Within the Lines

I Find This Law at Work

Is television the root of all evil?  We often hear, from both secular and Christian sources, that increasing violence and sexual promiscuity, obesity and eating disorders, isolation and poor self-esteem, etc, etc, particularly in "our children" all come from television programming and movies.  I recently realized that I've heard this refrain so commonly and easily used that I never really think about it.  While I agree that television and movies are sources of much that is anti-God, I've begun to consider that there is a subtle evil in such blaming.

Are not we parents to be held accountable for what our children watch on television?  Are peers to blame for our children's secular world view if we've chosen to yoke ourselves together with an unbelieving school system?  As I've considered this question, I've seen examples in myself as well.  I blame my church for my lack of growth in the faith.  I blame my parents for my inability to measure up to the Bible's standard of holiness.  My husband is a great catch-all to blame for any number of family issues.  And when all else fails, it must be God's fault.

The Bible doesn't specifically mention The Law of Shaming and Blaming; nonetheless, I see it at work all around me, and within me.  Rather than face up to our failures and weakness, we find something to blame or someone to accuse.  Initially it appears to be your basic fleshly self-absorption, and obviously there is that.  But I see a furtive evil lurking deeper, that causes us to miss out of the glories of grace, humility, and faith -- thru repentance.

The Bible repeats over and over, in both Old Testament and New, the need for repentance and forgiveness of sins.  Unfortunately, we've, I think, weakened that part of our theology in our search for knowledge and cause and solutions.  We barely remember what repentance is, thinking of it as merely apology, and what good is "I'm sorry" as a solution?  We must get back to basics: acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God. 

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{ 04:01, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 } { Posted by GrandmaRosie }

The best thing about TV is it has an off button. To many parents fail to use it!

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{ 07:03, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 } { Posted by gokings13 }

Accountability.
We parents buy the tv, we give it a place of honor in our front rooms, we allow it in the kids bedrooms, we allow them to watch it with the door shut, we put tv's in our cars, boats and campers..........
then we want to blame hollywood?
hollywood is only giving us what we want.......

We adults bought it and brought it into the home.
We adults buy the kids video consoles and video games.
We adults buy the kids dvds to watch.
(((for good measure))) We adults buy them c/d's , mp3s, ipods and the like so they can plug in.
We adults give them unlimited unsupervised time on the internet. Myspace, blogsites, AOL IM, chat rooms.

We are reaping, what we sow!
Laura