Piper apologizes for a sharp comment he made when asked about his opinion on TV. I'm not sure which inspires me more, his example in showing repentance and humility in apologizing or his wise words on the subject of TV viewing. Check out the whole article here.
Some excerpts from Piper's Article:
There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them.
I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don’t really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.
If you want to be relevant, say, for prostitutes, don’t watch a movie with a lot of tumbles in a brothel. Immerse yourself in the gospel, which is tailor-made for prostitutes; then watch Jesus deal with them in the Bible; then go find a prostitute and talk to her. Listen to her, not the movie. Being entertained by sin does not increase compassion for sinners.
Whatever dulls the eyes of our mind from seeing Christ powerfully and purely is destroying us. There is not one man in a thousand whose spiritual eyes are more readily moved by the beauty of Christ because he has just seen a bare breast with his buddies.
But leave sex aside (as if that were possible for fifteen minutes on TV). It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.
One more smaller concern with TV (besides its addictive tendencies, trivialization of life, and deadening effects): It takes time. I have so many things I want to accomplish in this one short life. Don’t waste your life is not a catchphrase for me; it’s a cliff I walk beside every day with trembling.
Continue reading here.
4 comments:
Hey Lindsey,
Interesting post - thanks. We don't watch a ton of movies (and no tv at the moment), but we are often bummed because we would really like to find a series to occasionally watch together and it is SO hard to find anything decent, especially if we ever look for a comedy. (Comedy and crude just seem to go together "now a days" I guess!)
Any good reccomendations? :o)
I wanted to say happy belated anniversary too (it's the day before ours, right... or is it coming up this weekend?) I remember that it was close and we couldn't go because of things we had going on due to our wedding. Kind of crazy that it's been six years already, huh? Congratulations!!
Here's to many, many more!! :o)
I read this article today, too ~ It was excellent! I wanted to e-mail it to our pastors. There are way too many references to TV shows & movies and even clips of movies shown (that we choose not to watch - or let our kids watch)in the service.
Youth functions are usually based on some show (Survivor - Amazing Race, etc)
jiminy!
have a great weekend ~ T.
loved the zoo pics; looked like a great zoo, too!
and the ERGO - LOVE the ERGO! :-)
It's one of the few things Lana wants for the baby & Luke asked, "what would we USE one for?" ha!
She explained that not all babies are as good as he remembers his siblings to be :-) and the many ways it will be useful & he agreeed it would be a wise purchase.
Good article. I have a very low tolerance for violence, nudity and bad language. I know that I have become more desensitive to "coarse jokes" etc on TV.
I do think there is some value, though, in keeping up with what is going on in the media - since it is so pervasive in our culture.
I LOVE this! Thanks for posting it. I just love your blog :) I wish we lived closer b/c I think we'd be great friends!!
How's you early rising going? I'm slacking. Late summer nights with the kids have resulted in me sleeping in until about 7:00.... but they aren't awake yet by then since they got to be later too ;) Anyway, I'm enjoying my sleep. Such is summer, I suppose! We'll start up school in about a month and then I'll have to get back on track!
~Phoebe
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