Just say no to TV???

Lots of thinking still about the discussion between Dr. Marty and the four bishops yesterday. One comment that has stuck in my brain was made by Bishop Scott Jones of Kansas, when the discussion turned to the place of the media in escalating the "us and them" mentality that leads to divisiveness and entrenchment. Bishop Jones said what we need to do is just turn off our TVs. Many there smiled and I think may have even applauded in response. I later had a discussion with Cana Ruth my almost 17 year old daughter about this---her sociology class had been discussing this same thing. I told her that I'm not sure we should just turn off our TVs. Cana, who watches mucho TV by the way, said she believed that it might help us to turn off the TV more---that what with sublimating images, etc., our minds were being controlled in ways we don't even know. Good point. However...
I'm not sure if Bishop Jones' comments aren't a little off the mark. Might it be more appropriate for us to at least KNOW why "Lost" is so popular---what the music videos currently being watched are all about---why "Desperate Housewives" has made such a big splash? I guess I think that people's hunger for meaning and love and direction somehow gets answered, oftentimes in really screwed up ways, in some of what is on TV. And it would behoove more UMC pastors to be more culturally literate, not less, so that they can use the images represented in ways that both touch their parishioners, and teach the faith. And, as I shared with the cabinet on Tuesday, I believe that at some places, our God whom we as UMs believe is a God of prevenient grace, may have shown up there in the pop culture before we do---and we need to be co creators, transformers with our God who can take even TV and shape it into something for good and for grace and for new and abundant life. I need to think more on this.