Some thoughts on movies and television

As a young child, I loved watching movies and videos, but Mother and Daddy were always good about not letting us watch too many videos (for which I am glad)

A year or so ago, someone sent us two DVD's - not Christian, just secular, old family movies. We watched one of them one evening, and the next morning at my devotions, I found myself fighting desperately to keep my mind on God's word. Scenes from the movie came back again and again. They weren't necessarily bad scenes, but they filled my mind. In anguish, I thought, "So help me God - I never want to watch a secular movie again." That is the foundation of life experience on which this blog post is written:

My heart is burdened these days about the amount of television and movies many Americans view, including some Christians. I am not concerned about it as if it were outright disobedience (there is no command, "Do not watch television"). I am sad because so many people forfeit God's best for their life by frittering their time away on legitimate, but worthless things.

To set the affections of our hearts on things above is humanly un-natural, yes humanly impossible, and thus requires much grace from God, prayer and meditation on Scripture. It seems that a God directed state of heart is so fragile, it can be swept away by the smallest thing. And television can crush it so quickly! It's hard to be spiritually-minded - why make it harder with secular tv shows and movies? Of course, R-rated movies and trash TV are terribly destructive to holiness, but so-called "clean" movies or tv shows can also be detrimental to the fervency of devotion that Christians desire to have because of a profound absence of God.

I'm not talking about a law. Clean TV programs are not necessarily a sin to watch. But do I desire to have a deep awareness of the presence of God, a rich fullness of His word? Or do I desire to be entertained and have an hour of fun, even at the expense of an hour of growth in grace. (It is important to remember also, that our desire is fueled by being fed what it wants) Can I say after watching a movie or tv program, "Oh how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day!" It may be true of some movies and programs, but it is not so with most of the media available today.

What makes them so spiritually dulling? The comfortable absence of God.

What is immoral? Is it violence? Is it nudity and immodesty? Is it bad language? Yes, yes and yes. But it is also immoral to neglect God. "Whether you eat or you drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (I Cor. 10:31) Secular movies simply ignore the Glorious Creator of the World, and that is evil. Unlike the sodomy and violence that fills many tv screens, this evil is subtle and creeps into the households of a sadly large number of people. God is not acknowledged, and as far as the people on the screen are concerned, it's just fine that way.

Just test yourself after you watch a secular movie. Where is your hunger for God? Where is your desire to read His Word? I have found at such times that holy desires are far away . Is it a wonder so many Christians lack holiness, fervent devotion and spiritual power when their brains are tuned to entertainment?

Why starve your poor soul? Why feed on that which makes you spiritually malnourished?

I pray for people that God would cause them to lose taste for the things of this world, that he would do as the psalmist says, "Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word."

I got this quote from Horatius Bonar on a blog, and though it speaks of reading, it applies very well to television:

"Specially beware of light reading…The light literature of the day is working a world of harm; vitiating the taste of the young, enervating their minds, unfitting them for life’s plain work, eating out their love of the Bible, teaching them a false morality, and creating in the soul an unreal standard of truth, and beauty, and love. Don’t be too fond of the newspaper. Yet read it, that you may know both what man is doing and what God is doing; and extract out of all you read matter for thought and prayer…Let your reading be always select; and whatever you read, begin with seeking God’s blessing on it. But see that your relish for the Bible be above every other enjoyment, and the moment you begin to feel greater relish for any other book, lay it down till you have sought deliverance from such a snare, and obtained from the Holy Spirit an intenser relish, a keener appetite for the Word of God (Jer. 15:16)."

Well, that was a long post, but I hope that whoever reads it is encouraged by it, to more wholeheartedly pursue God's word, God's kingdom, love and good deeds.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
-Hebrews 10:24 ESV