Campus CrossWalk Magazine: 2006-07 Winter Issue -- Cutting the Umbilical

Many years ago, we had a family from the church over to the house and they asked if we had seen a certain program on cable. Becky and I shared that we have been off cable for years and never have had satellite/dish TV. We use an aerial antenna that gets about 10 broadcast channels. The couple were curious about our reasons and I hope you don’t mind if I share with you our answer.

It all began when I realized how much screening I had to do for my two children. It seemed that even the cartoons were getting risqué. I’m not talking about South Park and its incredulous blasphemies, but I mean even those on the Cartoon Network. Hey, mom and dad, when was the last time you previewed the content of your precious little one’s TV programming? What about your teen’s viewing habits? I found out that the big bragging rights in middle school are telling all your buddies that you have snuck and watched pornography "unscrambled." It’s sure to impress all the guys in the lunch room!

At a time when more and more husbands are defiling their marriage beds with internet smut, isn’t it amazing that we are paying premium prices to have it piped into our homes? And with fantastic digital clarity, no less!

The lords of our cultural domain tell us that pornography doesn’t damage anyone. It is the same rhetoric that Timothy Leary told us in the sixties about drugs. "They won’t hurt anyone. They’ll only expand our consciousness!" Yeah, right. They expanded our awareness all right. We are now aware that drug use leads to addiction which leads to ruined lives and all of us citizens must pay the penalty. What price will we pay for in-home, cable or modem fed pornography?

Answer: Destroyed marriages and families.

My decision to stop paying for cable TV is more than a boycott. It is protection. The apostle Paul cautions us to ". . . make no provision for the flesh" (Romans 13:14). This means, sever the sin conduit into your soul.

What blessings come to those who cut the cable?

Creativity. I have a friend of mine who is a Christian psychologist, lecturer, a wonderful writer, an accomplished artist, an excellent pianist and composer as well as on the cutting edge of computer technology. I asked him how it is that he excels in so many areas. He told me, "My family never owned a television when I was a kid."

I thought "Maybe if I stop softening my brain cells with mindless ‘veg out’ TV sessions, I too could have more time to do things that honor God, help my fellow man and develop my talents. Talented, fulfilled people are the last ones to become addicts.

I still remember going down to my cable company and telling them to cancel my subscription. The woman helping me wanted to know if I was switching to Dish TV and was caught off guard by my reply. I said that my wife and I were weary of financially supporting an agenda that offends our Christian faith and morals. In addition, we could no longer bear the idea of having 60 channels to choose from and not have anything decent to watch.

I queried her if we could receive just the handful of channels that were inoffensive and she said that there were no custom plans like that available. We would have to choose from the basic and premium packages. That was like saying, "You’ll have to pay for the whiskey if you want water."

The biggest surprise in all of this? My boys have told me they are glad we don’t have cable! What? No withdrawals? No begging and bargaining? No. They said we didn’t need to pay to play! As they have grown, they have actually thanked me for cutting the cable because they now see what it’s affects are on their friends.

God has blessed our decision to follow the Psalmist, "I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me" (Psalms 101:3).

John S. McCranie IV is the preaching minister at the Simi Valley Church of Christ. He spent four in the U.S. Coast Guard and later graduated from the Center for Christian Education in Dallas, Texas, in 1986. He and his lovely wife, Becky, have been married for 24 years and have two teenage sons; Johnny, and Matthew. See his website at www.mccranie.org.