I love news. I love gathering information. I enjoy being able to talk to anyone about anything without making a fool of myself (not that it always comes off!). But I’ve recently been challenged about how helpful it is for me to be constantly digesting the news of the day.
The first challenge came from a book I’ve been reading - Fit Bodies Fat Minds: why evangelicals don’t think and what to do about it. An intriguing title and a great little book. The author (Os Guinness) reckons that one of the main reasons we don’t think as Christians is that we’re constantly taking in the news and other messages of the world and we make no time to listen to God. Even more sinister is the way that the news and other TV is presented in such a way as to undermine true knowledge and warp our senses, attitudes and priorities.
Think about it for just a minute. Can you really learn much about complicated issues such as government policy, the war in Iraq or even a local news story in 90 seconds? Of course not! TV news in particular is not designed to inform but to entertain. Some channels may be better than others but in the end they all follow the same formula. The result is that our “knowledge” is really just an illusion - bare facts without substance, and yet substantial enough to focus our minds on earthly things, contrary to Paul’s command in Colossians 3:2.
The second challenge came in Steve’s talk a couple of week’s ago on the 3rd part of our mission satement - “serve”. He talked about how easily we crowd God out of our minds and our hearts by worshipping & serving all sorts of little gods - like the TV news god. I was determinded to do something about it. So I’m currently on a TV news ban. In fact with Suz & the kids away, I’m on a self-imposed total TV ban. The great thing is that no news has been good news. By saying “no” to filling my mind with illusory knowledge there’s been more space and more time to listen to God and his good news.
How are you planning to grow?
Sphere: Related Content
3 responses so far ↓
1 Admin 01 (Dave Gray)
// Oct 24, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I stopped watching TV about 2 years ago. I decided mostly on selfish reasons that TV was 99% crap. I just gave up on it. Never thought about the “grow” bit. But one thing that struck me is the fact that when you watch TV you tend to believe everything it says - particularly where the news is concerned.
So I decided that I was going to decide what was fact and what was fiction. Sure I catch up on the news but not the way most people would and from a huge number of sources and it is amazing the difference it makes. Secondly the TV doesn’t dictate to me when it gets my attention, I do.
Just one confession though… I do have a weakness for Heros…
But that is the total of my TV watching… Now YouTube and others - that is a different story. 
2 Bevan the Polar Bear
// Oct 25, 2007 at 3:15 am
Pete, I admire your discipline in putting action to wisdom and taking the “no news” step. I concur with yourself and Dave Gray (hi Dave hope we meet soon preferably whilst still this side of The Ressurection as I imagine finding someone in the crowd That Day is going to be problematic) that the way news items are presented is purely with entertainment in mind - and therefore not balanced and objective - and that the TV news crowds out time better spent in the Word.
I am a confessed newsophobic and recall asking Prime newsreader Fiona Ferguson once in Tamworth Emergency “who are you? what do you do?” (I refused her antibiotics for her sore throat and as a consequence cannot watch Prime news ever again without feeling uneasy).
The problem with this information blackout for me, I have discovered over the years, is that my non-Christian friends or work colleagues have watched Prime news or read The Northern Star in their sleep. This has lead to serious lost opportunities for conversation “ins” when asked questions like “Isn’t it terrible what happened to Rev Bruce Knowsall on the weekend…”?
This lead me recently to ponder (when I was in Sydney and missed famous hail storm alluded to elsewhere on this newsworthy website) that perhaps I need to be events-aware but not information-overloaded. Nigh impossible in an age of telephone/mobile phone/email/TV/newspaper/radio/internet. Wait until this stocking filler stuff gets directly beamed into our cerebral cortex.
How though? What about just asking my work colleague to tell it to me? This does have the advantage of revealing their interests and priorities. But knowing nothing is a little deceptive for my heart. What about just picking up the random snippets that fall into my lap as I listen to 2 minutes of 110.9 FM in the car interspersed with “The Bellowing Bull” invitations? Lazy? Unavoidable?
This is what I reckon. I need to work hard at finding out objective information in wise sensible quantities (maybe 10 minutes of my day) and thanking God for this info given, then working out how to use it. Is it too ridiculous to think that the Lord wants me to show discipline and discernment, yet specifically leads me to hearing certain things for a purpose? For instance, Leanne and I once read terrible news on the front page of The Northern Star about a person who came to Southern Cross Presy. I never EVER buy said newspaper. Except on this day, at Mummulgum General Store, on the way to a camping holiday, for the purposes of starting a fire and absorbing dampness off a tent floor. We turned around and came home, and it was worth it.
In terms of growth, Pete, I agree that for me it is going to mean a serious commitment to making my ‘quiet time’ (or ‘quit time’ as I like to call it, because it too often ends prematurely) longer and more meaningful that that “10 minutes” of worldly zap that is given for use in real world conversations. So that the “things above” talking outweighs the “earthy things” zap.
Thank you for your challenge. That is all.
3 Pete
// Oct 25, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Yeah Dave
TV’s not the only way to crowd God out. I guess that the challenge for each of us is to work out whether what we’re consuming (from all sources) is helping us to grow in our devotion to God or getting in the way of that sort of growth. It’s rarely (if ever) the case that any input is “neutral” - we’re always either conforming or being transformed (Romans 12:2).
Leave a Comment