Prosperity

So what are we going to do about all of this marketing and it’s impact on our spiritual lives? The most common answer would be to just turn the idiot box off (or watch it less). That’s not a bad idea, especially if you spend some of the extra free time seeking the Lord.

Here are two further suggestions. First, be aware of the danger when you are watching. Most of us wouldn’t be thinking of spiritual danger when the commercials are on, but it’s there. You can be aware of it and you can consciously argue against it. Way back in the day I used to watch 60 Minutes religiously. I knew that the information I was getting was slanted (sometimes horribly so), but I have always enjoyed their storytelling technique and found the program to be informative and entertaining.

But I didn’t just watch it, I sort of wrestled with it. I would be watching a segment and say something like this to my long suffering wife. “You’ll notice that in dealing with the impending bankruptcy of California all they are asking about if the shortfall in revenue. Never once have they brought up the legitimacy of the spending the state is doing. The concept of cutting back in tough times doesn’t even occur to them.”

If you find yourself paying attention to a commercial you might want to do a little inner editorializing. “That guy must be a fantastic actor, but I wonder what happens to that look of stupefied happiness when the director yells, ‘cut!’ I would be really amusing to be on the set and watch the actors turn the happiness off and on as they go through each take. Stuff can’t make me happy. Only Jesus can make me happy.”

A third possibility is the technological option. Most of us have VCR’s and many of you probably have digital equivalents (TIVO and whatnot). Record the programming and fast forward through the commercials. I wonder if we wouldn’t save several times the cost of the TIVO fees over the course of the year from the money that we wouldn’t spend because of the commercials that we didn’t see.