One of the most powerful images of classical literature is the Trojan Horse. We read about it in Virgil’s Latin epic poem The Aeneid, which tells about the war between Greece and Troy.
The Greek siege of Troy had lasted for ten years. Then the Greeks devised a plan to enter Troy by stealth. They built a giant wooden horse on a wheeled platform and left it outside the city gate. No one inside the city could know that the hollow statue was filled with Greek warriors led by Odysseus. The rest of the Greek army took ship and sailed out of sight. Meanwhile, a Greek spy convinced the Trojans that the large wooden horse was a gift from the Greeks. This was plausible because in ancient times it was customary for a defeated general to surrender his horse to the victorious general as a sign of respect.
Despite numerous warnings, the Trojans accepted the gift. They pushed it inside the city and celebrated the end of the long siege. While the city was in a drunken stupor of celebration, Greek warriors emerged from the large wooden horse and opened the city’s gates. The Greek ships had returned in the dark, and the city was pillaged, all the men were killed, and the woman and children were taken into slavery.
No doubt many of us have studied this amazing account. It survives to our day because it has an important message.
Right now our homes are under siege. Satan goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). The media attack on our homes has now become a 24/7 attack on the minds of our children. Parents, 
intending to help their children, have sometimes given unlimited and unsupervised access to cable, network television, and the Internet – and these parents are paying a huge price by allowing the precious purity of their own children’s minds to be scarred forever.
The Trojan horse of Christianity is access to media without proper supervision and investigation. In principle, what destroyed Troy can lead to the destruction of our Christian homes. Giving children their own televisions, wireless web-enabled Ipods, telephones, and computers may seem good. However, while the parents are laying their heads down to sleep, the children are exploring a ruthless world of impurity and wickedness that is almost too overwhelming to imagine.
What does God have to say about leading children into sin, or allowing them to run free without a parent’s supervision? Proverbs 29:2 says that a child left to himself brings his mother to shame. The Bible reminds us as parents that we should set no wicked thing before our eyes and that we should hate the work of them that turn aside. (Psalm 101). Do our actions, limitations, and supervision of our children with electronic devices reflect God’s equation for protecting the innocence of our children? Are we demonstrating to our children our love for them by doing our duty to protect them?
The ancient Trojans were destroyed because they accepted a beautiful gift – against the warnings of many. Before you give your child that beautiful Ipod, computer, cell phone, or access to the Internet, ask yourself whether you are willing to protect the eye-gate and ear-gate of your child’s heart. The Bible says that “a prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished” (Proverbs 27:12). Let’s not continue to allow the Trojan horse of unguarded media to come into our homes and destroy our children.