The Patriot Post® · Will Smith Is Only Part of Hollywood's Hypocrisy

Will Smith has rightly been raked over the coals, been made into countless memes, and been suspended from the Academy for 10 years for slapping Chris Rock.

In dealing with Smith, a fallible human being, it’s good to hear the perspective of his friends like Tyler Perry and Denzel Washington. They went straight to him after the incident and talked with him and prayed with him. Washington warned, “At your highest moment be careful; that’s when the devil comes for you.” Surely, the devil did come for Smith and the outcome was disastrous.

Because we, as the audience, can only process what we have seen — the slap and the cussing at Rock afterwards — it is easy to dismiss Smith’s action as leftist privilege and values on display. It was that, but it was also the actions of a hurting man. He actually apologized after the fact, which is something that leftists typically don’t do. He said: “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”

Will Smith is a professing Christian. He acted badly and he sought forgiveness. As Christians, we all understand from the Bible’s teachings that we all “sin and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and that “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). Smith’s sins just happen to be more public than ours. He has asked for forgiveness and it should be granted, at least from us Christians in the peanut gallery.

That being said, Hollywood has some audacity for suspending Smith for a slap while producing endless and increasingly violent content. According to Craig Bannister, “New research from the Parents Television Council (PTC) has found that television violence, and gun violence in particular — that is rated appropriate for children — has increased on primetime broadcast television shows in the five years since the shooting in Newtown, CT [emphasis added].”

As our Mark Alexander wrote back in 2006: “‘Entertainment’ is the subtlest and most effective means of ideological indoctrination.” In other word, entertainment shapes the culture, and the culture reflects back the values portrayed in movies and TV shows. Alexander also more recently noted, “The devastating consequences of this erosion play out in an endless loop of daily tragedies.”

The news is filled with ever more prevalent violent crime, and Hollywood’s solution is to have its stars talk about the urgent need for gun control, all the while continuing to act in movies where shoot-‘em-ups are big business. Alec Baldwin is a beautiful illustration of this very hypocrisy with disastrous, devastating consequences in real life.

Will Smith’s actions are tame in comparison to Hollywood’s usual violent fare. Yet, unlike Smith, most glitterati will never apologize for the cultural destruction that is a web of their own weaving.