Humans were created to become friends of God. Thus they were
made a little lower than God (1) and given the opportunity to choose between
knowing God and the fruit of a forbidden tree. Satan distorted what God said
and persuaded them that the fruit would give them the knowledge of good and
evil and thus a quick route to power. Ever since that disastrous event, all
knowledge has had good and evil applications; almost none more than television.
There is nothing intrinsically evil about television anymore
than there is about gunpowder or atomic power. The problem lies in the fact
that humans choose to serve Satan whose lies have easily convinced them of TV’s
many pleasures, the end of which like the sweet tasting fruit Adam and Eve ate,
is their destruction and enslavement. Satan has found the ideal medium to
convey his lies, for TV always lies all the time.
SATAN IS THE AUTHOR OF LIES
Only God can create. Satan cannot create
an idea or concept or mathematical equation or substance of any kind. However,
he is extremely intelligent and very adept at distorting the truth in such a
way that it still seems to be true. Surely the best deception is to convey a
near truth that takes people away from pursuing and knowing the truth. The
honest and selfless pursuit of knowledge will lead to the source of truth, who
is God. Satan’s objective is to distort the truth in such a way that people
turn from God. Satan fills the minds of people with semi-truths that gradually
turn them into his slaves. He has no interest in people per se, but wishes to
use them in his campaign to overthrow God. Satan always attempts to thwart
God’s desire to reconcile, free and recreate fallen humans to be the glorious
friends He designed them to be.
Satan’s principle aim is to enslave humans and entice humans
to destroy each other. We will be so effective at this that there will come a
time when, apart from the intervention of God, there will be no humans (2).
Humans are defined as those whose spirits are in-filled with God’s Spirit (3).
Thus only Christians can be fully human. Satan cannot enslave Christians but he
can make them confused and apathetic. That is all he needs to do.
Evil cannot become stronger but seeks to win by weakening
God’s human servants. One of his most effective tools is television. He uses it
to promote narcissism and inculcate dehumanizing concepts. For example, he is
able to entice Christians into “loving themselves” by distorting the Word of
God which states that Christians must “love their neighbors as themselves” (4).
Through TV and confused “preachers” Satan has deceived many Christians into
believing this means, “be good to yourself, look after yourself” with the
implication that if you are “good” to yourself you can be good to others. That
is certainly not what God ordered. Christians forget that because of the
reciprocal nature of love, by loving others, they are loving themselves, at the
same moment and in the same manner. By accepting the love of others they are
also being loved. Looking after themselves can seldom lead to meeting real
needs and is therefore narcissistic. This is a common example of how Satan
twists God’s law of love to make narcissism look like such a good thing, when
it is really one of Satan’s best schemes to confuse Christians.
TELEVISION ALWAYS LIES
To assert that television greatly
influences the thinking of almost everyone in the world is probably an
understatement. Even though not everybody owns a television set certainly
everybody talks to somebody who does. Television usually provides entertainment
that encourages self-indulgence and passivity. Seldom does it convey news and
warnings that might save people. Television is so apparently real that most
people seldom question its stated and implied messages. Few people understand
how television intentionally and inadvertently always lies, every time.
Knowledge that television
is able to convey may be extremely useful. Sadly, most information that television
communicates is not only distorted because of TV’s inherent limitations but is
intentionally twisted to confuse and instruct people with ideas they do not
need. The saddest part of all of this is that Christians are as or even more
susceptible to the influence of television as anybody. It is quite possible
they are more vulnerable to distortion because they are more naïve. Wanting to
find what is good, they cannot detect evil messages that are entering their
minds.
Satan cannot infiltrate
the mind of a Christian directly or use one of his demons to implant one of his
deceptions. Christians are wholly inhabited by the Holy Spirit. The helmet of
salvation protects their heads and the contents thereof (5). Satan encourages
Christians to watch TV because that is the most effective way of getting his
ideas into their minds. From his point of view, TV is ideal because it has some
useful information intermingled with intellectual garbage that lulls the
unsuspecting God loving person into watching more TV. That is far from
innocent. Some are even stupid enough to believe, that because it has been
rated by a government censor, it must be okay for the family.
1. The big lie of a
“documentary”. Television claims to portray “real life”. “The facts” from an
on-the-spot reporter. The commentator makes assertions of “these are the latest
facts” with such sincerity, few doubt him. Later they tend to say to each
other, “Did you see that documentary? It was so awful and so real.”
2. Television
distortions. Television by its very nature is distorting reality all the time.
Unfortunately, people don’t consider these inadequacies. For example, the most
potent information in a documentary of a refugee camp is lost. It is the
stench. It is also the pervasive sixth sense of hopelessness you feel if you
are there that TV can never convey.
