Editorial April 3, 1995 Issue

Independent thinkers and television

Barbara M. Vining

There is considerable debate, both in families and in society, about the impact of television on the thoughts of individuals. Many issues are involved—including moral values, individual creativity and productivity, family and community interaction, the education of children. Is television frequently manipulative? Yes. Could it do more to help people think for themselves? Yes. Is its influence beyond our control? No, there are solutions. And the strength to think independently of harmful influences is provided as we realize our utter dependence on God.

Of all the thinkers who ever lived, Christ Jesus was the most decidedly independent—the most independent of matter and materialism. Being dependent on God alone, Jesus bent to no influence but that of his heavenly Father, God. And because of this he was able to exercise absolute authority over every harmful influence. And he did exercise this authority, for example, in facing down the temptations to accept personal fame or glory, to gain good through disobedience to God's laws, and to trust in a supposed power contrary to God. He was never caught mentally napping, nor hypnotized into believing that materialism in any form was real.

If Jesus were living today, in our "modern" world with all its technological advances (including television), he surely would at all times diligently maintain that independence from materialism in the same way, and thus retain total command of his own thoughts and actions. He would be obedient to God, good, his real and only Mind. And he would ask his followers to emulate his example of independent thinking and doing. He would know that they could do this, for he would baptize them with the purifying influence of the Holy Ghost, which releases the individual from material influences and reveals man's wholly spiritual nature. As John the Baptist said of Jesus, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3:11, 12).

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