Reading that made me think of the Russian tv network programming. Ugh, spanish soap operas, Xena-warrior princess, and lots of miami vice re-runs....that alone should make you want to turn the tv off!
Bishop Prompts All Orthodox to Stop Watching TV!
Tv
Fortunately for the members of this forum I cannot fully express my extreme hatred of television through this medium.
In my opinion, if the Devil was to create a temple for himself, full of objects for veneration, objects representing the various and multiform sins, passions, blasphemies, mindless anamalistic behaviors and blatent lies that he inspires unendingly through his hatred for us and our Creator, and if he were to animate these objects of veneration with multicolors and sweet sounding subtle words and layered meanings and symbolic insertions of diabolic seductions, employing in this animation and texturing of sensory unreality, the finest minds of its permanent victims, the industrial psychologists and P.R. self replicating robots who finely tune the mind of every worshiper to never miss a single rite held within this temple of filth and halucination, and to firmly hold and espouse its every teaching and if he could manage to not only get the majority of entire populations to consistently, day in, day out, worship the fantastic objects, and venerate them with total mindfullness and singular, passive focus, but to actually convince billions of people to erect a temple in the very house in which they live and breath and sleep and perhaps even dare to pray, then I think we could only call it television.
- priestmark
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Re: Tv
away wrote:In my opinion, if the Devil was to create a temple for himself, full of objects for veneration, objects representing the various and multiform sins, passions, blasphemies, mindless anamalistic behaviors and blatent lies that he inspires unendingly through his hatred for us and our Creator, and if he were to animate these objects of veneration with multicolors and sweet sounding subtle words and layered meanings and symbolic insertions of diabolic seductions, employing in this animation and texturing of sensory unreality, the finest minds of its permanent victims, the industrial psychologists and P.R. self replicating robots who finely tune the mind of every worshiper to never miss a single rite held within this temple of filth and halucination, and to firmly hold and espouse its every teaching and if he could manage to not only get the majority of entire populations to consistently, day in, day out, worship the fantastic objects, and venerate them with total mindfullness and singular, passive focus, but to actually convince billions of people to erect a temple in the very house in which they live and breath and sleep and perhaps even dare to pray, then I think we could only call it television.
From the archives of the ORTHODOX list, posted on Fri, 24 Jul 1998
updated link August 23, 2004:
https://listserv.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/wa ... S=&P=10614
(FROM) THE PROPHECIES OF S T A R E T S [ = ELDER] LAVRENTII OF
CHERNIGOV
[...]
"Blessed and thrice-blessed is the man who will not desire to do so and,
hence, will not see the God-abominated person of antichrist. Whosoever
will see him and hear his blasphemous words promising all earthly
blessings, the same will be seduced and will go forth to worship him. And
they will perish, along with him, as far as eternal life is concerned; they
will burn in eternal fire!"
We asked the venerable one: "How shall this be?" And he answered us with
tears, [saying]:
"The abomination of desolation will stand in the holy place and will
show-forth the foul seducers of the world who, working false miracles, will
deceive all such men as have fallen away from God. And, after them,
antichrist will appear! The entire world will see him at one and the same
time."
To the question: "Where in the holy place -- in church?" venerable
Lavrentii said:
"Not in church, but in the home! Beforetimes, a table used to stand in the
corner wherein the holy icons were. Then, however, that space will be
occupied by seductive instruments for the deception of men. Many who have
departed away from the Truth will say: we need to watch and hear the news.
And it is in the news that antichrist will appear; and they will accept him."
[...]
Excerpts translated into English by G. Spruksts from the Russian text of
" P r e p o d o b n y i s t a r e t s ' ["The Venerable Elder"],
originally published in the May 1996 issue of the Russian Orthodox
newspaper ' Z h i z n ' v e c h n a y a ' ["Eternal Life"].
English-language translation copyright © 1998 by The Russian Cultural
Heritage Society, The St. Stefan Of Perm' Guild, and the Translator.
All rights reserved.
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- priestmark
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That was a very good analogy Fr. Mark.
We have a television which is on way to much. I hardly ever watch it so its easy for me to just say get rid of it. I have prayed that the horrible thing would break but I also have to admit, as hard as it is to, that when I am working at night, or reading, it keeps the kids occupied.
I know that sounds terrible, but they are not permitted to watch anything but the Animal Planet and very few other shows, and not every day.
I have often thought that we are all, in general, way to reliant on many modern convenieces, ones which we don't even think about, like a shower! It is far easier not to get them than it is to get rid of them.
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I like television, although I watch it infrequently, because I prefer reading. I find the educational shows to be amazing, the legal (fiction) shows to be quite thought-provoking, and I really like the news shows, especially the in-depth ones. When something bad comes on, I have a simply solution for Christian believers: turn it off like I do!
anastasios
Disclaimer: Many older posts were made before my baptism and thus may not reflect an Orthodox point of view.
Please do not message me with questions about the forum or moderation requests. Jonathan Gress (jgress) will be able to assist you.
Please note that I do not subscribe to "Old Calendar Ecumenism" and believe that only the Synod of Archbishop Kallinikos is the canonical GOC of Greece. I do believe, however, that we can break down barriers and misunderstandings through prayer and discussion on forums such as this one.