John Fischer is a songwriter and singer. He got his start when he recorded The Cold Cathedral, an album of Christian folksongs in the late '60s. Since then he's produced 12 albums. He hosts a weekly radio show, "Wide Angle with John Fischer." He also writes a monthly column in CCM magazine. His latest book is Real Christians Don't Dance.

John, his wife Marti, and a recently adopted son live in Laguna Beach, California.

I grew up in a home with Bible verses everywhere. So I assumed that the figurine of three little monkeys over our kitchen sink—"See no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil"—represented a biblical principle: if you don't expose yourself to evil, you won't be evil. Later in life I discovered that the monkeys came from an ancient Chinese proverb that is actually opposed to Christ's teaching—that what comes out of a person is more telling than what goes in. While I can usually choose my level of cultural engagement and must assess it from a spiritual standpoint, I'm not always able to choose what I'm exposed to.

Philippians 4:8, which instructs us to think about what is noble and lovely, isn't about the monkeys' advice. It's about keeping a pure mind in an impure environment. We can't make the world true, right, pure, admirable, and worthy of praise. But no one can stop us from finding these things, thinking on them, and encouraging them in our own sphere of influence. It's up to us to determine the "take away" value.