Stupid TV (April 10, 2005)

I once heard a sermon titled, "If I Had It To Do Over Again." It was about things the pastor had learned from his mistakes. I thought of that message when a friend asked me to come up with advice for a new father. My own children are teenagers now - if I could raise them again, would I do anything differently?

Yes, starting with the television set. I never should have let the fool thing in the house. When Linda and I were newly married, we deliberately had no TV. Several times people offered us their old sets, and we always refused. When we returned to the States after missionary service we remained TV-free until a fateful day in 1994 when some friends asked, "Do you want a television set?" and we said, "Well, o.k."

Rats, rats, rats. Can somebody zip me back in time so I can hold a cross before those well-meaning TV vampires and say, "Away, foul fiends of hell!" Now it is too late. I blew it. I fear my boys suffer the irreversible effects of screen-induced vegetonia. They quote Ashton Kutcher but not C. S. Lewis, and I find myself wondering why, bright as they are, they have not read the books I had read by the time I was their age. It is partly my fault - I let too many of their formative hours get eaten away by the electronic locust.

My older son tells me of a friend who is an extraordinary musician. He plays many instruments, all of them well. He has read philosophers and does not say "like" every fourth word. His dad has never allowed a TV in the house. Forgive me son - had I held the line on TV you might be less in awe of your friend's depth and talent, and better able to match it yourself.

Of course, I could still get rid of the TV now. Maybe I will. Maybe I am talking myself into it. But I know from experience - mine and others' - how hard it is to make those mid-course corrections. It is so much easier (and a thousand times better!) to set the course right in the first place and then just coast on it. You know what I mean - it is simple never to start smoking but it's the absolute dickens to quit. If you never had a TV your kids won't miss it, but if you take it away after they have grown accustomed you'll provoke the trauma of withdrawal.

Good luck raising your kids! May God grant that you get everything right the first time. And if you don't learn from my mistake and get rid of your TV, at least make sure that you turn it off a lot.