No TV? How Radical!

My wife, Patty, and I canceled our satellite television service a week ago. We’re not going with another provider. We’re not switching back to cable. We’ve decided to give up watching TV because it’s such a waste of time.

Not that we watch junk, or that we don’t find viewing pleasurable. I enjoy sitting down to see CBS Sunday Morning, Jeopardy, St. Louis Cardinals baseball games and classic movies on TCM. But that’s the problem. While I plunk down in my easy chair, I miss out on life. 

After many decades of zombielike viewing, it has become clear that TV did more than just provide evening comfort.

It had become an idol, an idol I dreaded giving up; an idol that I visited nightly by default; and idol that is preferable to more important activities, such as ministering to addicts or counseling troubled couples. 

Many of my Christian friends who have learned of my decision are as incredulous as the DirecTV customer serviceperson who tried 11 different ways to talk me out of canceling. But I think priorities may be out of whack. Although I don’t want to go off on a sanctimonious rant, the faith of many Christians I know seems impotent because they have more of a relationship with popular culture than the Lord. They would rather salivate over babes on The Bachelor than read the Bible; they would rather laugh at penis jokes on Two and a Half Men than pray. 

Rather than being a nuisance or distraction, the prospect of spending time in the evening praying with my wife or preparing to lead a small group now looks liberating. I also can send some of the $57 a month I’ll be saving to deserving ministries. 

Patty and I think we’ll survive this change in lifestyle. More than two decades ago we gave up television for a year and it turned out to be a great period of spiritual and relational growth. The catalyst back then? Cable TV rates had risen to $16 a month. But the sexual titillation dominating the airwaves also bothered me. Of course titillation from 1989 has been replaced by blatant vulgarity in 2012.

When I first gave up the habit in my younger days, I spent more time with my family, especially playing with my three young sons. I also read more and found church activities to be more meaningful. I quickly filled the time I had watched television with more essential pursuits. May it happen again.