Damaris

The effect that television has on us depends as much on what happens in our heads as what happens on-screen. Whether or not we like it (and plenty of us like it a lot) TV is here to stay. But can watching your favourite television programmes help you to become more like Jesus?

Get More Like Jesus While Watching TV helps you to look at television in the light of Romans chapter 12, and explores what it means to become more like Jesus in a high-tech, media-saturated world.

Get More Like Jesus While Watching TV is also available as an eBook from Amazon or iTunes.

Remember: Get More Like Jesus While Watching TV is also ideal for use as a Lent course. See www.damaris.org/lent for more details

‘I believe passionately that Christians are supposed to be avid and discerning culture-watchers. Watching contemporary TV shows is a great way of developing this discipline. Get More Like Jesus While Watching TV is a useful introduction not only to some of the key programmes to watch, but also the art of watching itself. A great resource for small groups or individuals.’
Dr. Mark Stibbe

‘An insightful book that illuminates our minds and hearts to perceive the sacred in the secular.’
Canon J. John

Contents:

Foreword – Four Ways To Watch

Chapter 1 – Previously On… In View of God’s Mercy

Chapter 2 – A Very Peculiar Praxis: What Does it Mean to Offer Your Bodies as Living Sacrifices?

Chapter 3 – Food and Drink in Babylon 5: What Does it Mean to be Holy and Pleasing to God?

Chapter 4 – Sacrificed to Pop Idol: What is Our Spiritual Act of Worship?

Chapter 5 – The Waltons or The Simpsons? What Does it Mean to Not Conform to the Pattern of This World?

Chapter 6 – Dancing With Barry White: What Does it Mean to be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind?

Chapter 7 – Will and Grace: What Does it Mean to Test and Approve God’s Will?

Appendix 1 – Culturewatch groups (by Caroline Puntis)

Appendix 2 – Damaris Study Guide: The Office (by Ian Hamlin)

Appendix 3 – Damaris Study Guide: Friends (by Caroline Puntis)

Appendix 4 - Damaris Study Guide: The West Wing (by Steve Couch)

Appendix 5 - Damaris Study Guide: Desperate Housewives (by Louise Crook)

Foreword: Four ways to watch

By Nick Pollard

Will you imagine a scene with me? It is the living room in a flat shared by four Christians. They are sitting down together in front of the TV. They are going to watch exactly the same program, on exactly the same set, in exactly the same room. And yet it is going to have four very different effects upon them. Two of them are going to take significant steps forward in their walk with God – they are going to get more like Jesus. But two of them are going to go the other way. One of them will be aware of the presence of God as they watch the program. And one, by the end of the show, will feel that God is even more distant than ever. One will find that the TV sharpens their brain and enlivens it to think more deeply about living for Christ in today’s world. And one will switch their brain even more fully into the off position as they become even more dull and lifeless.

What makes the difference between the four Christians? It is what is going on inside their heads as they watch the TV. It is their motivation for watching the program. It is the way in which they watch it. So let’s imagine that we can look inside each of the four people’s heads and see what is going on.

The first Christian is watching TV because she appreciates the creativity and artistry that is expressed on the screen. She has understood the fact that all good art is an expression of the creativity that God put within us humans when he made us in his image. She knows that Christians are better placed than most to understand creativity, because of our intimate relationship with the Creator. And she knows that Christians should be the most appreciative of art because we know the Artist.

But she also knows that we live in a corrupted world in which men and women have chosen to go their own way, and to live without God – including in their creativity and artistry. She knows that there is a devil who seeks, as Jesus put it, to “steal and kill and destroy.” He cannot create anything himself; he can only steal what God has created and corrupt it. And as he does so he seeks to kill people’s spiritual life and vitality, he destroys the good things that God has given us to enjoy. She knows that, while good art expresses something of God the creator, bad art expresses something of the devil the destroyer.

