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     Who is the God we love? Most of us would answer, ?God Almighty? or ?Jesus.? But then how many of us would be lying? Ok, maybe most of us do love God, but how many of us really adore Him? Think before you answer that question.
     In the day and age we live in, there are four extremes: extreme religion, extreme secularism, extreme technology, and extreme non-extremism. This nation, and many others, are falling into these extremes. Extreme religion shows in the many denominations and non-denominations all across America. The people who fall into the category of extreme religion tend to fall into the categories of liberal, conservative or in-between. Regardless of whether a person is liberal or conservative, anyone who falls into the category of extreme religion is dedicated to what he or she believes.
    Extreme secularism is easy to see. The government is overflowing with people who don?t believe in God and the media is quick to back them up. The internet is teeming with people who are quick to display a distaste for the idea of a creator and especially a personal ruler over their own lives. Movie critics scoff at any movie that has Christian over-tones and especially movies that are blatantly Christian, such as the Passion of the Christ movie. Secularism is one of those things that, unless you?re blind, deaf, and numb, is oh so obvious.
     Extreme technology is as obvious as extreme secularism. I remember just a hand-ful of years ago, VCR?s were the most common things in the world and CD?s were just coming out. Now DVD players are fast becoming the most common and we can burn CD?s and DVD?s at our own leisure. We have medical breakthrough?s that are allowing the cloning of animals, and they are even coming close to finding a way to get two animals of the same species and gender to reproduce together (opening doors for the homosexual agenda). The internet is becoming so technologically advanced that we can link up with video cameras and satellites around the world and watch life go by somewhere else. Technology is always finding ways to do what we only used to dream about doing (I remember when the idea of cloning was completely fictional).
     The last extreme is the group of people that don?t believe in being extreme. They just take life in a ?ho hum? fashion. You can find these people in all of the above categories. Some of them are people who don?t take religion seriously and just let life go by while they use religion as a safety blanket. Some are secular people that simply live their lives staying away from either religious or secular extremities. There are also people who don?t really care about technology, but simply get and use it as it is ?needed.? These people are the ones that occupy much of America.
     Out of all of these extremes, the one I want to focus on right now is the one that almost all extremists adore: technology, and more specifically, television. Now I?m sure that there have been articles upon articles written about television. I?m sure you?ve read many of those articles and I?m sure you?ve heard many sermons on the same topic, but you haven?t read this article yet. I pray that this article will open your eyes to the truth that has been so skillfully hidden from our eyes.
     Back in the Old Testament, the Israelites and other countries had all kinds of Gods. The most famous God was Baal, but there were many others. Now, these weren?t real God?s but wouldn?t you agree that anything that you dedicate your time and devotion to is your God? Well, let?s look at how a god is worshiped. A god is worshiped by people giving it attention. For Christians, prayer is our way of giving God Almighty attention. A god is worshiped when it is given praise. A god is worshiped when people begin to rely on it for their needs. Would it also be called worship if the god was given money or some other kind of sacrifice? All of those are ways in which we worship our God and ways in which heathen people in the Old Testament worshiped their gods (Baal being the most common).
     With those attributes of worship in mind, would it stand to reason that we worship our technologies? Now, before I go any farther, there is a big difference between using technology for God and it becoming our own god. The internet, right now, is being used to carry this article. It is being used for God?s glory, but what about when people live their lives on it (i.e. chat rooms, gaming websites, sensuous websites). What about television? We give it attention, we praise the shows that we watch, and we, of course have to pay our cable bill (which is higher than our contribution at church?). But let?s not stop at the fact that many of us do worship these idols. Let?s look at what we are actually worshiping.
     Television has long been condemned as our object of worship, but it?s crimes are far worse. I was talking to a friend of mine a while back and he agreed that television actually shapes our lives, teaches our children, and shows us how to have the ?happy? (not) married life. Of course, we don?t notice it very much until we see a show like Desperate Housewives, but even then, sometimes we just simply sit back and shake our heads at Hollywood. Could it actually be a form of brainwashing? STOP!
     I don?t want you to think I?m a conspiracy theorist. I use the word ?brainwashing? legitimately, and I would like for you to hear me out. In communist countries, the government used to (and maybe still does) sit Christians in a room for hours with some kind of communication device (television or radio) constantly repeating the ideas of communism and atheism. They did this to brainwash the Christians. Some Christians were strong enough to ride it out and remain Christian; however, others were not so strong. In either case, though, they knew what the communists were doing. Would we be so strong if we didn?t know that this was being done?
     I?m not going to say that there is someone behind the whole media industry with an agenda to turn everybody into goo goo heads. No, the media is just a pawn. I don?t think that any human in charge of the media really knows what?s going on, but the person with the agenda is Satan. But let?s not stop at theory. Let?s look at what we are viewing.
     The Andy Griffith Show (I?m probably gonna making some enemies by saying this) was generally a good show, but Hollywood started out very very lightly. Did you ever realize that sometimes during that show Andy Taylor would tell a little ?white lie? to make someone feel better or to teach someone a lesson? This was always glorified in the show. It always looked like ?Andy did the right thing.? Now, of course that wasn?t a real major thing and so we just simply overlooked it with a shake of our heads (if that). Hmm ... could it be that something like that could help us to think of lying as a minor sin? Let?s move down the time-line a bit.
