It boggles my mind
Isn't it odd that there are websites that proclaim TV is evil, and Christians shouldn't own one, or watch TV? And these are websites by those who profess to be Christians? Don't most, if not all of their reasons for shunning TV also apply to the internet? Am I missing something here?
posted by pilgrim at 12:05 AM
6 Comments:
One difference that I can see between the internet and television is that of choice. There are some Christ-honoring materials on the internet that you cannot find on television. Both however can be used improperly, both can become snares and idols.
Here are some quotes from Spurgeon and Piper that I found just recently on Scott Brown Online:
“But,” says one, “are we not to have amusements?” Yes, such amusements as you can take in the fear of God. Do whatever Jesus would have done. GS291
I have nothing to say against recreation in its proper place. Certain forms of recreation are needful and useful; but it is a wretched thing when amusement becomes a vocation. Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man. From early morning till late at night some spend their time in a round of frivolities, or else their very work is simply carried on to furnish them funds for their pleasures. This is vicious. Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle. 2040.476
Spurgeon
'You’ll never hear me on Sunday morning saying, “The problem with this service is people don’t come here to give, they only come to get.” That’s not the problem. You know what the problem is? The problem is people stuff their faces with the white bread of the world and then they come to the banquet table of God’s word and they’re not hungry. And I’m talking television mainly and a lot of other junk that we waste our time on. The world as I look at it is just filled with triviality. . . . Almost all T.V. is trivial. Almost all ads are trivial. They’re silly. It’s an epidemic of silliness, so that the soul that feeds itself on this an hour or two a night . . . can’t help but just shrivel up to the smallest capacities for real, magnificent, glorious joy. . . . 'How . . . much silly stuff . . . can you watch before you begin to realize you’re a stick-figure, you’re a puppet, you’re just a silly little echo of the silliness coming through that tube continually? . . .'
John Piper
The conclusion, when all has been heard, {is:} fear God and keep His commandments, because this {applies to} every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
Ecclesiastes 12:13,14
Good point, Pilgrim. Not only is it inconsistent, it's un-Biblical. God pronounced His creation "good." That means that the TV set is good. Now, we of course can use that good gift for evil (by what we watch, or by dropping it on our neighbor's head), but the evil resides in us--in our heart (Jer. 17:9)--not in the material object.
I agree with what Matthew said, that there is absolutely nothing worthwhile on the television. It does seem, though, that fanatics like those with websites declaring weird things are the "Christians" that so many outsiders to the faith see.
good observation...
Thanks for the comments.
There is not much worth watching on television, but there is a lot not worth viewing on the internet.
The arguments I keep coming across though seem odd, as they condemn TV for the very things you can find on the internet--in some cases they may be found more easily, on demand, and worse examples.
Yet they condemn TV from the internet.
There are many reasons to warn about how one uses either, but I like the wittenberg door comment, especially.
I think there is a lot more rubbish and a good deal less healthy stuff on T.V.
My post has nothing to with which has worse stuff or better stuff on it.
It has to do with the inconsistency of using the internet to attack television with arguments that apply to the internet as well as TV.
It's not a matter of degree.
Both have great potential to be used to communicate evil, both have great potential to communicate good.
I spend much more time online than watching television because there is little that interests me on TV--but that is not the point I am making.
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