As well as the comments on my previous post, there seems to be an awful stir in blog-world over the topic of ditching the TV. Some say its the best thing they ever did, whilst the Eastenders-watchers think I'm a religious extremist who should probably be held in detention.Check out Jackie Parkes' Blog
Fr Tim's Blog
for more on this.
Meanwhile we're having fun occupying ourselves much the same as before. TV has been on the way out for some time in our household. But tonight we even tuned into EWTN for the coverage on Blessed Teresa of Calcutta! I'd much rather donate my license fee to them, me thinks.
What's your view? Please take the time to vote on my sidebar poll. Follow this link if you can't find it.
God bless everyone!
Let's be clear about this. Not watching television or declining to pay a license fee is your own affair and not of interest in itself. But what about blogging? Potentially the Internet is far more evil than television could ever be because bad material is, as far as I know, unrestricted and people can Google into the most extreme and sordid sexual and political sites imaginable with few restrictions. If you want to know how to make a bomb that could kill and maim hundreds, go to the Internet. If degradation is your interest, do likewise. Television is relatively innocent in comparision. I cannot help feeling that this anti-television stance among a minor handful of self-referential Catholics is little more than posturing in comparison with the medium they use to disseminate their obscurantist positions.
ReplyDeleteSatan is as alive and well on the Internet as some believe him to be on the television. The difference is that the Internet offers a far wider range for disseminating evil. Like television, you need not watch bad programmes, the same applies to the Internet. But don't forget that by using the last you are tainted by association as much as Joanna Bogle is when she appears on minor and little-watched television channels. The only difference is that you are not paid for blogging, she is for making appearances while vilifying those who watch the programmes in which she features. Enjoy EWTN, but don't be surprised if you need a stroll round the garden to escape from the enveloping suffocation that emanates from the studio.
If I had children there is no way I would have a television. I was brought up without one and when we did eventually get one it was selective viewing only. Nowadays I always chose my programmes but if I'm flicking through the four channels I am sometimes/quite often confronted with what I would rather not see and have to quickly switch channels and invariably switch off. On the internet you can select the web pages, put them in favourites and are warned of undesirable information before it is exposed to you.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Matt on this one and will reconsider my position when we are forced by the government to change our tv sets to digital.
Responsible parenting, Matt!
Just you wait to you see our new upgraded TV! It's perfectly adorable!
ReplyDeleteThe difference is that majority of the programs on TV lack or even speak against Christian morals. They promote a relativist and of course pelagianist culture. Sure Internet has it all and much worse, but you don't ever have to visit website that pose such danger. It is obvious that this to some extend applies to TV as well, but you must realize that you are limited by time. If you want to watch TV at X o'clock you will probably realize that there is nothing good going on. You can't just turn on the TV and watch it if you want to avoid temptations etc. On the other hand that doesn't apply to Internet. In short, with TV you have to be very careful because it takes some skill to avoid what you want to avoid.
ReplyDeleteOf course there is the EWTN, which you can watch 24/7 without such danger, but since it's only one channel (which is also available online) many people decide that keeping TV is not worth it.
I'm personally not into the position that getting rid of TV is an absolute MUST for any Catholic, but I do agree that getting rid of it is a good decision (especially with kids). I don't think Matt takes the extreme stance.
Pax
I don't like the television much, but I'd caution against chucking it away. I've left some comments on my own blog regarding this, rather than filling up your comm box.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, this doesn't in any way stop you and your family from being an inspiration to me!
Deo gratias.
Intersting comments, anonymous. Not having a TV has long been a middle-class affectation in the UK. I don't know if you ever saw the British comedy series "The Fast Show"? There was a sketch in which a group of men were having a discussion and trying to compete in how midle-class their families were; I believe it was an inversion of the Monty Python sketch in which a group of men tried to outdo each other in how poor they'd been as children.
ReplyDeleteThe "winner" of the discussion said something like "We were so middle-class my parents got rid of our TV and car altogether and we used to ride around on bicycles wearing ill-fitting, vaguely-ethnic clothing!"
No doubt he was also home-educated! I see this refusal to connect with non-Catholic society at large as the equivalent of stopping up one's ears and saying "La, la, la, la, I can't hear you", a skill which Mrs Bogle would have appeared to have finely honed.
12 years ago, on July 4, we got rid of our television. It has been such a blessing for our family. God bless.
ReplyDeleteNot long ago the Catholic blogs showed a DVD clip of a day in the life of the Holy Father. How did he end his day? Watching television news with his secretaries. What's good enough for him is good enough for me and I am glad Mrs Parkes and her brood share the same disposition. Anonymous 2 has a point. Singing 'La, la, la, I can't hear you' is common among Catholic bloggers, I fear, and simply demonstrates that they write for themselves and each other. In the meanwhile, the greater part of the Church and the world passes by on the other side. Honestly, Dinky Doyle, you are doing yourself no favours by assuming this pose.
ReplyDelete"LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!"
ReplyDeleteNot so much La La La I can't hear you, as La La La I don't WANT to hear you!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny how, in some commentator's minds, people who don't have tv aren't children of God, people who homeschool aren't children of God, and people who are, God forbid, middle class, can't possibly be part of the "real" Catholic Church! If Catholic bloggers write for themselves, then why shouldn't they? You know that non-tv people need support groups too, as much as you telly addicts, who have to keep going out to buy bigger and better screens!
Go on Mr Doyle, be an extremist, and enjoy it, nothing like being counter cultural to get the guilt complexes of those tv watchers going, and boy will it come out in their so "liberal" illiberality when it comes to you doing something different from them!
God Bless,
Helen.
Well, I'm working class, anglo-catholic, wannabe RC, never wear ethnic clothing because it looks stupid on me, ride a bike to save money on petrol, homeschool and we don't have a TV.
ReplyDeleteThe reason we don't have a TV has less to do with being middle class or wanting to say la la la I can't hear you, and more because we end up watching too much and too many morally filthy things. We found our discernment became more blunted over time and we wasted too much time.
I can find porn and other filth online but need to go looking for it, and deliberately make all my choices wholesome ones online - but with the tv, I turn it on and the choice has been made for me, and I'm not strong enough to switch off. Give me a salacious episode of CSI and I am sadly very happy to watch it.