     Color television dawned a huge popularity in ?Westerns.? Now, I know that we all knew that going into saloons was bad and that carousing with women was bad and that gambling was a bad investment. We knew all those things were bad and so it didn?t really affect our lives ... or did it?
     We move from westerns to Cheers, a modern look at life in a saloon (or, nowadays, more commonly called a bar). You may be thinking what a lot of people think about that show: ?yeah, it was filmed in a bar and sleeping around was part of the show, but it was funny and they don?t show anything.? They don?t show anything? Is that what our standards have come to? (Now, I?ll be honest. Cheers wasn?t in my day and age. I?m somewhat young and was introduced to Andy Griffith and Cheers through the ?TV-Land? channel. The reactions that I talk about people having to those shows come only from what I?ve heard in my day and what I can imagine by my own reactions) Cheers not only showed that it was ok to be morally loose, but also showed that it was ok to be lazy (Norm, who spent his life in that bar). Now, at least with Andy Griffith, Opie was shown as having to clean out the garage on Saturdays for 25 cents. So, Cheers gave us a look at a lazier side of life.
     Cheers also helped to introduce us to the world of sitcoms. Another sit-com to come along was Seinfeld. (When this came out I was still watching cartoons, so, this is from what I?ve heard and imagined) When Seinfeld came out, it showed more adult language and the same amount of promiscuity and even added to it the idea that it is ok to desire to sleep around. Not only did it promote those things, it also promoted laziness, as did Cheers (how often did you see those people working?). If I had actually watched more of the show than I did (a few episodes), then I might have more to say.
     During the time of Seinfeld, family sitcoms started becoming popular. Shows like Full-House and Family Matters (with the ever-popular Steve Urkle) began appearing. With as much numbing down as the networks had already done to our censorship of shows, they figured that they would give a more modern look at the family. They began showing kids getting upset with, and sometimes eventually changing the minds of, the parental figure(s). The kids would smart off to their parent(s) and even worse, the idea of wives being submissive to their husbands was simply thrown out the window. If that didn?t influence the way that many families operate today, then I?m a blue and purple tomato. Along with all that, it began to show more promiscuous outfits for girls. In fact, in the show Family Matters, you would often find Laura (the daughter) putting on something a little less decent and Steve Urkle (the neighbor) would walk in and say ?wow mama!!? Sometimes, he would get onto her for wearing what she did, but we just sat back and laughed at his reaction. (Keep in mind that television is one of the biggest presenters of what clothing is most fashionable. It had an especially big influence on how girls dress today and it also numbed the parents to think that the promiscuous clothes are acceptable)
     Do you see yet how television has been transforming our ways of thinking? If not, I?ll give you some more of a time-line.
     After Family Matters and Full House, the nation grew to like dramas. Since the nation seemed to like a look at teens, they decided to put up shows like 90210 and Melroe?s Place. Some people didn?t think that those were appropriate (for all the bad messages and promiscuity), but they still opened the doors for other shows. With the ever-growing popularity in television, more and more television channels started popping up with way too many shows to mention here, so I?ll stick with just a few of the Prime Time shows.
     With the numbing down that had already happened to the nation, the networks decided to take a big risk and air a show called Ellen. Based on a blantly homosexual woman, this show, which started out controversial, became normal. Christians who were previously outraged, quieted down and the show went on for a few more seasons.
     The show Friends also came out around the same time, replacing Seinfeld, but with a lot more sexual tension. The same bad messages that were in the previous shows flow throughout this show and all the other ones within the same time frame. Since Andy Griffith, the bad messages haven?t been disappearing, but have been stacking up. Who notices white lies in shows anymore? Who notices laziness? Are these not sins as well?
     Let?s skip to the present and look at what we?ve come to: Desperate Housewives (need I say more?), That 70's Show (more sin [a.k.a. bad examples] than I can mention), Life As We Know It (Desperate Housewives from a teenage perspective), According to Jim (displaying the same type of problems that other family sitcoms do), Will And Grace (an openly homosexual guy living with a straight girl), Sex And The City (need I say more?), plus an innumerable amount of other shows that are just as bad or worse.
     There are some shows that are worth watching (such as The Cosby Show on TV-Land), but the commercials in between can sometimes be even worse than the shows themselves. Now, we?ve paid homage to this god without thinking much about what this god does. Do you realize that the highest rates of dysfunctional families is in homes where the television plays a large role in evening activities? People talk about how home schooled kids might not have good social skills. Do you realize how good our social skills would be if families actually talked and played games together, et cetera in the evenings instead of watching television. Do you realize how much closer to the Lord our kids would be if we had Bible studies with them in the evenings instead of watching TV (or being on the computer for that matter)? Can you even fathom how functional and how close our families and church families would be if we didn?t watch television, but instead spent time visiting each other and spending time with each other in the evenings? Our churches would be closer and our families would be closer and our lives would be so much better off if we stopped watching television. Even listening to the radio (especially Christian radio) would bring us closer to our families than television.
     Take time to pray about this and study this in the Bible. We weren?t put down here for our own entertainment?s sake. Entertainment is not wrong during our rest time, but isn?t there more wholesome and more family-oriented entertainment out there than television? I?ve already told you of some, plus thinking up ways to entertain yourself wholesomely helps you build creativity, and helps you build it in your child(ren). Please take a hard look at what this means for each of you... and think about what getting rid of your television could do for you and your family. It could probably completely change our world (I?m not joking). By the way, also please think about what all this means in respect to the movies you watch and see in the theatres.