the �accidental nipple�. Granted, I�m not one who wants to see nipples all over TV but is it really all that terrible? Does the public really feel that they need to run, not walk to the nearest place of worship because of a nipple?

If the media drives people to church will they be there next year? Or will they, like sheep, just wait for the next revolution � whatever it is and jump on another wagon. Is the world so lacking in self-confidence that we can�t hold an opinion anymore? We�re full of critics for movies, books, art, and food � will we eventually have critics for religion, sex and life choices? Will someone just go on the news after the weather and before sports and tell all of us what to think and how to act? On some level I think it is done already but it seems that we are all so busy living our lives that we are forgetting the very thing that separates us from plants: thought.

Not that I don�t sit around on my ass every once in a while and veg in front of the TV but I�d like to think that I do have thought processes aside from those that I am told to have. The media has been telling us that �sex sells� for a long time. Even kids know it. Apparently, blowjobs aren�t considered sex to the younger crowd now. They know what kind of power sex can have. The phrase is worn out.

Did the media see this and decide that it was getting old? Or is there actually a group of Americans who believe that things have gone too far with the whole �sex sells� thing? I tend to agree � I don�t think that ten year olds should know more about sex than their parents and I don�t like the idea that a child in junior high can shock me with her sexual experience.

Is there just a pattern forming? Is the moral pendulum just swinging back from free love and pre-teen sex to a more religious society where no one gets the milk for free? In a hundred years will people decide that we are too stuffy and will a new sexual revolution start all over again? I have begun to notice that getting married younger is becoming more popular. MTV had a program on the other day where couples were getting married over Spring Break.

I just wonder if, in half a century, we will look back on the things that are happening in our society now and shake our heads or applaud our little sexual renaissance. Or am I just making a huge deal out of nothing?