What is your opinion on this?

[ayin jade]

Personally Im too sensitive to violence lately. It is too hard for me to watch these shows.

I felt convicted personally not to watch certain tv shows any more. I might suggest it to others, but it is up to the Holy Spirit to convict them about these shows.

[Guest iamsoblessed]

im convicted as well..im one of the few people in my congregation to have a tv set...my mind has no room for violence. immoral issues..imodesty..there is good programming on but my shows are limited to cooking and decorating and animal planet..skip the commercials though...

[apothanein kerdos]

I'm hooked.

I started with CSI Miami, then I moved to CSI Las Vegas.

I watch either when I can remember that they're on.

Speaking as a Christian, I don't mind the graphic scenes at all. There is not too much overt violence or sexuality in the show, nor is there a lot of graphic language.  The higher television rating is just for the autoposey scenes and the crime scene depictions, etc.

This show and "House" are about as regular as I get as far as television viewing is concerned.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is House pretty good? I haven't gotten around to seeing it yet.

[Gerioke]

im convicted as well..im one of the few people in my congregation to have a tv set...my mind has no room for violence. immoral issues..imodesty..there is good programming on but my shows are limited to cooking and decorating and animal planet..skip the commercials though...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can't figure out why animal planet would air that amazing animals show. I thought that was a pro animal network. why do they exploit the poor little furry freaks? I've seen some pretty rude stupid pet tricks on that show.

[Work in Progress]

This is not a condemnation of anyone who enjoys these shows. We all engage in things that others would say "I don't do that" to. As someone said, this definately falls into the "personal convictions" category. This is just me trying to work out my very strong feelings on this and wondering if I am way off base, over reacting or what. Especially since it now involves my child.

I have tried to watch these shows, as I thought they would interest me. (The previews always sucked me in ). When I tried, I got strong, strong feelings that they were satanic. I couldn't put it into words, but I knew inside of myself, you know what I mean. So I didn't watch them - had no desire to after three attempts and a quick turn off each time. Actually, it's like I had to turn it off.

Okay, so tonight I come into the living room and my 14 year old son is watching one and all excited he found this "great show". All I caught was a glimpse of some more of the same I saw when I tried to watch it - I couldn't even tell what it was, but it was shockingly graphic. I had him turn it off and, of course, he thought I was being ridiculous. I explained to him that that kind of satanic violence that is on that show is bad for his mind - that we are not built to nor intended to view that kind of thing. That we should be shocked and if we lost our ability to be shocked by the dark side of life, then that's a problem. If one is in a line of work where they must , it's unfortunate and hopefully not often, but to look on it as entertainment for our mind? I just have a real problem with that and believe satan is behind that now being considered entertainment.

Well, he said to me - "VIOLENT??? What are you talking about??" And I was stupefied. Evidently, "violence", like so many other words now has a different meaning. We have evolved to the point now that our children don't even recognize violence. See a hand chopped off of an arm, complete with hanging skin, blood and tissue, so realistic you can't tell the difference - watch as someone takes a tweezer and inserts it into the ear of a corpse and pulls out a squirming maggot..........and worse images than that.........this does not phase people a bit.

I am unable to put into words well exactly what I mean by "satanic violence" and it is frustrating and of course not helping because he thinks I'm being ridiculous. And I don't want to make a big deal over something that isn't and cause resentment in him. We talked a bit more, but one thing I kept coming back to that he could not answer (and hopefully someone here can) is - what is the purpose of all the graphic scenes? I can't think of any purpose. Yet people willingly tune in in large numbers - why does this draw people? I really feel strongly that it draws our depraved nature - for whatever reason.

I wish I could put my feelings into words better. Is there anyone who understands what I am trying to say, or understands my feeling that this is satanic violence? Not violence like in "The Patriot", but violence simply for our minds to absorb to hurt us some way, because it's not natural to view those things and serves no purpose but to keep us in the dark part of life?

[Ovedya]

I'm hooked.

I started with CSI Miami, then I moved to CSI Las Vegas.

I watch either when I can remember that they're on.

Speaking as a Christian, I don't mind the graphic scenes at all. There is not too much overt violence or sexuality in the show, nor is there a lot of graphic language.

[Ovedya]

This is not a condemnation of anyone who enjoys these shows. We all engage in things that others would say "I don't do that" to.  As someone said, this definately falls into the "personal convictions" category. This is just me trying to work out my very strong feelings on this and wondering if I am way off base, over reacting or what. Especially since it now involves my child.

I have tried to watch these shows, as I thought they would interest me. (The previews always sucked me in ). When I tried, I got strong, strong feelings that they were satanic. I couldn't put it into words, but I knew inside of myself, you know what I mean. So I didn't watch them - had no desire to after three attempts and a quick turn off each time. Actually, it's like I had to turn it off.

Okay, so tonight I come into the living room and my 14 year old son is watching one and all excited he found this "great show". All I caught was a glimpse of some more of the same I saw when I tried to watch it - I couldn't even tell what it was, but it was shockingly graphic.  I had him turn it off and, of course, he thought I was being ridiculous.  I explained to him that that kind of satanic violence that is on that show is bad for his mind - that we are not built to nor intended to view that kind of thing. That we should be shocked and if we lost our ability to be shocked by the dark side of life, then that's a problem. If one is in a line of work where they must , it's unfortunate and hopefully not often, but to look on it as entertainment for our mind? I just have a real problem with that and believe satan is behind that now being considered entertainment.