The distortions of TV
are:
a) Time. Television always shortens
time. This increases the number of events per interval, which increases the
watcher’s excitement and interest.
b) Boring parts are
omitted. You’ve never noticed any of the actors being filmed in real time while
they are sleeping or waiting for some action.
c) Reduced senses. Television is
confined almost entirely to visual senses. You may see some parts of a riot,
but you do not smell the burning rubber. Sounds are filtered or recorded,
edited and added later. The usual moans and groans, barks and shouts are kept
to a minimum so as not to interfere with the auditory sensation that the film
editor wishes. The senses are so limited that the usual human emotions in
response to the full range of visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, pressure,
pain, vestibular, itch, tickle etc. sensations, are seldom felt by the
audience. Who feels nauseated by the TV conveyed picture of blood, and mud
from a WW I trench scene? Observers would vomit if they could also smell the
stench of blood, puke, shit, rotting flesh and cigarettes and feel the heavy
vibrations of a shell exploding nearby.
d) Angle of shot. While a person at the
film studio would look all around them, the TV camera shoots from a limited
number of angles. These are carefully considered to create the impression that
the producer wants. You must have wondered what is going on behind the camera
and must conclude, “Well, at least as much or maybe more of the real action is
behind the camera.”
e) What is left out? It is probably as
important as what is included. Documentaries seldom even try to convey the
complexity of any issues. Reporters heavily influenced by John Wayne’s concept
of good guys and bad guys seldom note the internal struggles of one side or
another. Producers arbitrarily pick the good people and report it from their
point of view seldom noting that the people on the other side are just as human
with the same needs and personal conflicts. During the Bosnia crisis Western television depicted events from a Croatian point of view, seldom airing the
Muslim or Serbian side. Once a conflict becomes complex and the humanity of the
other side starts to filter through, you will notice that most news reporting
quickly moves to some other location where the crisis is not so complicated.
There they can report with their usual oversimplification.
f) Producer
determines what is important. Depending on what influences are playing in the
producer’s mind, he/she will direct the filming so that the “right” emphasis is
given. This is the one which is most politically correct.
g) Network policies. These policies are
most influenced by what is more likely to sell ads, which are greatly governed
by what consumer’s desire, which is greatly guided by the message in the ad.
h) Station manager’s choices. Years ago
the anchor newsman of our local station, a sincere Christian, and myself
produced a good documentary on the effects of pornography. When I asked several
weeks later when it would be aired his reply was always, “Soon.” This turned
into months and years. Eventually he went into the station manager’s office to
ask why they weren’t airing this particular documentary. The answer was as
obvious as the nudity that was decorating the station manager’s office.
i) Oversimplification.
Humans seldom can report anything that includes all points of view with the
appropriate emphasis, even if they wanted to. Television is most prone to this
distortion. Producers deduce that the average viewer is not interested in
hearing all points of view and therefore the producer decides what the “average
viewer” wants to see.
j) Special Effects.
The stunt men/women and the special effects people invent illusions that are
obvious in dramas if the past and future that most people could detect but they
don’t wish to. After all doing so detracts from the plot and the excitement.
Too many children accept the reality of special effects and try to enact them.
There are so many scenes showing the heroes running up the city street with an
explosion boiling along after them. Anyone who has been in an explosion knows
it is impossible to outrun it. No thanks to TV, young people keep believing
they can throw gas on a fire and run. Some of the best special effects are so
subtle that it takes an expert to point them out. It is small wonder Jesus
needed to point out that all but Christians will be taken in by the special
effects of the antichrist and then only by the skin of their teeth (6).
k) Good guys never die. The good people
are always better shots but even if hit, they recover from their wounds quickly
enough to finish the next scene smiling in the arms of a beautiful lady. Old
soldiers know all too well that the bravest are the ones that die first. It is
the soldier that shoots his enemy in the back that lives to return home to a
heroes welcome. This is partly why so many veterans don’t want to talk about
their war experience except the funny parts. With the inversion of Christian
values, now it tends to be the evil ones that don’t die on TV.
GARGAGE IN GARBAGE OUT
Although much human behavior is
guided by their genetically determined constitution, most of what people think
arises from their experience, both their personal participation in experiences
and their vicarious participation in other peoples’ experiences. Their thoughts
are formed by what they sense and how they are taught to interpret those
sensations. The Bible makes it clear that humans are to revel in the beautiful
and true. However, millions of Christians spend 10 to 20hrs/week passively
absorbing Satan’s twisted reasoning, moral filth, distorted views and
intellectual garbage. Garbage can be defined as any kind of trash that is
uninformative, useless and dehumanizing. Since what people learn determines how
they think and express themselves, the term garbage in garbage out is
particularly true with respect to television.
At an average gathering, many
Christians spend less time talking about God than they do about the last sitcom
or newscast. The garbage they speak arises from the garbage in their head.
What’s in their head is determined by what they vicariously experience through
television. A good example is how Christians think about global warming. Far
too many blindly accept Al Gore’s interpretation that it is caused by humans
and don’t bother to question his very questionable science or consider other
possible explanations. I remind them that God is always in control of all
things. God through Christ created the universe and since Satan successfully
introduced error through Adam and Eve, He has had to pour energy into our solar
system to keep the earth’s orbit from decaying (7). If God ever became so
disgusted with sinful human thought and behaviour, that He needed to really
shake them up, all He needs to do is to stop protecting them from the
consequences of their stupidity and to stop pushing the earth through the
friction of its space envelope so that it slows. The orbit will decay and it
will get closer to the sun. Thus there will be global warming of the earth’s
surface and atmosphere and a lengthening of its days. Even small changes in its
revolutions and rotations will create major gravitational perturbations, which
will shift Tectons, creating the earthquakes and famine predicted by Jesus (8).
