Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput has a hard-hitting, insightful column this week on the Archdiocese of Denver website. In it, he challenges us to consider how we spend our free time: do we vegetate in front of the boob tube, or do we meditate on the divine Word of God? Our choice determines who we are:

In Muslim countries like Pakistan, many of the young men begin studying the Koran as soon as they can read. In fact, many of them learn to read using the Koran. They read and discuss the Koran every day, for hours each day, every day of the week until they know it by heart. Many of them can recite whole sections of the Koran without thinking. Little by little, like water dripping on a stone, it shapes their whole view of the world—what’s right and what’s wrong; what’s important and what’s not.

Here in America, we have a similar kind of training. It’s called television.  The typical American spends between three and seven hours a day watching TV and sees well over 2 million commercials in the course of a lifetime.

That’s a form of education. And most of what we see on TV teaches us that buying a lot of products makes us happy; that young is good and old is bad; that we should eat whatever we want but that we also need to be thin; that suffering doesn’t have any meaning; that relationships never last; that most families are dysfunctional; that authority is dangerous; and that religious people are hypocritical.

None of us lives forever. Or rather, all of us live forever, but only for a very short time in this world.  If we lose our money, we can often earn it back.  But if we misuse our time, we can never get it back.  Where we put our time shows the world what we really value and believe. What we really believe shapes our choices.  And our choices shape our eternity.

Muslims didn’t develop their admirable piety in a vacuum.  They borrowed their reverence from Jews and early Christians, who had a profound love for the written Word of God in the Old and New Testaments.  The lesson for us today is simple.  American Catholics have the one true Word of God in the Bible.  If we took just one hour of the time we waste on television every day and used it to study and pray over the Gospels, we’d be fundamentally different people, and our country and our world would be transformed.

We were made for better things than silver and gold.  We’re more than what we own or think we want.  We’re children of God bought back from slavery by the blood of God’s son.  Somebody infinitely good, willingly died to make us free.  That’s how precious we are in the eyes of God.  God loves us infinitely.  That’s the source of our faith and hope.

God’s love is not something anyone can buy.  It’s a free gift.  But it comes with consequences.  If we really believe that God raised his son from the dead in order to raise us along with him, then we need to act like it.  We need to submit our time and our actions to what we claim to believe.  A meaningful life is a life conformed to imperishable things.  And a futile life is a life that puts its time in the wrong places—into things that perish; things that lead us away from conforming our lives to Jesus Christ.

Those are the two options.  We get to choose.

TV is such an accepted part of our culture that such an article appears radical. But the truth is that we have become so enslaved to television that it is difficult to see the wisdom in Archbishop Chaput’s words. What is especially true about his article is when he says that what we do shapes who we are. Almost four years ago I got rid of my television, and it was only after that act that I realized what an impact TV had on me. It shaped me and formed me in ways I would never have imagined.

For example, recently I went to a movie at the theater and saw the inevitable commercials before the main feature. Of course some were offensive, but what struck me was how inane and devoid of any value they all were. They presented the world in a way completely at odds with reality, yet everyone simply imbibes them with little or no thought – and I would never had noticed this myself if not for the fact that I almost never see commercials anymore. This is what Archbishop Chaput means when he says that TV is a form of education – it forms how we look at the world, even when we don’t realize it.

So what do we want forming us – TV or the Word of God?

Yesterday I wrote about the “new evangelization” that our church leaders are calling for. As I mentioned, our Faith is timeless, and every age needs to find new ways to present this Faith in such a way that it is attractive and appealing to those who are sincere and searching for the truth. This means we must engage the culture in which we live.

But what does it mean to “engage the culture”? How does one go about doing that without falling into the errors and evils of a culture? How do you engage the culture without embracing it? How do we live in the world but be of the world? I think it is helpful to look at a practical example: television.

One of the major cultural touchstones in our day is the television. The influence of TV on modern culture cannot be underestimated. How reality is presented through this medium has had a profound impact on how we view the world around us. Anyone who thinks that television doesn’t change people’s behavior should ask why advertising agencies spent millions of dollars on ads if they don’t change behavior. And if ads – which so many people try to ignore – can influence behavior, what about the shows themselves, which are watched willingly? So there is no question that television is a major cultural indicator (and influencer).

