Actually, Tim is a huge sports fan. Baseball and Football mostly. When we did have the cable, the ball game (baseball that is) was on almost every night. Tim would have his nose in a book, and the game on in the background. I have to say, I don’t miss that!

I gave up TV about a year ago, although I did not have a lot of the expanded parts of Cable in the first place. I do find myself in front of the computer quite a bit of the time, but I do read more and spend more time on my hobby. How do you get the news?

While this sounds like a noble idea, understand that this is a personal choice and I would offer many positive aspects of Cable TV - one being you are probably not big sports fans.

I love sports. It was one of the reasons I gave up the TV!

Don’t think that I’m passing judgment on anyone here who has cable. This was just my lighthearted attempt to suggest that there’s nothing I miss about it.

I find “news” on TV to be particularly poor journalism. This would be a good topic for another post. I think instead of spending a cumulative 5 hours a week watching “news”, spend more of that watching or reading substantive journalism. Some good examples (sometimes) are 60 Minutes, Frontline, etc. Not that I would spend 5 hours a week on that stuff . . .

I’m not sure I could do without my sports. Which is probably a good reason in itself to get rid of the cable. My kids would probably kill me though and they outnumber me. Perhaps I should think about this a little while.

I’m glad you guys are exercising your Christian liberty in the area of TV. Just be careful that your liberty does not become a stumbling block for someone else or a stumbling block of pride for yourself.

LOL. We don’t get any channels, either. Zero. But we’re thinking about getting it for our Christmas gift for eachother, mostly for PBS and sports. I’m already wondering what we’re getting into…

I miss MythBusters.

I lived with a roommate the year before I got married. We decided to get rid of our cable because we were usually too busy to actually use what we were paying for. Another reason we dumped the cable was in order to save some money. Both being 25 years old, we figured that at the current cable rates (~$50/month) we could save over $25,000 if we made it to 70 years old.

What do I miss? The History Channel and ESPN. Now I just fill the void by reading blogs!

my husband and I did the same thing (got rid of cable, but watch movies on our TV). it’s amazing to step away from something that is trying SO hard to get our time and attention and money and then go to someone’s house and watch TV for awhile and realize how often they had succeeded.

This is comforting. My wife and I have never owned a TV, much less cable. We occasionally watch DVDs on our PC. When the kiddies are watching their DVDs, that means I can’t get to my blogs. At times like that I think, hmmm… maybe we should get a… nah, never mind.

Weather Channel? Fireman Sam on demand? Discovery and National Geographic forcing evolutionary viewpoint down your throat? You don’t miss all those?

Likely we’ll do the same thing in 2009 sometime. We have the DVR and expanded basic in order to record Houston Texan games, but they and the Cowboys are playing pitifully, so we’ll save the extra money. Still, here in Tornado Alley, having Weather Channel is worth the monthly fee. Call it insurance.

Great post Tim. My wife and I have never had cableTV in 19 yrs of marriage. We watch the occasional show or sports event on rabbit ears, but the time and money invested in other people and activities has been a blessing over the years. I will be embarassed I’m sure when I look back at my life from eternity and see how much time I wasted on trivial things. But thankfully, I will be able to say it would have been even worse had I had cableTV.

I had the same experience. For us it’s been over 4 years, with only DVD’s, and no regrets.

Out of economic necessity we have not had cable for nine months, and I haven’t missed it one iota (that’s southern speak for bit). We have done this off and on during 26 years of marriage, and it always gets turned on because of “sports.” My husband watched the Alabama/LSU game last night on his computer. I will never miss it. That is not an attitude born from a superior attitude, it is an attitude born of loneliness.

Dear Tim and Aileen,I am totally charmed!!! - that after discovering Tim’s bog this evening while looking for book reviews (thank you Tim!) - when I finally wound my way to the most recent post to see ‘who was talking’ - that I should find, first up, posted today such a timely (for me) topic - this Cable TV review! - Oh golly - it’s been the same discovery in our household - after decades without ever bothing to watch TV, (we’re a couple in our 50’s) We decided inorder to follow the recent North American elections (and because we’ve moved to a relatively isolated country-side area that we might enjoy it when the snow falls) - we’d get cable. ….but now, less than a month later - we cannot for the life of us imagine any compelling reason to keep it any longer. (and we figure we could have found just-as-good election coverage elsewhere, as we always had before too). We will probably pay a price ($) to disconnect so quickly, but that’s the cost of education I guess!

High 5 !

