Saturday, August 04, 2007

Tuning In or Out?

Sigh...sometimes it is a hard decision to make, but recently we disconnected our satellite TV service. It is only partially a financial issue. A bigger issue for us is that our children are increasingly aware of everything on the TV, whereas before they just ignored when we were watching a program.

Let me say that TV is NOT evil! I know a lot of Christians and other conservatives think that TV is evil, but I do don't think it's any more evil than the computer, a car or any other piece of technology. It is a tool which can be used in many ways and yes, I do believe it is misused frequently. The enemy is like that. He is the father of all lies and he tricks people into misusing good or neutral things for evil purposes.

The straw that broke the camels back was a commercial on an unnamed national sports channel in the middle of the day in the middle of women's figure skating. One would think that discretion would be used during the day and on a family oriented show regarding commercial programming. (Though some might argue this particular commercial has no place anywhere!) It was a commercial for a new men's comedy show on a cable channel and they were joking around with a person in a deer costume regarding having intimate relationship with a deer! Not once, but several times the commercial ran. God help the people who actually find that entertaining and acceptable. Even the commercials for occult interest movies have become really prevalent. When your five year old starts asking, "That's naughty isn't it Mommy?" Or covering his ears and turning his head when certain commercials come on...well, it's time to make some changes.

You can choose what shows you watch, but you cannot choose the commercials. So we chose commercial free viewing! Honestly I haven't missed the tv that much. When I miss it will be when figure skating starts up this winter on that unnamed national sports network and I won't be able to watch it! :o( But I will get over it. I'm sure I will.

The last time we cut our satellite we spent the money purchasing DVDs so we do have quite a large library. This time we have decided on a membership at Netflix and Christian Cinema. Our monthly costs for both are about 2/3 of the cost of our lowest level of satellite service. So far it has been fun. Hubby and I like to watch documentaries as well as movies and we get a good balance. The best thing is that we have control over what we see and more importantly what our children see. It's just one more step in our journey to Simplicity.

So, my question for you all, is what "must see" movie, documentary or Christian video do you recommend?

3 comments:

Sandi said...

That's an awesome choice. We have never had anything other than simple TV, limited stations, no cable, etc. But as you pointed out it's not the TV and not always the shows that is bad, it's the stuff in between! My children are a bit older and they actually have come to enjoy old movies when I get them from the library. One of their favorites is "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye. We do have a lot of other DVD's, but I always make sure that we discuss anything that I see might need to be addressed. They also love "The Andy Griffth Show!"

Lynette said...

I have lots of Family Christian movies you can borrow if you have a VCR. My sister gave them to me. J likes them & there are questions on the box to ask your kids. J is also into Star Wars, just got into it.
We do Netflix, love it. We try to mix it up a bit since we all have different taste. But we also like to do themes. We did a sports theme once, baseball movies & Chariots of Fire. Now we are doing Mystery themes. I have in my que Nancy Drew from the 30's & 40's. My newest kick is Saturday night mystery on channel 6, comes on at 9pm. You can rent them as well. I like Agatha Christie-Miss Marple mysteries.
Also like Civil War documentaries & the movie Glory. But these are all for adults.
I also like the old black & white shows, I love lucy, andy griffith, leave it to beaver
We also watch old movies J favorite is Singing in the Rain.
The Libaray does have a pretty good selection of movies also.

Heather said...

Its funny you mention this... when we move next month I am thinking that we wont reconnect ours either...