Most people do not want to think of any cause of global warming that is not
caused by human behaviour and is thus under their control because they would
then have to consider how God views them. It is small wonder that Mr. Gore is
so popular. What is so sadly disturbing is how many Christians have swallowed
the lie hook, line and sinker. The devil through TV has done a good job at both
frightening and confusing Christians.
MORE DIFFICULT TO LEARN
The brain has a vast
capacity, but it is not infinite. Moreover, it has a limited ability to filter
and organize incoming stimulus. Since exciting stimulus is more likely to be
received, it is more likely to be stored. Eventually a child’s mind is
cluttered with irrelevant and distorted information. It is small wonder they
have a reduced capacity to retain what they are trying to learn in school and
from books when they watch so much TV. Unless the classroom becomes as
entertaining as their favorite television show they are less likely to
participate in that experience and learn from it. If as an academic child
psychiatrist and psychologist, I recommend to Christian parents whose child is
struggling to keep up with classmates, they might try cutting back or better
still eliminating TV, they look at me incredulously.
“But how will Johnny be able to talk
about the latest show with his friends? And he just loves the nature films.”
“Sorry Mrs. Kay. I spend a great
deal of time in the woods. What your Johnny is seeing is not the way it is in
nature.”
“Now doctor, the camera can’t lie. I
think you are just old fashioned.”
“Mrs. Kay, have you ever seen an old
carcass of a cougar killed deer? It isn’t pretty. It is covered with flies and
it really stinks. Does he get the whole picture of wild life from TV? It isn’t
possible. It never is possible for TV to give the whole, true picture. Your
Johnny’s thinking is twisted by the TV’s lies. Moreover his curiosity to learn
is saturated with passive experience. Add to that, he absorbs so much TV
garbage there is hardly any room for beauty and truth in his mind. In addition,
you can’t protect him from the subliminal messages of trailers. You don’t want
to hear about the sweet children from loving homes that get hooked on violence
and pornography, the parent’s know not how. Shall I go on?”
SUBTLE INCULCATION OF CONCEPTS AND
ATTITUDES
Few Christians realize how much of
their thinking is introduced through television. Attitudes towards life and
death, ethical problems, moral issues of many kinds are easily accepted because
the models on television who have those attitudes seem to have all the right
characteristics of good looks, money, honor, etc. During the run-up to the
American election it is not hard to see how peoples’ attitudes are guided by
the media, television in particular. If you doubt this, just calculate the
amount of time each network devotes to the different candidates. You will see
there is more for the candidates they favor. Since so much of the media is
dominated by people who do not have Christian values, it is small wonder they
portray candidates who also do not have Christian morals in a heroic fashion.
This inculcation of attitudes is done in such a subtle manner that it is seldom
detected by Christians. At the same time, the media quickly picks up on any indication
that people are not happy with their biased reporting and will pretend, for a
short period of time, to be more even handed.
REDUCED IMAGINATION, INVENTIVENESS
AND READING
Because the brain has a limited
capacity and because it will deal with what is most titillating, the more
information plugged into it the less the brain appears to spend trying to
create sensation, new ideas, concepts, inventions and unique art. A child
brought up without television is more likely to play inventive games or make elaborate
fantasies with blocks, stones, pieces of tree or grass that come within easy
reach. Because these articles are so unlike what he is imagining he must think
with more color and drama to create a story that is credible to his own brain.
A child watching TV will tend to use the scenes and characters he so often
watches and enjoys.
WASTE OF TIME
Anyone who does not have a television
reports that they have so much more time available for interacting with their
children, reading classic books, gazing at a starry sky, standing up on a moral
issue, writing to the editor of the local newspaper, appearing at council
meetings and political rallies, picketing abortion mills, serving soup to the
impoverished, exercising, chopping wood for an elderly neighbor, building a
home operated business, talking to neighbors and friends about Christ, reading
the Bible and most importantly spending time in communion with God. God tells
us to be very careful in the use of our time (9) and to realize that it’s
always urgent because the night is coming when no man can work (10). From my
perspective there has never been a more urgent time than now. If Christians
don’t act courageously and soon, there will be little left of the Christian
civilization they so easily inherited and so foolishly take for granted.
CONDITIONED PASSIVITY
It is estimated that the average
seventeen year old has seen eighteen thousand murders on television. In each
instance there is a dramatic build up with somebody in a desperate situation
looking for help. The natural tendency of all people and Christians in
particular is to rush to that person’s aid. Rather, their response is, “Please
pass the popcorn,” as they continue to sit. Thus, on eighteen thousand
occasions a young person has ignored another person’s desperate plight and
continued to indulge themselves. This becomes a strongly conditioned passivity,
which in the real situation is impossible to overcome. A small wonder that
there are so many injustices throughout the world to which Christians are not
responding. “The total number of Christians who perished under Roman
persecution during the first three centuries is not known, but probably comes
to several thousand. The real age of Christian Martyrdom lay far ahead. At the
close of the twentieth century, the organizers of The International Day of
Prayer estimated that two hundred million Christians were facing active
persecution. “A report from the Christian History Institute put the number of
twentieth century Christians killed for their faith at twenty-six million” (11). Where are the brave Christians who should be
protesting on their behalf, and to stand with them and when necessary die with
them? The condition passivity created by television has robbed the Christians
of their ability to act on behalf of their brothers and neighbors in distress.