Well, he said to me - "VIOLENT??? What are you talking about??" And I was stupefied. Evidently, "violence", like so many other words  now has a different meaning.  We have evolved to the point now that our children don't even recognize violence. See a hand chopped off of an arm, complete with hanging skin, blood and tissue,  so realistic you can't tell the difference -  watch as someone takes a tweezer and inserts it into the ear of a corpse and pulls out a squirming maggot..........and worse images than that.........this does not phase people a bit.

I am unable to put into words well exactly what I mean by "satanic violence" and it is frustrating and of course not helping because he thinks I'm being ridiculous. And I don't want to make a big deal over something that isn't and cause resentment in him. We talked a bit more, but one thing I kept coming back to that he could not answer (and hopefully someone here can) is - what is the purpose of all the graphic scenes? I can't think of any purpose. Yet people willingly tune in in large numbers - why does this draw people? I really feel strongly that it draws our depraved nature  - for whatever reason. 

I wish I could put my feelings into words better. Is there anyone who understands what I am trying to say, or understands my feeling that this is satanic violence? Not violence like in "The Patriot", but violence simply for our minds to absorb to hurt us some way, because it's not natural to view those things and serves no purpose but to keep us in the dark part of life?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think I understand what you're getting at here.

It's kind of like that morbid side of us that wants to see if there is any blood on the highway when we pass the scene of an accident. It's a kind of morbis curiosity.

I, on the other hand, don't view this as quite the same thing. I suppose that there might be something to be said about what you view as "morbid." To me something is "morbid" when it has a Satanic connotation to it, when it is attached to evil in some kind of way. Clinical death - a sterile kind of death such as you might find in a mortuary for example, to me is not morbid. I don't see viewing a dead body as being morbid unless there is some kind of deviance from normality involved.

I guess for some people it's just a matter of degrees though. Back when we lived in Oregon we got cable, I used to watch this channel that had nothing but medical shows. One particular show was about various kind of operations. They showed a "doctor's view" side of various types of operations, and man, they showed everything. I found it just fascinating. I watched how doctors perform knee replacement surgery, I saw how they did laproscopic surgery, I even saw a brain operation. Now, this kind of thing made my wife sick. She couldn't bear to watch it. She sometimes would try when I begged her, "Honey look! They're going to remove a benign tumor from this guy's gut," but it would always make her sick.

The point is, I don't think of this stuff as morbid because there's no factor of evil involved. I mean, yes, the crimes that produced the dead bodies, etc. are obviously evil, but the brief moments that they show the dead bodies are not. A dead body is not in and of itself inherently evil.

I do agree that shows like this have an anesthetising effect on young people, so I would not in a million years recommend or even suggest that these shows are okay for kids. My kids leave the room when CSI comes on. I won't let hem watch it. Death should always be alarming for young children, as it's not natural for them at such ages. However, when they get older - into young adulthood - I think it's appropriate to educate them properly on the matter. There is no reason at all that a young person - especially a young person in God's household - should be afraid of death.

Anyway, that's my two pennies.

[RGR]

I agree with Gerioke-the old detective/police shows are much more interesting to me. They call these things drama, but if they didn't involve blown away body parts, etc., there wouldn't be too awful much there to interest people. Drama to me is watching Columbo act like such a klutz (sp?) and still get the killer! I also enjoy seeing Uncle Jed, uh I mean Barnaby Jones, get his man! Medical shows, well, "Emergency!" always did the trick for me, lol! About all I ever watch on TV anymore is St. Louis Cardinals baseball, music programming on RFD-TV (Porter Wagoner, Wilburn Brothers, Country Carnival, gospel shows), and old cartoons on Boomerang!

[Iryssa]

I wish I could put my feelings into words better. Is there anyone who understands what I am trying to say, or understands my feeling that this is satanic violence? Not violence like in "The Patriot", but violence simply for our minds to absorb to hurt us some way, because it's not natural to view those things and serves no purpose but to keep us in the dark part of life?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I get what you're saying, but I guess I simply don't have that feeling that it's "satanic violence." To me, satanic violence would be watching someone sacrifice a human being to some evil being, or torturing someone for like reasons...stuff like that. I've found that the stuff on CSI really isn't violence, per se...as I said before, it's more medical. For example, seeing medical personell extract a bullet for examination. The body is already dead, and such things are being done in a clinical setting, to bring about justice.

I actually have a harder time watching things like "The Patriot" and "Braveheart," because it shows more of the people dying bloody deaths, from a perspective of "this is bloody death" rather than the perspective of "this is how we are trained to discover the truth behind this death."

I gotta tell you, though...if you're watching The Patriot, and then getting after your son for watching CSI because it's violent, he probably thinks it's a double-standard. I'm not trying to pick on you for that...I just know because it's not that long ago that I thought the same sort of thing *grin*

[ayin jade]

My thoughts........

I grew up helping my veterinarian father with animal surgeries. Ive been exposed to medical things since I was a kid. I did clinical rotations on emergency medicine, transplant team. I watched surgeries up close and personal on humans. I had "gross anatomy"...and gross is the word, real dead people in body parts. My first code was a little 4 yr old girl who had been run over by a car. I can handle gore. I can handle violence.

Or I could until my sister in law was kidnapped, assualted, shot twice in the head and left for dead.

I had post traumatic stress disorder. I got help for it. Its been a few years now. Violence, even the acting on a tv show, is upsetting to me. I have to be very careful of what I watch, and the mood Im in.

Or maybe it is just because as a believer I appreciate the value of a human life to the Lord and I weep for those who are lost.