So does that mean that in order to effectively evangelize – to engage the culture -  we must watch television? This is exactly what I have been told in the past when I mention that I don’t own a television and therefore don’t watch the many shows out there now. The fact that I’m only vaguely aware of a show called “Glee” supposedly proves that I can’t engage the culture effectively. But I believe this is a misguided notion and shows a faulty understanding of evangelization.

Evangelization is most effective when it is based on a personal relationship between two people. A study was done on Mormon evangelization and it was shown that people were much more likely to convert to Mormonism if someone they were close to – such as a family member – was already a member of the LDS church. The same holds true for any evangelization effort: it is through close personal contact that people are most likely to be open to any message, including the message of the Gospel.

When I was in college, I was a member of Campus Crusade for Christ. We would go door-to-door trying to get people to “accept Jesus into their hearts”. Usually our efforts failed miserably. Why? Because we were not evangelizing, we were being annoying – we were not engaging the total person in our efforts but were instead just doing (annoying) marketing. (Note: I’m not against door-to-door campaigns – I’ve organized them myself; I’m against the idea of a “hard-sell” type of door-to-door campaign).

Effective evangelization involves a long-term effort and deep relationships. Is talking about the latest TV shows really building a deep relationship, or is it not usually just a superficial way to kill time and be sociable? I do not need to know the latest reality show in order to engage my fellow workers on a deep level, and in fact, keeping a conversation to the level of the latest TV show might hinder that effort. Instead of talking about who is about to be ousted on the latest “reality” show, I can talk about my co-worker’s kids or his ailing mother or his hopes for the future. In other words, I can talk about the things that matter – things that lead to the thing that matters most: a relationship with Christ in the Catholic Church.  What I need to engage the culture is not to drown myself in that culture, but instead to form an understanding of human nature and the issues facing people today and use that understanding to engage each person in the struggles they face each day.

Please note: I am not saying that watching TV is evil. Although I do believe that most shows on television today are harmful and should be avoided – and that too much television watching can subtly affect how you view the world – that does not mean that the act of watching a TV show is immoral. However, the idea that watching television is necessary to engage the culture properly is an idea that has no basis in reality and should be rejected. It is more likely that regular TV watching will lead a person to embrace the culture than it will help them to engage it.

An important – and disturbing – PSA. As they say, “the more you know…”

Seth Godin had a great post the other day about “Breaking News:” the habit of news agencies to make every run-of-the-mill story “breaking” in order to goose their ratings. He writes:

National Review has an enlightening article about one of the most addictive and destructive drugs in the world: pornography. It is probably the most destructive force against marriages today.

What is not mentioned, however, is that most mainstream TV and movies are now the gateway drugs for this evil.

One of the very few non-Christian, non-baseball blogs I follow is Seth Godin’s. He is a marketing expert who writes about productivity in the business world (and in all of life) and other related topics. He recently had a post titled But it’s better than TV that I really appreciated:

At the local health food store lunch buffet, they offer stir fried tempeh.

I never get it. Not because I don’t like it, but because there are always so many other things on the buffet that I prefer.

That’s why I don’t watch TV. At all. There are so many other things I’d rather do in that moment.

Broadcast TV was a great choice when a> there weren’t a lot of other options and b> when everyone else was watching the same thing, so you needed to see it to be educated.

Now, though, you could:

• Run a little store on eBay
• Write a daily blog
• Write a novel
• Start an online community about your favorite passion
• Go to meetups in your town
• Volunteer to tutor a kid, in person or online
• Learn a new language, verbal or programming
• Write hand written thank you notes each evening to people who helped you out or did a good job
• Produce small films and publish them online
• Listen to the one thousand most important operas
• Read a book or two every evening
• Play a game a Scrabble with your family

None of them are perfect. Each of them are better than TV.

And of course, as Catholics, we could add many more to this list:

• Go to Adoration
• Pray the Rosary
• Help in a soup kitchen
• Visit your neighbor

And the list could go on and on…

I have always been a sports fan, and growing up, I watched just about every major game played in Major League Baseball, college basketball, the NFL and the NBA. After getting married, I didn’t watch quite as many games, but continued to intermittently follow the different leagues and also added golf to my viewing habits. But now that I lack a TV, I only watch Major League Baseball (really, only the Reds) over the Internet.