LAZINESS
There is essentially no satiation of
the desire for excitement. The excitement comes to the TV watcher from his/her
vicarious participation in the portrayed event. Many people become increasingly
lazy, looking less after their own and others welfare and more dependent upon
government subsidies and grants. There is clear evidence that the Roman Empire disintegrated primarily because people no longer cared for their crops,
businesses and army. They longed “eagerly for just two things -- bread and
circuses!” (12). The vicarious gratification of participating in exciting or
titillating events creates catecholamines (the hormones of an adrenalin rush).
When the excitement levels out or when they become exhausted the TV watcher is
left with a sense of lassitude and fatigue. People legitimately complain that
after a day of watching television, they feel so tired they “might as well just
go to bed”. They have done nothing useful throughout the day, but they are so
fatigued by their vicarious activity and by the turmoil it creates in their
minds.
God instructed his people to work six
days. Most North American Christians read this to mean, no more than six
days. I believe God intends for those Christians who are privileged to only
need to work five days or less each week, to spend the other days working for
their neighbor’s health and salvation. TV has inculcated the expectation that
they can use any other free time for their recreation and made them lazy and
selfish. As for “spending time with the family” they can do this as well and
be a better example of a loving father or mother while they work together on a
worthy project.
LESS SOCIAL INTERACTION AND
CONVERSATION
Much of Christian family life is
spent watching TV together. The father, mother and children do not face each
other, seldom speak to each other and lose tract of what is the experience of
each other’s life. Because the attributes of communication are not exercised,
good skills with verbal and nonverbal conversation do not develop as well. With
poor communication skills, family members are more likely to become frustrated
and irritated with each other. Because there is little pleasure in
communicating, family members are more likely to become isolated from each
other and less able to empathize in any emotional crisis.
HOOKED ON EXCITEMENT
There are few people who don’t enjoy
that “adrenaline rush” whether it comes from coffee or the excitement of
watching a hockey game. The vicarious participation in a vigorous, sometimes
violent, game produces the hormones that would normally be required by the
people on the ice. There is no way to expend the energy that arises from eating
and sitting in front of a TV so that the watchers become increasingly out of
shape and less likely to do anything about their obesity. Their vicariously
engendered hormones are seldom expended by heart pounding activity and so their
stress levels stay high. Their blood pressure goes up and in not too short a
time their arteries harden. The intimae of these arteries crack-creating
conditions for clot formation that result in the occlusions and emboli that
eventually kill them with heart attacks and strokes. The normal activity of
chopping a cord of wood could burn off those catecholamines but few people have
any demand for the skills required of forefathers in providing for their
families’ food, clothing, shelter and heat.
INTERNAL INCONSISTENCIES
When seeing “documentaries” of the
distress of people in the Sudan or Afghanistan, the normal response, governed
by God-given instincts, is to rush to those peoples’ aid. Christians are not
only governed by remarkable instincts but they are commanded to love all their
neighbors; and a neighbor is anyone of whose need they are aware. Their mind
and heart tells them, “You must do something or those people will die.” They
are determined to do something quite significant; at least for a little while
then all sorts of excuses arise. Eventually, there is a growing gap between
what they tell themselves they must do and what they actually do. This creates
not only inconsistencies between belief and behavior but also the basis for
personal dishonesty, which Satan uses to further corrupt Christians.
RATIONALIZATIONS
Realizing there is so much they
should and could do but don’t, Christians begin rationalizing why they don’t.
Those rationalizations are simple to begin with eg. “You can’t expect me to
tackle all the world’s problems. Besides I must put my family first.” “When I
have a chance or when I retire, I promise you I will.” They are so easily
convinced to put their first Focus on the Family when Jesus says, that unless a
man is prepared to leave family, he is not worthy to be His disciple (13). Ask
anyone who has tried it. If you put the focus on your family, it falls apart.
If as a family, you first focus on Christ and His work, the family work, love
and learn together. Thus it should always be “Focus of the Family”.
Eventually the rationalizations
become much more elaborate, even using scripture verses to support their
indolence and inactivity. Once the rationalizations to oneself are sufficiently
convincing, they are used to convince others. Thus they spread from one
Christian to the next. The most frequently used is “God hasn’t spoken to me
yet” or “It’s not my passion”. This flies in the face of scripture as Christ
clearly orders Christians to love our neighbors. Love is not a feeling.
Feelings cannot be commanded. It is obedience in action. It is the action of
meeting needs. Needs are not so difficult to determine. Science can be a guide
to calculating what is the average person’s caloric intake, their need for
water, space, rest etc. It is these basic needs to which Christians should be
responding. When they do, that person who is being loved is open to the Gospel.
Healing, meeting needs and preaching the Good News should always go together.
Sadly, the rationalizations for self and family indulgence are not only self
and neighbor convincing, they are often put into sermons and “Christian television”
where they wreak even greater havoc. Christians thus become increasingly self
indulgent, much to Satan’s satisfaction.
