What's Wrong With TV?

I live out in the boonies and have satellite TV, and I have one of the moderate packages, which gives me about 250 channels. (Now, I won't go off on a tangent about that--at least not in this post!) I spend more time flipping around trying to find something decent to watch, than I do actually watching a show.

 I rarely, if ever, watch NBC, CBS, or ABC. Of the other channels I watch, there is rarely anything that doesn't have inappropriate language, and with the exception of only one or two shows, the rest all have sex, or references to sex, or scenes that suggest sex. And these are daytime and early evening hours, the hours that were once designated "family hours" and all the shows were supposed to be family friendly, and have nothing indecent. Apparently, that no longer applies.


Of every popular network station show on during "family hours," there are words like he**, dam*, and the sexual innuendo isn't even innuendo anymore. Showing couples in bed together talking about the sex they had the night before, friends talking to one another about the sex he or she they spent the night with, including homosexual encounters. Very few of these sexual situations are between married couples, and most of them aren't even between a "couple" who are exclusive to one another, but rather one night stands, and never is mention made of safe sex, or that the results of these casual encounters are pregnancy, which can lead to abortion, and/or sexually transmitted diseases, which, in the case of one night stands, can be passed on and on and on.


Then we get into the so-called "reality" shows. These are the ones I hate the most. Women who dress like prostitutes, with no morals, no self-respect, but are the ones young women are watching. Add to that the shows that glorify teenage pregnancy, and I did read an interview that quoted a 15 year old who wanted to get pregnant so she would get her own TV show and be famous. I've even watched some shows that are supposed to be for young people, and these are on the Disney Channel, no less. The episode I watched took place on a high school campus and showed two girls kissing each other, with the "message" that it's okay to be gay. I've even seen shows that feature young kids, ages nine and ten, who spoke about being gay and their friends laughing at them.


I'm not saying the shows saying 'gay is okay' is worse than the other shows, because they're not. They are all teaching immorality and our youth are the most impressionable. More and more kids are committing suicide, are taking guns to school, are getting arrested for violent crimes, having abortions, using drugs, and going to prison. What's wrong with this picture? The lack of morality in this country. The lack of parents disciplining their children. The lack of God in our schools and our government. And that "separation of church and state" everyone starts hollering about--read your history books. That was included to keep the government out of the church, NOT the church out of government. When God was removed from the classroom, the decline began in a big way. 


Romans 1:24-32

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 


They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.


Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 


In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.


Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 


They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.


I put the text in red to bring it to your attention. Look at the list of things going on in Paul's day--sound familiar? We listen to the news and get mad at corporation presidents who are greedy and ripping off the public, we condemn child molesters and rapists, we watch TV shows that promote envy, we hear about murder and crimes and say the criminal gets what he deserves, people gossip about their friends and co-workers, they slander one another, they say God doesn't exist, and they make fun of those who believe in God; people brag about the new car, house, boat, etc. they just bought, they think they are better than others, and when I watch the true crime TV shows, there are crimes committed that I could have never thought up; children disobey their parents, and parents don't discipline them, or are afraid to because all kids know all they have to do is call CPS and report them; people are mean to one another, unfaithful to their spouses, they don't love one another, and have no mercy on anyone. 


And television reflects all of that. I won't watch movies with blatant sex, and I won't watch anything where the actors take the Lord's Name in vain. Why don't they use Buddha's name in vain, or Confucius', or Hitler's maybe, he was a horrible man? We all shout about our government, other countries, inflation, the cost of gas, the price of food, medical care we can't afford, plus a million other things that go on in today's society. Why keep yelling? It doesn't change a thing, but there is a way to change all of it.


If everyone would bow their heads right now and ask Jesus to forgive their sins, believing with their hearts, and begin to act according to God's laws, this world would turn around. We would do away with war, disease, and famine. There would be no need for prisons, bombs, or hospitals even. Poverty would flee. Illness would be a thing of the past. Deserts would become fertile ground for growing food. And the list goes on and on.

If you would like this movement to start in your home, here is the first step:


"Lord, I know I am a sinner and haven't been living the way you want me to. I believe that Jesus is the Christ, who came to earth through a virgin, died on the cross, was buried and rose on the third day, and is coming back one day.


I ask that Jesus live in my heart, and cleanse me of my sins. Let me be an example for my family and friends, so that they will know there is only one God, and one way to Heaven.


I confess with my mouth that Jesus is my Savior and Lord of my life. I thank you and praise you.


In Jesus' holy name. Amen."


If you said that prayer with a sincere heart, your name has been written in God's Book of Life and when you die, you will go to Heaven. Or if the Lord returns before your death, you will be caught up with all of His people. Now, get a Bible and read the book of John in the New Testament. Find a Bible believing church like the Assembly of God, or Pentecostal Church, these two church entities are everywhere, and it's likely you will find one or both close to your house. Visit each one and decide which one you fit in with the best, and attend every week.


Share your salvation with everyone you know, and don't worry about it if they scoff at you, or think you're going through a phase, it happens to all of us. Just stay faithful in reading the Bible and going to church. The more you go, the more you learn, and the more you grow in the Lord. 


God bless you and keep you!