Real-Life Sanctification: How Much Television Should a Christian Watch?

I actually figured this one out the other day. Turns out the correct amount rounds out to about eight hours a week.

Just thought that you might want to know.

And with that, I bring this bad joke to a close, even as I ask this question in a serious manner: how much tv should we watch as believers? It strikes me that this question ties in with our sanctification more than some of us might think. Sometimes we talk a good deal about sanctification--our progressive, life-long, Spirit-given growth in godliness as redeemed believers--but fail to put any feet on it. We forget to go the next step and ask, what does it actually look like to be sanctified in our contemporary age? In a culture that gravitates to certain sins and patterns of behavior, what does it look like to live a transformed life per Romans 12? We ought not to think that we can talk a great deal about sanctification without clear practical application. That's like talking a great deal about the importance of political engagement but never actually doing anything to enact that love. We would say that such a person is full of hot air--always possessing an opinion, yet never coupling that opinion with action. Many of us, however, can fall prey to just such a lifestyle.

In asking questions like this, then, we're not trying to get pinned down on tiny little matters that have no tie to our faith. No, we're trying to carry out Romans twelve in a very meaningful way and ask ourselves, what does it look like to be an American Christian? I appreciate this about my former boss, Dr. Al Mohler. He teaches about sanctification as a systematic theologian, but he then seeks to discern the particular challenges of contemporary culture to the sanctification of the individual Christian. I want to do the same, and I want to encourage others to do the same. Toward that end, many Americans watch a ton of television. Here's a quotation on the absolutely stunning amount of tv your average American watches (source):

"Figures from Nielsen Media Research show the average US household consuming eight hours and 14 minutes of TV per day; with the average individual American watching four hours and 35 minutes a day."

Wow.

This is an obviously unhealthy amount of television viewing. I'm not even going to attempt to ground that claim. I don't need to. And yet we have to wonder how many Christians fit this "average" profile. I'm guessing, sadly, that many do. Beyond this, I'm guessing that many healthy, reformed, book-reading, intentionally holy Christians do as well. Why is it harmful to watch so much tv? Well, it's wasteful. One ends up lolling in front of a constantly blinking set with very little to show for it in the end. Of course, we all need some relaxation time, some period of the day when we rest our minds and allow ourselves to kick back. But we should not make the apparently national mistake of thinking that "relax" equals "television". It does not. Furthermore, there are so very many more healthy and helpful things we can do than to watch massive amounts of television. We can pray with our spouses or friends; we can read a good book together (yes, normal people actually do this!); we can go on a walk; we can go visit a person in need; we can call an unmarried friend who is in need of encouragement; we can check up on family members by a quick telephone call; we can write a blog post of endless length and little actual readership (just checking that you're reading). In these and so many other ways, we can avoid letting television do its voodoo work of mental hypnosis and physical paralysis.

Television is not nearly as neutral as many of us "engaging culture" types think it is. Bethany and I don't watch much of it, but our limited viewings of The Office definitely influence us. We repeat funny lines to one another, wonder out loud about whether Jim and Pam will ultimately marry, and laugh about Michael's antics. Though these acts are not inherently bad, necessarily, they show us that even in our very limited viewing, we are being impacted by our subject material. Many of my "engaging culture" friends have not caught on to the fact that though they, like me at times, think that they are impervious to all cultural influence on their faith, they in fact are not, as inarguably demonstrated by their use of a style of humor that one learns from shows like The Office, Saturday Night Live, and 30 Rock. Do you really think that your ironic comebacks and affected coolness come only from your own comedic preferences? No, just like me and everyone else, you've been influenced to joke in that way by culture. It's not neutral, and neither is your approach to it.

In watching lots of tv, then, we'll be shaped by it in profound ways. Unless you're watching John MacArthur shows on loop on TBN, that's not a good thing, broadly speaking. Am I arguing here for legalism, for some prune-like, sour-mouthed Christianity? I don't think that I am. I'm merely trying to point out that we have a limited amount of time in the day, and what we take in during that limited time will shape us. It should not surprise us at all when we are less spiritually hungry and fruitful in seasons when we're consuming (and being consumed by) popular media. It only makes sense that this happen. If we want spiritual health and vitality, we're going to have to force ourselves to fight for holiness and to discipline ourselves for the purpose of attaining spiritual health. Christians who do so are most often the ones who, when cancer or financial difficulty or spousal sin or lay-offs or rejection letters or broken friendships hit, are most able to maintain a strong faith and even radiate joy in the midst of their trials. When you've been working through a good Puritan paperback, or listening to Mahaney sermons, or volunteering at your local crisis pregnancy center, you're going to be healthier than the person who has taken in lots of television, film, and music. It only makes sense.