NOT OBEYING GOD’S COMMANDS
Christians are so saturated with TV
garbage, so inculcated with wrong ideas, so conditioned into passivity, so able
to rationalize their inconsistency that they absolutely do not want to hear
what God commands them. If they just read their Bible and looked about to see
what God is doing, they would without those influences, be much more likely to
react in love to heal and to introduce people to Christ. Surely Christians can
see that the time is short and the situation urgent. Never has there been a
time when so many millions of innocent little people are being killed. Never
has the Defender of the Fatherless (14) had so many reasons to be very angry.
You doubt what I write? Read Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, looking carefully at
what God says about “the murder of the innocents”. The Bible also clearly
states God will not overlook what happened to these innocent babies. “I will
not forgive….” (15). Even though there may be good government, God will not
relent; His justice is certain and soon. As Christians refuse to obey God’s
commands, they become increasingly alienated from Him. Like the prodigal son,
they plunge into self-indulgence until somehow, someday they are awakened to
the fact that they are starving for their Father’s love. God helping, they will
return to their rightful home and realize it is time to get to work even as the
most lowly servant, too often trying to compensate God for all the time that
they have wasted. Yet it is clear that God creates history, beginning
and ending human affairs. There is no doubt from scripture that He will call
an end to human life as we know it. He will recreate or destroy everything and
everybody but the process will be very traumatic, especially for those who,
though they are part of His family, have ignored His commands.
BONDED TO PORNOGRAPHY
It surprises me how many respected
Christians, elders in the church indulge in watching pornography. To their
great shame they soon find they cannot stop though they pray hard and struggle
mightily. In their efforts to hide their shame they withdraw from family and
friends, hoping no will find out. Concerned people often convince them they are
depressed. It isn’t long before their marriage begins to fall apart and their
children become alienated. Operant conditioning explains that any behavior that
is followed by a strong reinforcing stimulus such as the orgasm, will become
more frequent and more compelling. Pornography watching is powerfully
reinforced by a person’s excited endocrines. That conditioning is very hard to
break. The pornography may generalize to include sodomy, children and
animals. It often begins with an occasional “porno flick” watched on “adult”
TV in a hotel or motel when a person is traveling alone.
VIOLENCE JUNKIES
As an orgasm reinforces any kind of
sexual behavior in which the individual is engaging, be it heterosexual,
homosexual, auto sexual, zoo sexual, so a surge of catecholamines reinforces
vicarious participation in violence. “Here we are touching one of the most
obvious symptoms heralding the moral disintegration of Roman society and its
future decadence. “’This civilization was prepared to debase mankind, and
itself, in spectacles of unbelievable bestiality.’ As the crowds screamed and
jeered, the victims were hanged by their hands and lashed. Vinegar or salt was
rubbed into their wounds. They were nailed to crosses and crucified. Nails were
driven between their eyes. They were branded with red-hot metal. Their limbs
were hacked off, their bodies torn to shreds. They were tied to posts and
burned alive.” (16) With increasing ease, it possible to see similar kinds of
violence in the quiet of one’s games room. Unrestrained mixed martial arts,
snuff films, and “documentaries” of animals killing and eating each other are
easily viewed on a 216-channel cable. Christians who watch, feel and look very
awkward if you try to talk to them about their viewing habits, but they almost
always have some rationalization.
IMITATION
It is clear that imitation is more
powerful than instruction. Those who design advertising know that any behavior
(eg. drinking a bottle of …) is more likely to be imitated if the person you
see on TV doing it is: being rewarded (eg. surrounded by admiring pretty girls
or handsome hunks) is rewarding others (eg. praising a good volleyball shot)
and is obviously in control of the situation. Long ago it was found with good
research that children and adults tended to imitate the violence they watch on
TV. If people imitate violence they will also imitate the: buying,
“worshipping”, voting, attending games etc. they see on TV that people appear
to enjoy doing. People will constantly deny what they watch has any impact on
their thinking and behavior. Satan really enjoys those denials.
Imitation is more influential on
behavior than is instruction. “Do as I do” almost always wins over “do as I
say”. Children are very likely to imitate their parents viewing habits. They
will tend to watch the same programs, show the same posture (or lack of
posture) and be just as passive in the face of a desperate cry for help.
Children imitate the behavior of their parents that they are seen enjoying,
regardless of what the parents say.
Augustine in his Confessions “describes
a student friend, Alypius, whose companions cajoled him into attending a
gladiatorial show in Rome over his initial protests: ‘The whole place was
seething was savage enthusiasm, but he shut the doors of his eyes and forbade
his soul to go out into a scene of such evil. . . . (Finally) he was overcome
by curiosity and opened his eyes. . . (and) he then received in his soul a
worse wound than that man, whom he had wanted to see, had received in his body.
. . . He saw the blood and he gulped down savagery. Far from turning away, he
fixed his eyes on it. Without knowing what was happening, he drank in madness,
he was delighted with the guilty contest, drunk with the lust of blood. . . .
He looked, he shouted, he raved with excitement. He took away with him a
madness which would goad him to come back again, and he would not only come
with those who first got him there; he would go ahead of them and he would drag
others with him.’” (17) “Tertullian warned his fellow Carthaginian Christians
to stay away from the amphitheatre shows. This shared experience was real, he
said. It bonded people, and they need not be bonded with those who collectively
enjoyed human suffering.” (18) So it is with modern Christians who enjoy the
modern gladiatorial contests and snuff movies and thrillers and horror shows
and science fiction, which increasingly depict the agony and death of the
victims. Do Christians watch this as Tertullian or Augustine describe initially
with hesitation but with increasing tension and enjoyment eventually convincing
others to join them. In like manner, the modern family gaze into the wide
screen, their whole mind is fixated, their body responding with hormones that
excites them, their spirit increasingly numbed.
