TV

Since I’m still getting set up, the next while is going to feature a lot of posts where I link to interesting stuff that I ran across this summer.  For instance, there’s this post from John Piper on why he doesn’t own a TV. It’s worth considering carefully.  Many years ago, one Canadian Reformed church made a policy that ministers who own TVs would not be welcome to preach in their church.  Today things are quite a bit different.  Nearly everyone has one.  We had one when we were first married, but after one too many late night Star Trek reruns, the cord (after being unplugged!) ended up at the sharp end of my wife’s scissors and to the curb it went with the rest of the garbage.

Today we have one again.  After watching programs on the computer for so long, we thought we may as well just go all the way and get a real TV.   However, it is something with which you need to have a lot of self-discipline.  Newer TVs have features to block out a lot of filth and garbage and we should use those features to the max.  We have filters for our computers, we should be using filters for our TVs too.  Moreover, just like with the Internet, should it become a problem, we should pray for the insight to discern the problem and then get either find a creative way to deal with it or get rid of it altogether.

Years ago, I remember reading an article by my colleague Rob Schouten on TV watching.  He suggested that we print out Psalm 101:3a in large font and either post it above our TVs or on our remote control:  “I will set before my eyes no vile thing.”  It’s still a good suggestion.