However, when I initially got rid of my TV in late 2007, I quickly came upon a quandary: how was I going to watch the Super Bowl? My wife had no interest in the game, so we couldn’t really go to a Super Bowl party, and I wasn’t going to leave my family just to watch a game I didn’t care that much about, so in the end I missed the game. I admit: it felt a little weird as it seems as if EVERYONE watches the Super Bowl and that it is practically a national obligation. However, I didn’t really feel like I had missed anything that important and when the Super Bowl came around last year, I barely noticed it. This year the same holds true.

What I discovered, however, is how many people do NOT watch the Super Bowl. You would think that almost 100% of all Americans watch it, but in fact less than half watch even a few minutes of it, and only about a third of Americans view it at any one time on average. So actually more people do NOT watch it than do watch it, and they all seem to go about their lives just fine.

So if you are planning on watching the Super Bowl, enjoy the game! But if you have no plans to see it, do not feel alone – you are actually in the majority.

Speaking of being counter-cultural and killing your TV, a reader writes in to tell the beautiful results of living such a life:

We killed our tv 30 yrs ago when our youngest was 3 yrs old. We spent our evenings reading 1) lives of the saints 2) good secular literature such as the Chronicles of Narnia 3 and memorizing the Baltimore Catechism. We had a prayerful, peaceful, joyful home with NO rebellion whatever when the kids reached their teens. They NEVER asked why they had to go to Mass.  At ages 32 and 30 they are fervent Catholics and my daughter is a contemplative nun.

Aside from that, killing the tv was the best financial decision we made.  The kids’ attention span was not being constantly being fractured,and the people who tested them for the school district (two years apart) both remarked on their extraordinary attention span.  They both did very well in school.  My daughter was an A student for the 16 yrs of her schooling and they both got a lot of scholarship help on a merit basis.  In fact, my daughter was a National Merit Scholar. None of the above would have happened with a TV. Our home was very conducive to study without it. It paid off.

It drives me to distraction to hear parents worry about “the culture” as they are walking out the door to drive over to Best Buy to buy a still bigger entertainment center to import the dreaded culture into their own home and into the hearts and minds of their children.

It also drives me to distraction to hear all the talk about the “vocations crisis.”  There is no vocations crisis.  There is a parenting crisis.  There is a leadership crisis.  When priests and bishops kill their own tvs, and can persuade even as little as 5% of their young parents to do the same, within 15 to 20 yrs they would have more priests and religious than they would know what to do with- especially if they pointed them in the direction of the lives of the saints, the Baltimore Catechism and family evenings together.

I got an interesting question recently:

Hello,

I am frustrated in my attempts to grow in holiness, and I was hoping you could help me out.

For some reason, I feel that I have stagnated in my spiritual growth and can’t seem to figure out why. I go to Mass almost every day, pray the Rosary regularly, and try to make time for reading the Scriptures on a regular basis. I also perform works of charity and volunteer at my parish as much as I am able. I try my best to follow the 10 Commandments and go to confession at least monthly. Also, most nights I invite some entertainers into my house whose performances oftentimes include taking off all their clothes and simulating having sexual relations.

Can you give me any advice on what I am doing wrong? What can I do to move forward in the path of holiness?

Okay, I admit it: I made this question up. I did it to highlight what I think is a serious problem among many practicing Catholics today: watching movies and television shows with sex and nudity without any realization of how horrible they are to the spiritual life. Even many Catholics who are aware of the dangers of pornography on the Internet don’t think twice about watching “mainstream” movies and TV shows which include gratuitous scenes of sex and nudity (and the amount of sexual content in movies and on TV is only increasing).

The problem is desensitization: we have become so used to what passes for acceptable in our culture that our own bar of acceptability has adjusted as well. If a movie has a great plot, good production values, is well-received by critics, and has but a single sex scene, how many of us would refuse to watch the movie for that one scene? But if the scenario I mentioned above actually happened – live performers came into your house and simulated having sexual relations – would you not be shocked and extremely offended?

So why allow it when it happens in a box in your living room?

