1.  First off, I do not believe that a television is in and of itself evil, in the sense of machinery.  I don’t believe most of the people writing in for his testimonies believe this either.  I do agree there are many things on the television now that are really not worthwhile for a Christian to watch. Seeing hours of people who are not following Christian principles as entertainment probably does contribute to a warped worldview, or more likely a syncretistic view of Christianity, in which elements of the culture that are not Christian are rationalized and integrated.

Personal soapbox for a moment:  For instance, it is interesting how many Christians in America support war and violent behavior, despite admonitions from Jesus and Paul (end of Rom. 12) to be peacemakers and to “live peaceably with all men”.  A steady diet of TV, especially all the police shows, includes lots of shooting and violence.  I can only wonder if some of this contributes to desensitizing our consciences to the horrors of war and violence.  Also note – I realize that there are good Christians that disagree on the matter of just war vs. pacifism.  My intent is not to go into this here, but show our minds can be “seared” towards accepting behavior that the Bible may not or does not condone in certain circumstances.

2.  I can attest that since we have removed cable television due to financial constraints, I personally have found more valuable things to do with my time.  While I do like to watch some of the Christian channels, not so much for teaching, but to understand current trends in the “Christian culture” that are going on, it is easy to watch several hours of programming and not be better off  for it.  We are only given so much time in life, and we should try to make the most of it.

3.  One wonders if getting rid of TV is really a good option.  There are useful things that can be done with it, for example as one of Mr. Cloud’s readers mentioned, they use it for game systems.  We have personally seen benefits for using a game system in conjuction with exercise games.  Also, I suppose the TV could be used to do multimedia presentations of family devotions, if the parents chose to use it that way.

Conclusions:

A larger concern about the abandonment of television would be how are Christians to engage our culture in a meaningful way in the media if we abandon all forms of television.  For instance, I would suggest that Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood was a successful way of a Christian creating a television show that had an influence on the culture at large.  In his own words: “I got into television because I saw people throwing pies at each other’s faces, and that to me was such deameaning behavior.  And if there is anything that bothers me, it’s one person demeaning another.  That really makes me mad”. (Hollingsworth, 2005, pg. 4)    Mr. Rogers saw a problem with television, and sought to transform it.  If Christians completely abandon this medium, what will be left?  Sadly, I can’t point to another person on TV today  of his stature.  Can you?

References:

[1] Hollingsworth, Amy. (2005). The Simple faith of mister rogers.  Integrity Pub.