VTech and 24

I have a lot of good Christian friends who are into the popular series, 24. I have never really seen the show. In fact, until a few years ago, I hadn’t even heard of it. I just don’t really watch a lot of TV and I have no desire to get caught into another show. The few I see now are enough for me.

However, I have seen Christians complaining about talk of guns in light of VTech. The show, 24, has been under attack in a popular hangout of mine. I’m going to trust my dear friends that this is not a total anti-Christian show and that they can watch with a clean conscience. I do want to deal with the link being made between the problems of guns and 24 and VTech.

My friends. Guns did not commit this evil. 24 did not commit this evil. A sick psychopath committed this evil. (Let’s take a cue from Greg Koukl also and not name him. That would be what he wanted.) I believe that we are unfortunately, looking too much for an easy scapegoat to pin this all on.

I see TV used as a scapegoat constantly. Do I support everything on there all the time? No. Let’s consider this though. Could children be watching TV because they’re not being given interest by anything else? Maybe we have been slacking as families and this is why TV is such a problem.

I grew up in the video game age and I love them. However, now I have Christian apologetics and amazingly, the more I do this, the less time I spend with my hobby. Why? My mind has found something to keep it engaged. There are other things that can engage someone be it reading fiction, writing, art, music, or sports. TV is a scapegoat though.

I wonder about parents who think that their kids will immediately get a whole worldview by all they see on TV. I have no objections to someone being cautious, but I would also say that I do not believe in insulation. I believe children do need to learn all worldviews. Of course, this doesn’t mean letting them watch porn on the computer, which they shouldn’t do, but letting them understand how other people view sexuality and why that is invalid.

If one has children and their worldview is so weak that it can be destroyed by a book or a TV show or a video game, then their worldview wasn’t that strong to begin with. Maybe we should be focusing more on parenting skills and instilling morality into our kids so they can approach books and TV and video games and make right decisions.

Ultimately, this brings us back to the real issue. What really was the source of this evil? It was the heart of man. It is sinful. We want to stop this kind of evil? Instill morality. Could it simply be kids are less moral today because they have no reason to be moral and no morality they can find at all?

Can other factors influence? Sure they can. But how strong that influence will be will depend on how kids were raised up beforehand. Will a young man be tempted on a date with his lady? Of course. What will determine how he responds though? The morality he was raised with, and that is where our focus should be.