The author of lies has
helped humans to invent the greatest conveyor of lies humans have ever known.
It is small wonder that Christians do so little to defend the Christian
heritage and civilization which their fathers suffered to establish. They now
watch the events as if it was happening to somebody else when in fact it is
destroying them.
GIVING UP EASILY
As a result of seeing the rapid
action and quick results of projects on TV, Christians easily become impatient.
They may respond well to a call for volunteers in a new missionary outreach to
young people but when anything doesn’t go right immediately or the funds dry up
or there seems little response, they too quickly give up. If questioned on why
they no longer turn up for work parties, they state or imply “I now have other
priorities” or “It seems God isn’t in this after all” or “I guess it isn’t my
passion”.
AVARICIOUS
Television makes Christians more
avaricious, covetous and materialistic. Advertising supports and is supported
by a multi billion dollar consumer industry. This could only happen because the
subtle techniques of advertising really work. The most affected by the subtle
messages of advertising are those who feel that it doesn’t have any impact upon
them.
TV advertising deliberately makes
people dissatisfied with what they have and envious of what others have.
TV constructs the illusion that if
you had more money or (useless) possessions you would be as happy as the people
they depict in the ad. This leads to avariciousness, financial risk taking,
gambling and ambition.
Television repeatedly alarms people
with news of war, plague and disaster. The most expensive advertising is on
either side of the news hour. While the Christian is watching they can only
conclude there is nothing they can do about it. Therefore, they don’t do
anything about it even when it’s very close to them. They will not avoid the
impending disaster. They need to be reminded that Jesus said that when they
persecute you in one town run, flee to the next. In this way you will spread
the Gospel. God has always used persecution to uproot Christians from their
comfort and spread them around the world so they will, this way, spread the
Gospel.
POOR HEALTH
Human health is at its best when an
individual is consuming only as much as he/she needs and regularly struggling
with heart pounding effort. Most people eat when watching TV, the wrong food
and too much. The excitement in which they participate vicariously engenders
hormones that are not needed for fight or flight but they raise blood pressure
and increase heart rate. This combination of too much and too little has a very
damaging effect on health. Moreover the psychological conflicts seen on TV are
more likely to become the conflicts of person’s life but have little chance of
being resolved. Mental conflict results in body tensions, which diminish the
blood supply to ligaments and cartilage. The resulting anaerobic conditions
make the tissues scream in pain. If that persists the soft tissues die of
anaerobic necrosis and such conditions as osteoarthritis result.
THE NEWS IS NOT NECESSARY
You may contend, dear reader, that
bad as it is, we should watch TV just in case there is a warning of some
impending disaster, which if we heeded could save our lives. There is no
question that the function of the watchman was essential to a middles ages
town’s survival. “Hear Ye, Hear Ye. The enemy doth approach. Hide your
families, take your weapons and stand upon the wall.” The most expensive advertising
is either side of the news hour because news is watched more than any other
program. Yet there are few disasters of war or chaos from which people could
effectively hide. Precautions to be safe from natural disaster are seldom
heard, heeded or soon enough to prevent personal catastrophe. To keep the TV
on just in the unlikely event of some quake or tsunami warning makes little
sense when one considers all the damage TV does. Such a warning could be
conveyed via a permanently warm audio device which is activated by a special
signal.
LITTLE INSIGHT AND MATURITY
Self-awareness is very important to
other awareness. People can spend little time in self-reflection. They seldom
record the insights that their dreams and God give them because the necessary
calmness is drowned out by the blaring TV. If they become depressed or anxious
they all too quickly ask their physician to prescribe the medication that they
saw was so effective on TV. They feel that the hard work of psychotherapy would
interfere with their fun time watching a sitcom. Little do they realize that
the side effects of those antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications too
often interfere with dream sleep and the cycling thru the full range of sleep
cycles that is necessary for the brain to retain its efficiency. It is small
wonder that so many of my patients who have been put on psychotropic medication
by their family physicians, report major problems with their memory. Too often
anti-depressants prevent the experiences of multiple emotions that are
necessary for the satisfactory conclusion of grieving.
CHRISTIANS WANT ENTERTAINMENT LIKE
THAT ON TV
As Christians become
increasingly absorbed in television excitement, they want all their experiences
to be like that. They want church services to be as entertaining and
“uplifting”. It is small wonder that they prefer beautifully clothed choirs,
handsome preachers, and pop culture oriented worship leaders. If they were to
hear a most informative sermon and if they were to agree with everything that
was truth that was taught, they are very unlikely to put it into action
because, after all, like television it’s just entertainment. The real prophets
were in the wilderness. Jesus taught people mostly while they were on their
feet and thus were more likely to get moving. Now, not only does the pew need
to be comfortable, but also the service must be “electrifying”. To keep the
people happy, there need be lovely visual effects but these only distract from
the harsh reality of God’s word and detract from God’s fascinating glory; if
only it were quiet enough and the congregation could look into the heavens
instead of vaulted ceilings and stylized “saints” in stained glass.
