Thought of the Day 06.18.08

The other day I had a chance to meet one of my coworkers’ kids, and I did what I always do. I praised him to them. Children need to hear from other adults that their parents are smart and good. This is the communal aspect of the 5th Commandment. Yes, we must honor our own parents, but we must also honor parents in general, especially in front of their own kids. In short, we should all try to be the friend of parents.

The question is: is television such a friend? See, we can complain that TV has violence, profanity, sexuality, and crudeness. All true. But the worst thing is that TV ignores parental authority by marketing products and programs directly to children of all ages. It’s not that parents can’t intervene and control what their children watch. It’s that they shouldn’t have to. In this way, television shows that it really doesn’t care about the family.

Anything other than actively honoring parents is dishonoring them. By which standard television is a very bad friend indeed.