Which do you think is more dangerous: a complete, total and blatantly obvious lie; or a lie that draws us in because it is veiled in a partial truth? Samuel P. Huntington is famous for having once said, “Partial truths or half-truths are often more insidious than total falsehoods.” There, I think, is the answer to the question.

This is an especially urgent concept to grasp in a world where our kids are engaging 24/7 with a media blitz full that mixes truths and lies in a deceptive, confusing and alluring mix. Take some time, for example, to scan the lyrics to the current Top 10 singles on the Billboard chart. It doesn’t matter what songs are listed there today. You are bound to find in many songs a mixture of lyrics and ideas that point to things that are good, true, right and honorable, along with lyrics and ideas that advance the agenda of the world, the flesh and the devil. In a way, these songs mix oil and water—things that cannot be mixed—in ways that our kids don’t recognize.

This reality should serve to make us prioritize the teaching of biblical discernment to our students. We need to teach them to view their media through the lens of God’s Word, showing them how to discern truth from lies and to see that the lies we allow to become lost in the truth are more dangerous than outright, obvious deceptions. In addition, we should go out of our way to teach the same skills to their parents, for the simple reason that many of them never were taught how to engage with music and media. You see, once they develop these skills for themselves, then they can nurture their children into doing the same.

All media—film, music, books, art, etc.—speaks loudly to our kids. For example, consider popular music. Today’s musical icons are not only performing. They also are teaching. They map out life, teaching a worldview that we are encouraged to believe, embrace and live out in our everyday comings and goings. Sadly, much of what we see and hear in today’s music are mentions of things such as God, love, freedom, grace and justice; but when the artist decides to self-define any or all of these and other realities above and beyond the one true God’s definition of each, lies become attractive and seductive, drawing us in because they use familiar terms that we hold near and dear to our hearts to distort and redefine important things. So when God, love, freedom, grace, justice and a whole lot more are drained of their meanings when thrown into a musical soup that leaves us applauding while saying, “Hey, he/she did sing about God, after all!”…well, then we’ve lost our ability to discern with clarity. In time, we believe and are shaped by the lies.

Youth workers, this is why we need to be filling kids’ souls constantly with the truth of God’s Word, embracing every moment we’re able in order to pass along sound and godly teaching to anchor kids in community with others who do the same. James calls us to establish our hearts. What we need to realize is that our hearts will be established whether we consciously choose to set our hearts on something meaningful and true, or if we allow the establishing happen.

Christian Smith is right about moralistic, therapeutic, deism: It’s the faith of our times. Its god, its doctrines, and where it leads certainly are frightening. That’s why great talent and partial truths should scare us even more than an out and out lie.