In 1939, David Sarnoff, the president of what would soon be NBC, presented TV to the world with these words:

“It is with a feeling of humbleness that I come to this moment of announcing the birth in this country of a new art so important in its implications that it is bound to affect all society. It is an art which shines like a torch of hope in the troubled world. It is a creative force which we must learn to utilize for the benefit of all mankind.”

I don’t think this is what he had in mind.

I have a bumper sticker on my car that reads “Kill your TV”. It now looks like if you take my advice, you can claim self-defense.

Today is the last day that TV stations will be broadcasting an analog signal. It took about 10 years for the government to organize and plan this changeover, but there are still concerns from top officials:

“In any change this big, there are going to be disruptions,” said Michael Copps, the Federal Communications Commission acting chairman. “We are trying our best to provide people, especially those who are most at-risk, with the help they need to make the switch as smoothly as possible. And we’re going to keep offering it after June 12, so people should call us at 1-888-CALL-FCC.”

“At-risk” – from what, no TV? They are acting like people’s feeding tubes are about to be switched off (actually, based on the Terri Schiavo case, that would cause less concern from government officials). And frankly, in many ways, TV has become the nation’s feeding tube – providing mental sustenance for the past 50 years to all ages. Unfortunately, that “sustenance” is the equivalent of junk food, and most people don’t know that there is a world of gourmet mental food out there if they just pull the plug on their TV. Of course, supporting the junk food of TV is conducive to good governement: a mentally weak people is an easily controlled people (read “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley for details).

A recent poll showed that only 52% of Americans believe that TV is a necessity. I say “only” because this is the lowest number since the question was first asked 35 years ago. I also say “only” because I don’t believe the number is accurate.

Watching TV is like taking a nap: most people love doing it, but few admit that fact publicly. (For the record: I LOVE taking naps). Most studies have shown that the average American watches hours of TV a day, but I’ve yet to meet the person who admits to watching more than about an hour in a day. I know that when I was a big TV viewer I usually didn’t realize how long I was camped out in front of the boob tube – that device has the ability to warp the space-time continuum, turning “a half hour” into 2 hours. When I got rid of our TV, I literally felt like I had more hours in my day.

(I also wonder how much the drop in the poll is due to other ways of accessing entertainment. I don’t own a TV, but I can watch just about all the latest shows on the Internet if I wanted – heck, you can even watch many of them on an iPhone! It might be that people – especially young people – have just transferred their viewing to another screen.)

Growing up in the 80′s, I definitely was a TV child. My brother and I had a TV in our room and I remember many nights of pushing a towel under the door to prevent my parents from seeing the glow of the TV being watched past our bedtime. I can still tell you the Thursday night comedy lineup on NBC in the late 80′s: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, and Night Court (my personal favorite was Night Court). Watching TV came as natural to me as eating or sleeping.

So why do I consider my decision last year to chuck my TV out the window one of the best I’ve ever made? A few reasons:

1) Poor Quality. Let’s be honest: the vast, vast majority of stuff put on the airwaves is junk. It seems like the more channels are created, the less quality work is produced. I mean, really, is “How I Met Your Mother” the best our creative elite can produce?

2) Immorality as the norm. We all know that Hollywood has a different moral standard than the Church. For years this standard was largely suppressed from public display, but now immorality is considered the norm. How many new shows are put out that do NOT have the requisite homosexual character?

3) Materialism run amok. It was the commercials that finally put me over the edge. Because of reasons (1) and (2) I had been reduced to watching only sporting events, but even those became unbearable due to the incessant marketing of crap as “necessary” to improve my life. We have spent ourselves into bankruptcy, both on the national and individual level, yet no one seems to realize that this is exactly what we’ve been told to do every 7 minutes on the boob tube.

4) Better sources of information. It used to be that watching the news on both NBC and CBS was considered “diverse sources of information”. Those days are long gone, and thank God for that. Now one can stay abreast of current events without even knowing who the network anchors are (who are they, anyway?). And the sources of information are so much more diverse that one can be more assured of accurate reporting.

5) TV is not a book. ‘Nuff said.

What has been amazing is that now that I am not consuming so much entertainment, I find I can produce much more in my own life – work, writing, time with my family, etc. Man was not created to simply devour images from an electronic box, but to actively engage the world he was created in.

This lent, consider giving up TV – it will be the best “sacrifice” you’ll ever make!