One of the great blessings in my life is the absence of television. It never ceases to amaze me how people invite such a poisonous guest into the very hearts of their families.
I am reminded of how blessed I am in being free of TV whenever I find myself on the treadmill at my local gym. There, in front of me, affronting me, as I endeavor to keep myself in shape, are a whole bank of TV screens displaying the plethora of daytime TV offerings. Lately I’ve noticed a good-looking priest character in one of the most sickening of the daily soap operas. He is clean-cut, wears a crucifix pin, and is always seen in the company of admiring and beautiful women. Always women. I’ve never seen him in the company of men.
It is of course obvious that it’s only a matter of time before he falls into sin and jumps into bed with one (or more) of these women. He is only there to gratify the sordid desire of the viewers to see the massacre of innocence and the soiling of purity. He is a lamb to be slaughtered and then devoured and deflowered.
Oscar Wilde observed that we are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars. In today’s TV culture the only stars who are tolerated are those who prefer the gutter.
You are correct in the assessment of the vast majority of TV programs in our nation; they usually are a toxic combination of stupid, insipid and immoral.
However, much like the internet, TV is a tool that can and needs to be properly utilized. There is good programming also; let’s begin with much of EWTN. The Shakespeare series and the G.K. Chesterton series are two of note, because among their other virtues, they introduce some folks to two great writers who might otherwise be unknown to them except as names. In our local Chesterton group I’ve been amazed at how many were introduced and attracted to GKC initially through the TV series rather than through his writings.
There are other times when good movies or mysteries can be found along with other programs that educate or at least entertain in a fashion not inimical to Christian morality.
Again, the internet has engendered much harm, but also has fashioned a vehicle for good when in the right hands. I would say the same for television. Let’s hope that through some miracle, we will one day return to a society whose popular evening programming includes not degenerate nonsense, but a modern Archbishop Sheen.
Like you, I do not watch television at home, but recently spent several hours at my car dealership in a waiting room with a television. Every time I watch TV, I am always surprised that the downward spiral has reached even lower depths. Most people don’t notice it, because they watch television all the time.
Daytime TV, quite frankly, is a hotbed of a sort of soft paganism – especially the talk shows. People don’t go to hell, they drift there in the waters of a culture that constantly undermines moral truth. Television is a critical part of that process.