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Letters from the Archives -
As some of you know, in an earlier version of the Forum, which was lost in software upgrades, there were more than 500 letters. We were prompted dig this letter out of the previous files. It seems to address the issue in a way that we weren't prepared to do.
TV vs. Conservative Christianity
Television is the single most influential force in the lives of most Americans.
For many conservative Christians that's a bit scary.
According to some of the sociologists, television either directly or indirectly has more influence in our society than schools, peer groups, the family, or the church. Even if you happen to feel that you are relatively free from TV's influence, you live and function in a society which isn't.
Since TV is such a pervasive influence, it is regularly blamed for a wide cross-section of society's ills. Those who regularly attack TV feel that the "bad examples" depicted readily lead people astray. In their zeal to save us from such evils, these guardians of our welfare are trying to pressure government (in various ways) into controlling what we can see and hear.
Since TV is blamed for many of society's ills, "TV bashing" (and bashing the mass media in general) is in: especially for some conservative Christians. Take the Case of the Rev. Donald Wildman. The Rev. Wildman feels that TV is riddled with immorality and that a full range of programs from "The Golden Girls" to "Saturday Night Live" represents "porno."
His personal perspective is a little more understandable when you consider the influence that his father reportedly had over his life as a result of his job as a venereal disease investigator for the local health department.
Although many Christians don't go as far as Rev. Wildman, the basic fear is that people (young people, in particular) are apt to adopt the values depicted on TV and will feel that TV's depiction of life and human relationships is realistic and exemplary. This is centered in the "monkey-see, monkey-do" theory.
Although this theory may in some limited degree be true, it does disregard the fact that mentally healthy people know the difference between TV drama and real life.
Nonetheless, conservative mentalities continue to fear the ideas of TV and seek to control (read: censor) them.
The following personal story illustrates my point.
A number of years ago when I was younger and more foolish I got into a heated argument with the pastor of my church one Wednesday night on the need to protect Christians from "unorthodox ideas."
I quickly reminded him that at one time it was religious heresy to believe that the world was flat and not the center of the universe, or that the Salem "witches" who were burned at the stake were, at worst, just mentally ill and not possessed by the devil.
My arguments didn't impress him much. Eventually in my anger I told him that any religion which was so weak that it had to be protected from reality in order to survive wasn't much of a religion.
Later, I was to come across Thomas Jefferson's words. In writing about religion and government, he said: "It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
One of the things that made me so adamant in my opposition to "protecting" Christians from the open marketplace of ideas was my graduate study in psychology. Studies on religious backsliders, brainwashing, and political "turncoats" indicate that individuals who are "protected" from challenges to their professed beliefs are much more apt to abandon these beliefs when they are eventually put to test.
It seems that the process of examination and testing is essential to the building of a strong foundation under one's beliefs. Not totally unrelated is the fact that, historically, Christianity, like most religions, seems to have flourished under decades of testing and even opposition, and it has been most prone to excesses when government supported it. We can see plenty of examples of that today.
Don't we really betray some of our own doubts and fears by feeling we must "stack the deck" of ideas and information in order for our view of Christianity to prevail?
At the college level, I would like to think that the key is in preparing the minds of students to clearly analyze and discern the truth from the false, the superior from the inferior.
As Milton put it: "Who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?"
DW, California
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