Because my show is your show but your show's not my show.

No thank you, people in my life, I would not like to watch True Blood. Now please allow me to explain why in what will hopefully be a wise manner.

I recently read an article in Relevant magazine (a great read if you can find it) which discussed five shows currently on television and how they were "saving T.V." The article focused on how, even though shows might not be directly worshipping God, they could still discuss important spiritual points, challenging those who identify as Christ Followers to grow in their faith and challenge complacency or hypocrisy in their own lives. I feel like I should add in a note telling you to go read the article now, so as to avoid copyright weirdness. Of course, I'm not really important enough for them to care.

Anywho. I agree with most of what this article has to say. I think God can be found in amazingly strange places in which we would never think to look for Him (see the blog on Alice and Wonderland). I believe that, as a Christian, it is important to engage with the culture around us and not simply shelter ourselves in our own little God box. We are called to go out into the world and directly confront all of the messiness out there with His love, not horde all that we have been given for ourselves.

However, we need to be smart about how we do that. Television can be a little like a mine field. Some of you may feel a very different way, but I think that modern media is filled with all sorts of things which can distract us towards sin and are ultimately detrimental to our lives. Some of you are probably thinking that right now I sound like one of the very same out-of-touch Christians that I warned against in the previous paragraph, but again, I am not proclaiming avoidance, just caution. One would not (at least hopefully) charge into a mine field blindfolded doing a polka while throwing grenades everywhere yelling "By golly I sure hope I get blown up right now!" This is how one ends up dead.

I feel that a similar mindset should be taken when engaging modern media, particularly television. We each have unique triggers which will cause us to stumble or to downright fall into a place where we do not need to be. With this in mind, each of us needs to have the maturity to know what challenges and tempts us, and respond accordingly by not engaging with certain shows, songs, what have you. Often, Christians assault the media for throwing so many detrimental things in our faces. However, I feel that there is a personal responsibility which each of us has to know what is and is not beneficial for us, and adapt the way in which we live in the world but not of it accordingly.

Again, I want to drive home the point that it is extremely important for Christians to engage modern culture. Not doing so brings with it the risk of fulfilling the stereotype that Christ calls us to only be detached from this world. I do not believe that anyone is necessarily in sin just for watching a T.V. show, but we need to be mindful of the temptations which exist in this world, and take necessary action to remove the things from our life that are keeping us from God.

With His love and hopefully His grace,

Taylor