How to Choose What We Watch

Abstract

With multiple channels accessi- le at the press of a button and with videos and movies avail- able throughout day or night, the visual media poses a dilemma for Seventh-day Adventists.* Much of it appears funda- mentally at odds with our faith. Vio- lence, sex, destructive lifestyle, and ram- pant materialism characterize most of what passes for entertainment. Some Adventists respond to the problem by simply eliminating the visual media from their lives: no television, no vid- eos, and no movies. These are avoided as a major source of corruption. Yet it seems unrealistic to cut our- selves off entirely from the media and its potential value. Without proper un- derstanding and use of mass media, our message may become isolationist and ir- relevant. We also run the risk of becom- ing disconnected from the very society with which we must engage. Of course, an unrestrained and uncritical accep- tance of the diet that television, videos, and movies offer is clearly not in the best interest of the Christian. On what basis, then, can we choose what to see and what to avoid?