Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Jan/79

Contributor - Mrs. J, Vandermeulen

Title - To the Glory of God TV

Topic - Media

Many of us have an apparatus at home which should be looked at more closely. It is not the apparatus itself, but the effect it has on our families and communities. You guessed it: it's the T.V. What a change that has brought about in our lives. Since we have television we are so much better informed about what happens in the world. The news comes to us almost instantly. Our children, even at an early age, have seen a lot more of what is happening in the world then we did when we were small.

Some T.V. programs are very informative and educational, but I would like to draw your attention to another area of the T.V. programs. Not all programs are informative and educational in the right sense. It seems that in many families children and young people spend a lot of time watching programs, and that has often concerned me. Since so many children and young people spend a lot of time in front of the T.V., it is good to evaluate some of the things they watch.

Are all children programs good to watch? Can parents leave their children in front of the T.V. with a clear conscience, because it is a good and handy babysitter? Are cartoons as simple and innocent as they used to be? No! ! We have to screen very carefully the programs the little ones watch. Even in cartoons there is so much violence and cheating. Small children should not spend many hours in front of the T.V. They have to learn to play and occupy themselves and to spend time with other children. This is very important. It might be tempting to let them watch T.V. in the morning but one short program should be sufficient.

School-age children seem to watch quite a bit T.V. also. What do they observe and learn from those programs? That depends of course on what they watch. Many of the regular programs present much violence and immorality. Children get quickly used to that and see nothing wrong with it. During a discussion on how to use leisure time, I asked my teenage catechism class last year to analyse the T.V. programs they were watching regularly, and report back to me. Most of them agreed that what they watched was not always good and up building, but they would continue to watch these programs. They realized that for "some people" -some programs and scenes were definitely harmful but they thought that it would not have any effect on them. And does that not speak for many of us? We are willing to listen to the bad language, because, apart from that, we find it "good entertainment". If God's name is used in vain and we hear profanity, how can it still be "good"?

Can we demand that our children watch certain programs? We sure can! Parents are responsible for what their children watch. They can certainly say, we want you to watch this program, because it is a good experience. When Billy Graham was on T.V. last fall, I announced that we were going to watch it. All of us! There came some disagreeable grunts from the teenage section of the family, but we watched it. And it was time well spent. We cannot say that from all the programs. I personally feel that there are very few programs that Christians can and should watch. So very few! Does the bible give us any guidelines in this area? It certainly does, and it leaves no doubt either. In I Corinthians 10: 31 we read that "whatsoever ye do, do it to the glory of God". Now then, can you enjoy watching violence, immorality, etc., and glorify God at the same time?

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