SO WHAT ABOUT GOOD GOSPEL SHOWS AND
SERVICES?
There is no doubt in my mind that God
can use whatever means He chooses to bring people to the knowledge of
salvation, including TV. But I wonder if the same amount of time, money and
effort was expended by Christians quietly talking to their neighbors would not
only have brought many more to Christ but matured those Christians in the
process.
Entertaining Christian gospel also
conditions passivity. People have their minds and senses titillated while they
are sitting. Jesus usually taught while people were standing. They were more
likely to move one way or another; to follow Him or walk away. Reinforcing
sitting with entertainment increase passivity and diminishes the chances that
Christians will act upon what they learn.
Christians consume more information
about God and the needs of others from good preachers and fully intend to
implement what they are convinced they must do. That conviction lasts at least
until they begin to enjoy a large lunch and then a football game on TV. Then
their determination rapidly fades and is replaced by some flimsy excuse that
shortly becomes a very convincing rationalization in their mind. At least they
convince themselves. They have an uneasy feeling that God is not convinced so
the rationalizations become even more elaborate all the while affirming, “Lord test
me to see if I really don’t mean it”. If God were not so patient, He would take
them up on the challenge. The worst result is the growing discrepancy between
what most Christians say they believe and what they do. The gap is a measure of
their personal integrity. It is a measure of their dishonesty. That dishonesty
is the root of the rapid decline of our Christian civilization.
Do you believe all humans are equal
in God’s sight? Do you pray to have God’s perspective? Do you treat all men as
your equal? Are you prepared to cut back on your entertainment so your African
neighbor is able to have clean water or change your life style a little so you
have more time to protest on behalf of the voiceless preborn child or forgo
some end of your life medical care so the millions dying of malaria are able to
have medication or many other possibilities? These highlight only a few of the
glaring inconsistencies most Christians seem to live with so easily. Their
inconsistencies result in inner tensions that detract from the health and
external conflicts that disrupt marriages, family relationships and church
congregations. It would be much better if they heard only one good sermon a
year and strove mightily to put in practice what they then believed. Then they
would have the courage of their convictions.
ERRORS PROMULGATED AS THE GOSPEL
TRUTH ON TV
There are so many errors taught from
TV pulpits but modern Christians tend to accept them as gospel. This happens
because they are so convincingly persuaded he/she is “the most wonderful
speaker”, “who has written X number of books” and “been on Y’s TV talk show”
and “shaken the hand of the president” and “has a congregation of Z thousands”.
With this type of smooth introduction, gullible Christians are convinced this preacher
must be speaking the truth because they are so blessed by God. These
Christians haven’t read their bibles and church history enough to understand
that real prophets were surrounded by a few and lived in poverty out in the
wilderness.
Jesus commanded all Christians to
love their brethren and their neighbors by: preaching, teaching, baptizing and
healing. This is clearly an order with no exceptions. That order is: a)
understandable because love is understandable, b) doable, easily because with
Christ in you it comes naturally c) always rewarded, while we are in the
present, in the future of our earthly lives and most fully in heaven (19). With
books and TV sermons far too many Christians believe Christ’s command means
doing something:
a) You are “called” to do. No, you do it
because you are ordered to do so.
b) If
it is your ”passion”. Wrong, you do it because your neighbor or your brother or
sister needs it done even if you have no inclination, talent, or desire to do
it eg. wipe the feaces from your dying mother’s wasted body.
c) If the “doors are opened” for you.
No, if you want to be more than a three year old Christian then you push open
your own doors, knowing the promise of Jesus to those who will obey his command
to preach and heal. “Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the
enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will
injure you” (20).
d) After you spend time with your
“family, who come first”. Wrong again. The focus should not be on your family
but on Christ all the time, every time. “If you love your father or mother more
than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or
daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.” (13). You can
minister with your family and they will learn by your example. When you focus
on Christ your family will be together. When you focus on your family, your
family will become selfish and fall apart.
e) If you are a “minister” of the
gospel. This is far from the truth. The split between clergy and laity started
early in the church but Jesus taught that no man should be your master or
father and that we were all brothers with essentially the same rights and
responsibilities. “Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one
teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters.” (21)
f) When it is
convenient. Wrong. Paul insisted we preach God’s Word whether it is
convenient or not. (22). After all we serve the greatest King in the greatest
army with the greatest support, sure of the greatest reward and with a certain
outcome to the conflict. If Christians lose sight of this they are easily
alienated from God by the lies spewing from their TV.
MUCH LESS THAN THE PERSON GOD
INTENDED
God desires mature friends. Maturity
usually comes only with crises. Modern TV saturated Christians tend to be
immature and narcissistic. The “fall’ brought us to a very low state compared
to the person that is a little lower than the angels God designed. Yet Christ
in love died for all and offers His life and love giving Spirit. With our eyes
and ears fixed on Christ we can work out the salvation He gives us and become
like Him. When the eyes and ears of Christians are fixed on TV they become but
a shadow of the Person I Should Have Become (23). But God doesn’t give up on
us. Under the present conditions, I believe He will bring a major crisis that
will shake up and wake up Christians, especially to the fact that they have
done almost nothing to stop the murder of many millions of His precious innocent
preborn babies. Too late current Christians will realize they should have
repented for their TV induced indolence long ago. They should have vigorously
protested abortions, defended the preborn, handicapped, poor and elderly with
their time, energy, clear thinking and their lives. Yet it may not be too late
for us all to get on our knees and ask God to forgive us for wasted time,
thinking and quietness robbed by the constructor of lies thru TV.
