Randall Murphree
AFA Journal editor
February 2003 – Does television have a positive impact on your family? Do you have it under control? Are your family relationships better because of television? Bob DeMoss would argue with just about any family who claims it can answer those questions with a “Yes.” DeMoss, a specialist in popular youth and entertainment cultures, has studied the issue pretty thoroughly.
When he draws a conclusion on an issue, Bob DeMoss doesn’t let go without good evidence to change his mind. In the case of television’s pervasive negative impact on the family, the evidence supports DeMoss. In TV: The Great Escape (Crossway Books, 2001), he cites respected sociological studies, as well as anecdotal accounts. In addition, he outlines a practical program that will help families analyze just how much influence television has on them, and whether or not they want to change that influence.
Associated Press reporter Todd Lewan followed the experience of Arctic Village, Alaska, a community of 96Ø people, who saw their first television set in1980. “Gideon James, the happy new owner, carefully carried the TV to his log cabin and, with a host of fellow tribesmen who had crowded into his tiny home, watched channel 9 until two in the morning,” writes DeMoss. “Little did this ancient Indian tribe know that their way of life would be changed forever – for the worse.”
Lewan says all 67 cabins in the village have at least one TV set today. Gideon James now tells people that television teaches his village greed. Fellow villagers agree. Television has made them more like the rest of the “civilized” world, but has not made them better people.
The South Pacific’s Fiji Islands have experienced a similar fate. “Prior to the arrival of television [in 1995], the Fijians had this curious cultural belief that fat was fabulous,” writes DeMoss. Anthropologist and psychiatrist Anne Becker reported that by 1998, the number of Fijian teens at risk for various eating disorders more than doubled. The use of vomiting for weight control by teens increased fivefold.
‘A huge disparity’
“The acute and constant bombardment of certain images in the media are apparently quite influential in how teens experience their bodies,” says Becker. “There’s a huge disparity between what they see on television and what they look like themselves.”
A study commissioned by the Shell Oil Company named the leading factors contributing to our nation’s decline in moral values. Of those polled, 73% said adult language and sexually explicit content on television have contributed to the nation’s deteriorating morality.
Over the last 25 years, AFA and other monitoring groups have documented the proliferation of profanity, graphic violence, and explicit sexual content of television. Last summer, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote about the Fall 2002 television season. Her observations may not ∞prove the Shell Oil study, but they certainly verify the sad state of television programming. Dowd wrote, “At the summer TV tour at the Ritz-Carlton in Pasadena, TV suits and stars arrive in limos to hawk shows exploiting America’s morbid fascination with the erotic and the psychotic.”
She went on to cite specific new series, including NBC’s She Spies (“Natasha Henstridge and two gorgeous friends in skin-tight outfits karate-kicking and punching guys”); Fox’s Fastlane (“with two hip cops in L.A. and tons of gunplay”); ABC’s MDs, (a doctor “finds an erotic application for his vibrating pager”); and CBS’ Presidio Med (an actress “naked under a blanket, having an extramarital fling while on a humanitarian mission in Pakistan”).
Money over matter
DeMoss points to the “cash-hungry corporate sponsors and the equally greedy network executives” as villains who pollute the public airwaves by ignoring social responsibility in favor of profits.
Pat Sajak, 35-year veteran of broadcasting, reveals the skewed Hollywood mindset. In an address at Hillsdale College, Sajak said, “[O]ne of the dangers of my business is that it has the potential to fill you with a distorted view of life and of your importance in it.”
DeMoss concludes that television damages relationships, impairs our thinking ability, and separates us from God. “The longer we stroll the virtual streets of television, the longer we remain detached from the significant others in the real world,” he writes.
“[O]n one hand, we say we want to know God,” he adds, “but on the other hand our preoccupation with television keeps us from hearing from Him.”
Duffy Robbins, youth culture specialist, writes in the current issue of Good News Magazine, “There’s a reason and a motive why one of MTV’s top-rated shows is called Real World. I agree that kids are not stupid. But they can be duped by the same screwy thinking that impacts their parents and other adults. We can usually tell the difference between fantasy and reality, but what we’re not too good at is understanding how fantasy impacts our views of reality.”
Given the moral wasteland — with rare exception — that television has become, DeMoss suggests a 30-day fast from television. It is a sensible project families can use to escape the one-eyed ogre that too-often dominates family life.
In TV: The Great Escape, DeMoss builds a convincing case for the need for such a project. He* includes his own interviews with families who have tried to analyze TV’s impact in their homes, and with families who have used his TV fast project.
Of course, a family can undertake a 30-day TV fast without Bob DeMoss’ book, but he offers a lot of encouragement for the journey. Especially good during the month are 30 daily meditations that will help the family make it a fun-filled and spiritual adventure.
Among the daily readings are short chapters entitled “Guard Your Heart,” “A Bridge of Friendship,” “Too Close to the Flame,” and “Tempting Temptation.” Discerning parents should take a look at TV: The Great Escape – and start planning their own escape immediately. 