PS - I don’t want to sound arrogant (or naive) either - but seriously - my heart bleeds for so many who have this constant morass of distress and stressors flooding into their homes every day, ‘cause it sure ain’t all comradery and team sports! Even with careful planning (I did catch a movie I wanted to see) - many of the ‘sound bites’ I’ve witnessed between channels have been quite disturbing. - Who needs it!

My husband and I decided not to have cable (and hence no reception at all) when we got married. I’d been enjoying the luxury of not knowing what was happening with reality TV or the latest TV ads for the previous 3 years. We’re glad we don’t get tempted by the assault of images on TV, but we do find that we spend a fair amount of time online reading blogs :) And when we go to a restaurant and the TV is on, we’re not trained to tune it out. We get our news online and via public radio and feel that we have a deeper sense of what is happening in the world this way.

Tim, I’ve been a lurker for some time now, but this post makes me want to post! When we had four children at home, we allowed them to watch Little House on the Prairie before supper (yes, sappy and saccharine, but safe!). The day a rather detailed audio clip came on during a commercial break to indicate that the crimes of Paul Bernardo would be highlighted on the evening news, we yanked the cord out of the socket, and dumped the t.v.We suddenly could not justify inviting this horrendous crime, or any other gratuitous fornication, obscenity, or self-indulgent lifestyle into the family room before we would sit down at the family supper table, open Scripture for family devotions, and discuss the days’ events in the lives of our children from a Christian perspective. The network did us a favour, and opened our eyes to the evils of the world that we had regularly invited into the privacy of our home.Over the years, our children’s teachers repeatedly noted during parent-teacher interviews that they could tell our children were not exposed to t.v. viewing: they were good readers, did not take part in the lunchbreak Hollywood-news discussions, and kept a good level of discernment in all aspects of their lives. Supper hour discussions were a free-for-all, no subject was taboo, we did not build a wall around them, but we let them discuss the current issues within a Christian environment. The daily newspaper brought in enough stuff to keep them informed, even with a secular and biased twist, but we talked it out. This is NOT a pat on our backs; I am simply thankful that as a parent I did not have to figure out how I could possibly erase the garbage of visual images that they had absorbed, even during commercial breaks! It simply was not worth wading through the endless programs of garbage to find the (occasional) good program. Our children have now left the parental home, are married, and of the four, one has a t.v., with cable, but she, with her husband, is not sure whether to keep it….realizing it is more of a hassle than a blessing in the home once their two-year-old daughter figures out the “on” button!

I disagree with point 2.

Thanks for posting this, Tim. I sent it to a couple of friends who just cut the cord.

This probably isn’t kosher use of a blog (entering an unrelated message), but I recently came across your website when I was looking for reviews of “Walking with God” by John Eldredge. I’m not sure how else I could get a message to you. The comment section of your review of Eldredge is of course closed (review was in March). I’m hoping you’ll do another entry about Eldredge.

After reading your review, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read the book, but then I got interested to find out how off-beat it could really be. His dog dies and Jesus says Scout is in Heaven. Has Eldredge really gone off the deep end, I wondered. The dog story sounded unusual, for sure. But when I read the book, it had a very different feel. Eldredge is so vulnerable, so honest, so deeply committed to seeking God. I don’t know if dogs go to heaven, but if Eldredge believes that, it doesn’t offend me in the least. Is there a verse in the Bible that says dogs don’t go to heaven?

His theology surely isn’t Reformed. But Eldredge makes no claim of being a theologian. He’s writing about his heart’s search for God. I don’t find arrogance in his writing. Can Reformed Christians seriously find nothing good in his writing? This is a man who came out of a “pagan” alcoholic family, connected with God as a college student, and is now ministering to a generation of deeply wounded people. Those of us who grew up in sheltered Christian homes shouldn’t be hasty in judging people.

I hope you’ll open your heart and give Eldredge another review. How do Reformed Christians propose to heal the deep woundedness of people who grew up without fathers, fell into drug abuse and the ghastly lifestyle that often goes along with such abuse, and now need radical healing? What does Reformed theology have to offer people with broken hearts?

I hope you’ll give this some thought.

Sarah

Actually, I read your comment correctly. When you state “More” you are really making an assumption that TV is somehow preventing Christians from studying or praying enough. If that were not the case, then they would not need to do it “more”.

My original point was that this is a personal choice and I agreed with the comment that one should not let their Christian liberty infringe on the liberty of others.

Watching TV is not a test of righteousness or holiness.

Chris

We got rid of cable to save money. We miss CNN (sort of).

I recently got the digital converter box and I get just about all the channels I used to get on basic Cable without the cost. Better picture, too.