Let's wrap this up with a personal word. My wife and I are working hard at this. At night, when we're both tired, it comes fairly naturally to put the tube and put our feet up. It's easy, it's fun, and it makes sense. While we've both realized that there are definitely times in the week when it is fine (and even good!) to do so, we can also both see that a steady diet of tv or movies dulls us spiritually and hinders us from doing really important spiritual things that will mature and grow us both personally and as a couple. We've recently drawn up a weekly schedule (shades of legalism--flee!) that will give us a basic form for the week. On a number of nights, we'll do lots of different things--have company, pray together for an extended time for the salvation of family (or the defeat of institutional abortion, the welfare of orphans abroad, the coming of God's kingdom), go on a walk, read a book on parenting--and on other nights, we'll watch something, often just a few shows of something we like, like The Office. In this way, we hope to avoid legalism and self-righteousness on the one hand and undisciplined media gluttony and spiritual torpor on the other.

We haven't necessarily solved this question, and we don't claim to have the perfect answer, and having a child is going to change everything, and we'll probably fluctuate in our actual practice of this plan, but we are resolved to use the limited time we have in this life well, and to grow in holiness. Eight hours a week may work, or it may not, but whatever the perfect answer is to the question posed in the blog's title, we are hopeful that we and many others can rebel against the culture and engage with God in real-life sanctification that defeats the whispers of the evil one ("just relax, you don't need to be all spiritual") and that in fact transforms us even as we pursue it.

Adults, Video Games, and the Liberating Power of Limitation

I recently had the opportunity to be on a fresh new podcast, Christ and Pop Culture. This podcast is hosted by my fellow church members Rich Brooks and David Dunham. Rich (his group blog) and David (his blog) are talented, fun guys (with well-done blogs), and I would encourage you to regularly listen to their show. If you desire to know what is going on in American pop culture, and you want that knowledge filtered through a reformed lens, I can think of few better places to send you than to Christ and Pop Culture. They were very kind to have me on as we discussed my blog posts from several weeks back about youth groups using Halo 3 for evangelistic means. Download the show directly here--it's about 30 minutes long, and it's a worthwhile listen.

In the course of our conversation, we talked about adults and video games. The issue was introduced, "How much should adults play video games?" Now, while acknowledging right off the bat that video games are not necessarily sinful, and that it can be fine to play them at times, I noted that video games are fundamentally rooted in a fantasy world. They have little ties to the real world, even if they replicate real-world experiences. There is little in your average video game, furthermore, that you can transfer to the real-world in a meaningful way. Essentially, video games are pure entertainment. There is not anything wrong with pure entertainment, of course, but it is my contention that for the Christian, the person invested with the responsibility to bear the image of God, subdue the world, preach the gospel to the lost everywhere around us, and advance the kingdom of God, pure entertainment should be limited. In fact, in a society that idolizes entertainment, recreation, fun, and self-indulgence, we should provide a clearly countercultural picture of a life devoted to higher things, to important things, to causes that last for eternity.

Do not misread me. I enjoy sports and movies as much as the next guy. I am not an ascetic. However, like any man, I have alot of important things to do. I have a family to provide for, a career to build, a faith to cultivate, a church to serve. I love spending some time on TrueHooop (the best basketball blog in the world, hands down), but I get to do so very rarely, maybe once a week if I'm lucky. I love watching movies, but I watch only a few (if that many) in a given week. I love pleasure reading, but since the summer, when I read Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full, I have not even attempted to read a book for fun. Am I unique? No, there are tons of men just like me, no, doing more than me, and we realize that there is simply too much of importance to do in the real-world than to rack up high scores and defeat towering enemies in the virtual "world."

Christian men who devote large portions of time to recreation and fun would be well served by trading investment in ephemeral things, things that will not last and that are of little lasting consequence, for investment in things that truly matter. Don't waste your college years goofing off. Serve your church, work hard in your classes, provide an income for yourself. Post-college, don't follow Zach Braff and the immature men-children and waste your life away. Seek a wife, use your gifts and talents in employment for God's glory, build a church through faithful service, share the gospel with hell-bound people, and generally live for things that matter and that last. Limit your pursuit of pleasure and fun. If you're dragging your feet about children, and your wife really wants to have them, but you don't want the extra work burden and personal responsibility that comes, because you don't want to give up all those sports games and video games, it is time to limit yourself. It is time to be a man, to dig in, to work yourself hard, in order that your wife would be happy and you would become what God has in store for most of us: a father. If this sounds repressive, the Bible shows us it's not. Indeed, it is in limiting ourselves--in terms of our pleasure pursuits--that we free ourselves to do things that matter and to become the men God intends us to be. In limiting ourselves, we liberate ourselves.