COMPARISONS ARE ODIOUS. SO IS...

television. There, I said it. While watching television as an activity in and of itself doesn't necessarily qualify as sin, watching it does do something to us. Is the end result good, bad or indifferent? Read this powerful passage by John Piper and you decide. (By the way, if you don't know what odious means, it means worthy of hatred. While that may be a strong word to use for television, it does describe the way I've been feeling about it after contemplating Piper's opinion.)

From Pierced by the Word, ch. 18 --

"If all other variables are equal, your capacity to know God deeply will probably diminish in direct proportion to how much television you watch. There are several reasons for this. One is that television reflects American culture at its most trivial. And a steady diet of triviality shrinks the soul. You get used to it. It starts to seem normal. Silly becomes funny. And funny becomes pleasing. And pleasing becomes soul-satisfaction. And in the end the soul that is made for God has shrunk to fit snugly around triteness."

How's that for conviction. Ouch! If we are to strive vigorously for holiness, then it stands to reason that anything that's keeping us from that goal should be considered our enemy and worthy of strong opposition. Consider what Jesus said about our eye if it causes us to sin. While that recommendation is not to be taken in a wooden, literal sense, it does describe the intensity with which we should fight sin. At the end of his life, Paul said, "I have fought the good fight." The greek word for fight there is the where we get our word agony. Think about Romans 7. Don't take sin lightly. Any sin.

One last thing. If you still think that television is an indifferent medium, read "All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes" by Ken Myers and "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman. Very enlightening.

Blessings.