THE NET EFFECT
Television through lies, distortions,
sordid scenes, violent conflict, distorted sex, flippant commentary,
illusion-filled entertainment, alarming news, twisted opinions, made Christians
lazy, passive, unable to think straight, filled with garbage, hooked on
entertainment and violence, pornography rationalizing their inconsistencies,
dishonest to themselves and indifferent to God while wasting vast amounts of
time and money. For what benefit do they do this? Very little, that a
scientist can see. They have led themselves into temptation and succumbed to
Satan’s distortions. No, they cannot become one of Satan’s minions for they
have been bought with a price and are now eternally part of God’s army and
family. But their ineffectiveness in the face of overwhelming destruction to
faith and family is aiding Satan almost more than if they were directly helping
it. God will not tolerate the destruction of His family, so He must soon
intervene directly.
The net effect is
dehumanization. Satan desires that people become less than human. It began with
the dehumanization of the preborn, then the handicapped, then the elderly and
eventually it spreads to everyone so that nobody considers anyone to have
worth, certainly not sufficient worth to bother defending at risk of their
comforts, let alone their lives. Jesus predicted that humans would destroy
themselves and be destroyed by the events they invite by their sin there would
be no humans left (2) unless He came again.
A CASE IN POINT
There are very few Christians who
would not agree with the statement, “The preborn child is as much a person as
you and me”. They seem to really believe it. If they say this and don’t mean
it, they are lying. If they say they sincerely believe this to be true and
don’t do anything to protect that baby, they are also lying. After all, it
isn’t what we say we believe but where we put our beliefs into action that
makes us a person of truth. Thus there are many millions of Christians who are
constantly lying.
“Cheaters never prosper and liars
never can,
It’s truth and gravity that win.
They damn each sinning man.” (24)
So the Christians have once again
swallowed the apple. They have found that the knowledge of good and evil
brought by their TV does not bring them the power of true knowledge but the
bitterness of often tasted illusion.
It is time to rise up and
throw the television out into the junk pile where it belongs. Maybe then, they
can reassert their humanity and learn to protest the dehumanization of preborn
children.
SUMMARY
As the result of watching television
and directly proportional to the time they spend doing that, Christians:
1. Are more easily
confused about the truth and accept the lies TV always conveys.
2. Have minds
crammed with lies, irrelevant information, and dehumanizing depictions of
preborn, disabled and elderly people so that is how most Christians think and
speak.
3. Have brains so
filled with exciting nonsense or vileness or violence that they can’t readily
learn from history and the Word of God.
4. Be inculcated
with dehumanizing attitudes, particularly towards preborn children.
5. Have reduced
inventiveness and ability to attend to the universe and discover its truths.
6. Waste time they
should spend worshipping their Lord and serving Him by loving their neighbours.
7. Be conditioned
into passivity, which blocks their quick response to needs of others.
8. Be lazy in
serving their Lord and fearful of difficult tasks.
9. Have less social
interaction and conversation between family members.
10. Be hooked on
exciting violence, suspense or horror.
11. Have internal
inconsistencies, which form the basis of personal dishonesty.
12. Develop
rationalizations with which to excuse themselves and convince others to do the
same.
13. Disobey God who
commands them both to preach and heal.
14. Become bonded to
pornography.
15. Become a violence
junkie.
16. Learn thru
imitation to act and think like TV heroes and have their children following
their example.
17. Are more
impatient and give up easily when encountering difficulty and opposition.
18. Are more
ambitious, materialistic, covetous and avaricious.
19. Have poorer
health.
20. Keep listening to
the news, which most often cannot help them escape disaster.
21. Are not as open
to learning about themselves or becoming wise.
22. Want to be
entertained and have lovely church services conducted by well-trained staff.
23. Far too often
accept as truth the erroneous pronouncements of slick TV preachers.
24. Do not mature
into the person God wants them to be.
I realize this short treatise will
not convince many no matter how rational the arguments or how well
scientifically supported are those arguments. People will respond with a need
to relax or a need to keep up to date with world affairs or it’s really quite
harmless or if it’s so bad why is everybody else doing it. I ask only that
people will try to step back from their rationalizations and at least try it.
Best of all, I hope people will throw their television onto the garbage dump
where it belongs. They cannot forget that the author of lies is using the
medium of lies to dehumanize them and to make them less than they should be so
they are more easily confused and made apathetic, especially now when their
Lord and Master is so urgently ordering them to get going and get loving.
There are so few benefits and so many
ill effects arising from watching TV, one must ask why are Christians so unable
to avoid watching TV for so many hours. Their compulsive watching shows how
effective has been the father of lies in using this medium of lies. The only
way to understand this is to rid yourself of your TV and watch none other for
at least one year. I give you a guarantee it will change your life for the
better.
