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| Image courtesy of The New Era LDS magazine |
(The text from the image says "It's GREAT except for... except for the bad parts. What kinds of movies and music are you feeding your mind?")
MANY years ago, my husband and I decided to get rid of our television. And though it's made its way back on occasion, for the most part, we have only watched videos or shows online for more than a decade.
Once in a while, we will find a show that we think has promise. And so, we will watch it online, making it a special occasion. (Most of which are BBC produced shows, interestingly enough.) And if they uplift and inspire in meaningful ways, we will buy them on DVD or iTunes. We can learn good lessons from them, and they are worth seeing again and again-- they are classics for our family.
Some of our favorites that have been worth buying are "Larkrise to Candleford," "19 Kids and Counting," "Cranford" and "Victorian Farm."
But often, we will begin a series, and after a while, the new episodes add in some language, some gore and violence, then sexual innuendo and nudity. It's so disappointing! The first few episodes are completely without objection! They are clean as well as entertaining. When they devolve into filth, it reminds me why we removed the television from our home in the first place.
So why does this happen? I often wonder if the television producers try and suck people into their shows by making the first few episodes family friendly-- OR if they add the filth in to try and garner more ratings later on.
I was going to mention some of the series we've abandoned, but then I decided that the purpose of this article is not to call out certain shows-- as much as I'd like to!
My purpose in writing this today is to declare that it's the right thing to turn off a show, even in the middle of an exciting episode. It's a good thing to stop watching something you once loved, even if most of the shows in the series are "fine."
The most important thing we can do in this crazy world of ours is to have the Holy Spirit to be with us. And if we offend the Holy Ghost by the entertainment we watch, the Spirit WILL leave.
We have to each decide if the entertainment we watch is worth losing that protection.
Just something to think about,
