Another Reason to Quit

I am amazed at how often someone asks me, “Did you watch (whatever) last night?”  Or they try to explain something, and cannot articulate their thoughts without reference to some TV show or a movie.  We have not had TV in our house for years, and here is a prime example why.  During the last few minutes of the Superbowl, certain customers of Comcast in the US were shown a 30 second clip of a pornographic movie.  While I understand it was an accident, the clip that was shown was reportedly from their own smut channel, and the damage is irreversible.

I have some questions for those who watched TV or movies in the last month:

1. How many sinful scenes did you see by accident?
2. How many times did you laugh at a commercial that involved some sin?
3. What philosophies of the world slipped into your mind via the combined assault of music and video?
4. What spiritual aspect of your life was helped by watching TV?
5. How long do you think it will take to recover from one vile scene, filthy show, or Superbowl accident?

Let me state the obvious: Every show, movie, song, image, or idea that you allow into your mind subtly alters who you are. Therefore, during the average viewing hour, one is exposed to 12 minutes of the world’s music, several blatent appeals to materialism, and repeated calls to be conformed to the world.  And that is just in the commercials!  The remaining 48 minutes of actual “showtime” is rarely edifying, to say nothing of it’s detrimental effects on your thought process’.

I will tell you that the Comcast problem was no accident, spiritually speaking.  The god of this world is at war with Christ, righteousness, and Christianity, and every little “accident” is another victory for him.  People, turn OFF your TV for a month and see what you have been missing.  Peace in your home, an unfettered conscience, and a clear mind are just some of the benefits awaiting you!

Friends, I used to watch TV.  Even though I was “selective” in my habits, it began to drag me into the mire, and eventually almost deafened me to the pleadings of the Holy Spirit.  It becomes addictive, an escape from reality, and a means for Satan to drug us into nonresistance.  Please wake up! Your time and energy are too valuable to the High King of Glory to waste it in hypnotic homage to a portal from the pit.

Pastor Hollingsworth

(By the way, my mom used to cover the commercials during hockey games in 1985.  What excuse do we have for watching them now?)

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

It is a whole lot easier to be transformed with the TV off.

*****

• I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. ~ Groucho Marx

• We cannot blame the schools alone for the dismal decline in SAT verbal scores.  When our kids come home from school do they pick up a book or do they sit glued to the tube, watching music videos?  Parents, don’t make the mistake of thinking your kid only learns between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.  ~George Bush

• If you came and you found a strange man… teaching your kids to punch each other, or trying to sell them all kinds of products, you’d kick him right out of the house, but here you are; you come in and the TV is on, and you don’t think twice about it.  ~Jerome Singer

• The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.  ~Ray Bradbury, The Golden Apples of the Sun

• Television’s perfect.  You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back and drain your mind of all thought.  And there you are watching the bubbles in the primeval ooze.  You don’t have to concentrate.  You don’t have to react.  You don’t have to remember.  You don’t miss your brain because you don’t need it.  Your heart and liver and lungs continue to function normally.  Apart from that, all is peace and quiet.  You are in the man’s nirvana.  And if some poor nasty minded person comes along and say you look like a fly on a can of garbage, pay him no mind.  He probably hasn’t got the price of a television set.  ~Raymond Chandler