Today's Idolatry

I know that I am going to sound like a prude for saying this but when I think of idolatry today the first thing that jumps out at me is TV.

Not because of content although that is bad enough but for the amount of devotion that it requires. People devote whole rooms in there houses specifically for watching TV.

People can be dirt poor and still have 2 or more TVs.

People spent thousands on 50" plasmas, blue ray players, 7 channel surround sound systems, satellite receivers, special seating to watch it, etc, etc... How much has any of us spent on a room devoted to God? How much time has been stolen from us by it?

How many prayers haven't been prayed because we just channel surf not even interested in anything that is on? How many people haven't been witnessed to because we were watching 'House'? How many widows were not visited because of 'Friends'.

I think that if you want to go looking for Idols, you wouldn't have to go any further then your living room.

The selling of Christianity.

I enjoy Christian broadcasting very much, it is a welcome retreat from all of the garbage on tv. But lately it seems the hucksters have taken over trying to sell books, videos, CD's, DVDs, Holy water, anointing oil, prayer cloths, and anything you can think of. The really sad thing is that true men and women of God get lumped in together with the hucksters by the world. I realize that there are legitimate reasons to fund raise and that there are worthy recipients of these funds but there is so many false ones out there that people are disillusioned about Christian TV in general. I give to CBN because they have a very high charity rating (more of the money that is given goes to the people on the ground other than administrative costs). Anybody that watches Christian TV regularly probably can tell the difference between the Hucksters and true men of God but that line is becoming more and more hard to see.

Being a Glorystar Satellite owner I have seen a large variety of Christian broadcasts. Oddly enough the least amount of huchsterism seems to come from the 7 day Adventist's. While there doctrine is filled with inaccuracies I don't seem to recall them begging for money, my guess is that this is the same for the Mormons if they even broadcast someplace.

So my test to chose who to watch is >do they beg for money just to keep the show alive or do they raise money for other things besides there ministry IE kids in Africa or Haiti relief or Operation Blessing or inner-city shelters etc... etc... In other words if there is a charity attached to a ministry (you will know them by there fruits) I consider there ministry to be genuine (until proven otherwise) and do not mind so much if they come on trying to raise money for there cause. On the other hand if someone comes on talking about giving the 100 fold and the only thing that it seems you would be supporting is keeping some preacher in fancy suites then I say to myself "I think not" and hit the clicker.

So I guess the morel of the story would be "If you think to yourself that it sounds like a good idea to give the 100 fold, go ahead, just give it to the poor or widows or the broken hearted and not to the guy in the $3000.00 suit."