Owen with an interesting post on TV watching. It's worth reading. Here is a paragraph that I found compelling:
Let's wrap this up with a personal word. My wife and I are working hard at this. At night, when we're both tired, it comes fairly naturally to put the tube and put our feet up. It's easy, it's fun, and it makes sense. While we've both realized that there are definitely times in the week when it is fine (and even good!) to do so, we can also both see that a steady diet of tv or movies dulls us spiritually and hinders us from doing really important spiritual things that will mature and grow us both personally and as a couple. We've recently drawn up a weekly schedule (shades of legalism--flee!) that will give us a basic form for the week. On a number of nights, we'll do lots of different things--have company, pray together for an extended time for the salvation of family (or the defeat of institutional abortion, the welfare of orphans abroad, the coming of God's kingdom), go on a walk, read a book on parenting--and on other nights, we'll watch something, often just a few shows of something we like, like The Office. In this way, we hope to avoid legalism and self-righteousness on the one hand and undisciplined media gluttony and spiritual torpor on the other.Read the whole thing. I'm not sure I totally agree with all his conclusions, but I think this issue needs to be continually checked by those of us who gravitate towards the TV.
2 comments:
Er...kill your television?...
I'm actually looking forward to a book that Sovereign Grace Ministries is producing this year (via Crossway) on worldliness, with a chapter by Craig Cabaniss on media.
I grew up in a home where everyone had a tv in their room, and so that is where you lived (quite literally) whenever you were there. It really saddens me that to this day my dad, and my little brother and sister (who are still at home) would much rather retreat to their tv than spend time with each other.
So, since coming to Christ a few years ago, I suppose I have tended towards the legalistic side of this issue (I know, legalism is no better than licentiousness), so I am looking forward to tempering my view some...just not sure yet where I'll end up (I have a pretty addictive personality).
Don't know why I felt the need to launch into all that, just thinking out loud, I guess.
Thanks for the link.
I'll say first I'm not anti-TV.
But, back when I was in grad school, I would struggle with time management, and part of that stemmed from the ease of turning on the TV and being sucked in to 2+ hours of watching TV. Before I knew it, I had essentially lost 2+ hours of the day, and had a pile of homework and reports left to do. I was already married at this time, with one kid and a second on the way.
About 2/3rds of the way through grad school, I started taking account of how much time I was wasting watching TV - again, nothing inherently wrong with what I was watching, but what was wrong was how it distracted from good quality family time, given I didn't have much opportunity for that to begin with.
My wife and I finally decided to altogether quit watching TV (not movies, but cable/broadcast). We were going to try it out for a month or so. Now, its been almost 5 years, and except for extremely rare occasions (like last years Michigan vs. Ohio State football game), we haven't watched any broadcast TV.
We are extremely happy we haven't - no regrets of any kind. I would definitely challenge others to at least consider looking at cutting out broadcast TV from their life.
Even without watching TV, it seems like there aren't enough hours in the day, so I can not imagine now going back to watching TV (and I have to watch my attitude with others, because when I hear people rave about shows, I wonder how they find the time to faithfully watch all those shows, but then I remember I used to do the exact same thing).
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