I hate reality shows. I don’t get into them. I’ve never watched “Survivor” or “The Great Race” or any other reality show. I haven’t watched “American Idol” in years. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that, well, I don’t care.
I have enough reality in my life. I’m a pastor. I deal with people in crisis all the time. When you are in the people business you are always counseling, consulting, or confronting someone. Marriages on the rocks, kids gone wild, job loss–you name it, and eventually a minister has to deal with it. The pews are packed with people who are broken and beaten up.
I don’t need reality shows. I can look in the mirror and know I shouldn’t wear that. I don’t need some fashion expert to tell me. I don’t need to be isolated on an island or in a home with strangers to know there are jerks everywhere.
One such show that has become a joke is “Jon and Kate Plus 8.” The fiasco of this family is sad and depressing, and someone needs to pull the plug. Eight little lives are being documented so they can eventually be in counseling for the rest of their lives because their parents need to grow up.
This happy couple are now living out their separation and pending divorce before the world. Do we really need to know their dirty laundry? If I want to get involved in someone’s divorce, all I have to do is knock on a few doors on the street where I live.
This thing has gotten ugly. They are interviewed separately. He’s out on the town with some chick because he’s having a mid-life crisis in his early 30s. Give me a break. He’s just being a jerk. He thinks more of himself than he does his wife or his kids.
She is just focused on the kids. All she cares about is the kids. Well, and a tummy tuck, makeover, money, and a few other things. The ratings have soared as this tragic story unfolds. Are people so pathetic that they want to watch people’s lives come unglued?
I have some suggestions for Jon and Kate:
1) Get off TV and work on your marriage.
2) Quit talking to the cameras and to us, and talk to one another.
3) Get professional help from a biblical counselor.
4) Die to yourself. Get over yourself. Life is not about you.
5) Buy a copy of The Love Dare, and try it for 40 days.
6) Find a church and get in a support group to help you through this difficult time.Â
7) Get off TV. Oh, I already said that. But the reality is that as long as we watch, they won’t stop. So my last suggestion is for us to turn off the TV and stop supporting the train wreck. Get off the couch, work on your own marriage, or help someone you know who is going through a difficult time. It’s better use of your time!
Hello Michael: You have devoted this blog to “one” reality show. Unfortunately for us all there are too many just like this and what is more depressing; real life just down the block this is happening. I have in my library a classic Christian book written many years ago, THE CHRISTIANS’S SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE, written by Hannah Whitehall Smith. Part I is THE LIFE. Yes we live what we believe. Also, I have THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED, by Scott Peck. His first sentence is “Life is difficult.” Obviously the reason is because of SIN. We choose the life we want to live. I have been on both sides of the fence, sad to say. I am not proud of somethings I have done, but most important God has forgiven me and buried those sins in the deepest part of the sea forever. We must pray earnestly for our nation and the need to return to GOD.
Wes Allard – Mansfield, Texas.
Hello,
I stumbled across your blog from reading an article on One News Now. I agree with you 120% especially when you tell us all to “unplug the television!” I have not sat down to watch a television program in well over a year. Let me tell what this has done for me – it has freed up my time to go back to school and graduate with honors, it has cleaned up my mind and it has allowed me to develop closer more meaningful relationships.
I am amazed at what basic information people are ignorant of – especially when it comes to our system of government. I realize politics are not fun and are sometimes downright boring; yet we must be willing to shut the “reality shows” off and focus on the reality of our once great nation falling apart at its core.
We must be willing to unite on this front – unplug, reach the lost for Christ and be willing to unplug that which is condemning many a family to a real place called Hell. (Not Hell Michigan either! Yes there is such a place)