As she watches the TV she seeks to draw closer to God by discerning the good art and rejecting the bad. She rejoices in the creativity that God has given us all and she thanks God for all of his good gifts. She experiences something more of the presence of God. But she also prays that God will preserve her from the corruption of her creativity and artistry. And she prays for those whose art steals and kills and destroys.

The second Christian is watching TV because he wants to be more effective at reaching his friends with the gospel. He loves his friends and he wants them to experience God’s love in their lives. But he knows that most of them are not really interested in hearing about Jesus – because their beliefs and values have been shaped in another way. And for most of them TV has played a significant part in that shaping process.

If he asks his friends what they believe about life, love, meaning, purpose, truth – in fact any of the big issues of life – he can see that their responses express ideas that have been reinforced, if not originated, by the programs they watch. He is aware that these ideas are not usually expressed explicitly on the surface of the TV programmes. They are usually hidden in the underlying subtext of the show – in what is presented as normal and in what philosophers would call the “assumed status” of the ideas.

So, as he watches the TV, he is actively trying to identify the underlying subtext of the program. Looking beneath the surface he seeks to find the assumptions that the show is reinforcing. He is endeavouring to work out the effect of such a show on the beliefs and values of his friends. And he is considering ways in which he might use examples from the show to help them to think again about the assumptions that they have absorbed – and ultimately to think about the life and teaching of Jesus. He realises that this is not easy, so as he watches the TV he is also praying that God will sharpen his brain and enable him to think more deeply.

For him, like the first Christian, watching the TV is helping him to grow more like Jesus. The third Christian doesn’t really want to think at all. As far as he is concerned Frank Lloyd Wright was correct when he described TV as “chewing gum for the eyes”. And that’s what he wants to do – to sit down for some mindless chewing in front of a screen. He wants something that will entertain him, something that will enable him to switch off his brain and relax. He doesn’t intend to think or pray or do anything at all.

He watches TV because he wants to be amused. And even that word describes what he is doing. Although we don’t quite know the derivation of the word some say that it comes from two Greek words “a” and “mousa” meaning literally “without thinking”; whereas others say that it comes from the ancient French “a” and “muser” meaning literally “to stupefy”. Either way the word indicates the switching off of ones brain.

But, whatever his brain is doing while he is watching TV, someone else’s brain has been working very hard. In fact lots of brains have been engaged in creating the program that he is watching. The writers, producers, directors have all thought very carefully about the ideas, beliefs and values that this program is expressing. And while this Christian has turned his brain off, to be amused, he is also opening himself wide to absorbing those ideas, beliefs and values. He is not discerning the good from the bad, the godly from the ungodly, the biblical from the unbiblical. He is simply letting the TV shape his mind, his heart, his soul.

The fourth Christian is thinking but may not really want other Christians to know what she is thinking. She is watching TV because she wants to fantasise about the story it tells. She wants to imagine that she is that girl who is with that boy who is madly in love with her. She wants to imagine that she is living the life that she sees portrayed.

She knows that this is not real. She knows that it is not actually helpful to her in her walk with God in the real world. She knows that her fantasies about the stories she watches are equivalent to the fantasies of her male friends that are more graphically based upon the pictures and images. She knows that what she is doing is the exact opposite of the prayer that Jesus gave. Jesus said “lead me not into temptation” whereas she is seeking to lead herself into temptation. She wants to push the boundaries, to move closer, to try more.

For her, like the third Christian, watching the TV is helping her to grow less like Jesus.

I wonder, which of these four Christians is most like you? Probably, if you are like most of us, then you are a mixture of all four. Sometimes you watch TV like one of these people, sometimes like another, and at other times like several mixed together.

If that is so, then I think you will find this book particularly helpful. Steve and I, the authors of this book, are a bit like each of the four Christians I have described. We wrestle and struggle with following Christ in this TV-dominated world, and we are committed to thinking through what the Bible has to say about these issues. We are not going to give you simple answers – this is not a simple “10 easy steps” type of book. But this book will help you to think carefully and biblically about the way in which you watch TV. And it will help you to find out more about how you can get more like Jesus while watching TV.