Giving up Television to Save your Soul

[odhiambo]

I had accumulated a lot movies DVDs, literally hundreds. I lost interest in them, unfortunately I had watched many already. I have since given them away to my sister. I guess I should have just destroyed them, but I guess the flesh is still very much stronger than the spirit 
I still have rows of video cassettes in  what I call my study room, not a clue how to dispose of them.

It's a great feeling of freedom to throw things like these away! If you can destroy them, even the give aways, do so!

More than one saint has gathered the people of entire towns for bonfires of material like these.

Not a bad idea at all;  I used to read mills and boon, several in a day; even going so far as to put them inside a text book pretending to be studying 
I have lots of books now; most not worth keeping.

[martin]

'Decorum, however, as well as religion, requires that as a Christian, you not allow yourself to sing every sort of song and that you be especially on your guard not to sing indecent songs or those whose words are too explicit or contain double meanings. In a word, it is very unbecoming for a Christian to sing songs that might lead to impiety, that glorify loose living, or that contain expressions and words suggesting that it is an honor and a great pleasure to drink to excess. Besides the fact that it is very uncouth to have these words on your lips, such words might strongly contribute to having someone else fall into such excesses, even if he is not doing so at the moment. Songs can move you with the spirit they contain more strongly than do mere words.'

St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle

'There are amusements that will not be discussed at length here, because they are not at all permitted to Christians, either by the laws of religion or by the rules of decorum. Some of these are ordinarily available only to wealthy people, such as balls, dances, and the comedies of the theater. There are others that are more commonly available to artisans and the poor, such as watching charlatans, clowns, tightrope walkers, puppeteers, and so forth.'

St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle

'Although in the world theater is considered a refined form of amusement, the fact is that it is a shame and an embarrassment to Christianity. In fact, are not those who abandon themselves to this kind of work and make it their profession considered publicly infamous? Can you love a profession that covers with embarrassment those who practice it? Is that art not something infamous and shameful in which the skill of the actors consists in exciting in themselves and in others various shameful passions for which a wellborn person can feel nothing but repulsion?

If there is singing going on, the only airs one hears are those that strengthen these same passions. Is there anything conformable to refinement or to decorum in the costuming, the nudity, and the license taken by actors and actresses? Is there anything in their gestures, their words, and their postures that is not unbecoming for a Christian not only to do but even to see? It is, then, entirely against propriety to take pleasure in this form of amusement.'

St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle

This says it all.

If it was so in the time of St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, how much more is this true of our time when no consideration is given to modesty, language or religious sensibility. The more one cuts oneself off from these things the more one realizes how depraved they really were.

[susanna]

Hello.     I had a long painful Lent this year as I only watched TV on Sunday, but now I'm not going back to it either.  The trashiness is so obvious after you've been away for a while.  I'm fighting a Youtube habit now    but one thing I noticed there - it seems more and more people are fed up with TV! 

[Patricia]

I was at a neighbors place today and their tv was on. The constant noise was grating on my nerves since I've got rid of cable. 

[odhiambo]

I was at a neighbors place today and their tv was on. The constant noise was grating on my nerves since I've got rid of cable. 

That is a very good sign Patricia. 

[pebbles]

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family.  He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first.  Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you  would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for  someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his  pictures.

His name?.... .. .    



We just  call him 'TV.'

(Note: This  should be required reading for every household!)

He has a wife  now....We call her 'Computer.'

[mod edit: minor edit for formatting/word replacement for modesty]

And I believe they now have children...they are called "Cellphones" 

[odhiambo]

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family.  He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first.  Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you  would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for  someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his  pictures.

His name?.... .. .    



We just  call him 'TV.'

(Note: This  should be required reading for every household!)

He has a wife  now....We call her 'Computer.'

[mod edit: minor edit for formatting/word replacement for modesty]

And I believe they now have children...they are called "Cellphones" 

 

[Patricia]

 

[martin]

And I believe they now have children...they are called "Cellphones"

Too true! 

[Alphonsus Jr.]

Greetings to all. I'm very pleased to have found this forum and particularly this thread, as I'm fully convinced that television is among the most toxic of all inventions. It was this conviction that led me to read Neil Postman's devastating critique of television, called Amusing Ourselves to Death. Here's an excerpt:

There is no more disturbing consequence of the electronic and graphic revolution than this: that the world as given to us through television seems natural, not bizarre. For the loss of the sense of the strange is a sign of adjustment, and the extent to which we have adjusted is a measure of the extent to which we have been changed. Our culture's adjustment to the epistemology of television is by now all but complete; we have so thoroughly accepted its definitions of truth, knowledge, and reality that irrelevance seems to us to be filled with import, and incoherence seems eminently sane. And if some of our institutions seem not to fit the template of the times, why it is they, and not the template, that seem to us disordered and strange....Television is the soma of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the [impurity], and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

Of those of you in this thread who decided to give up tv, have you since held to this renunciation?

[mod: minor quote edit for content]

[Shin]

Welcome to the forums Alphonsus, Jr.! What a fine name you have there.

Whenever I think of Alphonsus, I think 'Maria'.

I hope you have a great time here and enjoy talking about the inspirations of the saints. This place is a little quieter than some, a little slower pace, but we have our daily cup of coffee and prayers and some holy folks here that can truly bring one a feeling of peace of soul rather than the temporary thrill of conflicts that so often occur elsewhere. I think you'll truly find it a fine place.

There're some restrictions on links and some positive encouragements towards virtue in conversation in the announcements I always remind new folks to read.

I'm very glad to hear what you have to say about giving up television.

We truly need more folks to get the message out there on it. What an artificial life technology creates.. and the more artificial it is the more it separates us from living the life God designed for us.. The natural family, the natural Christian life, the natural Christian society.. recovering that is a goal we all have to seek so we can live the truly good life. 

[Alphonsus Jr.]

Welcome to the forums Alphonsus, Jr.! What a fine name you have there.

Whenever I think of Alphonsus, I think 'Maria'.

I hope you have a great time here and enjoy talking about the inspirations of the saints. This place is a little quieter than some, a little slower pace, but we have our daily cup of coffee and prayers and some holy folks here that can truly bring one a feeling of peace of soul rather than the temporary thrill of conflicts that so often occur elsewhere. I think you'll truly find it a fine place.

There're some restrictions on links and some positive encouragements towards virtue in conversation in the announcements I always remind new folks to read.

I'm very glad to hear what you have to say about giving up television.

We truly need more folks to get the message out there on it. What an artificial life technology creates.. and the more artificial it is the more it separates us from living the life God designed for us.. The natural family, the natural Christian life, the natural Christian society.. recovering that is a goal we all have to seek so we can live the truly good life. 

Many thanks. I look forward to peaceful and holy discussions.

[Patricia]

Welcome to the Saints forum, Alphonsus Jr! 

[Alphonsus Jr.]

Welcome to the Saints forum, Alphonsus Jr! 

Many thanks, Patricia. 

[George]

Welcome Alphonsus Jr.

[Alphonsus Jr.]

Welcome Alphonsus Jr.

It seems like a good group. Many thanks to all.