New Direction for My Blog

Lately, I have been thinking about how uncritically most of us--especially those of us who come to our culture from a Christian perspective--view television. Let's face it--our role vis-a-vis television is that of passive recipient of broadcast data, not that of keen cultural observers attempting to discern the spirit of the times. Most of us look at television as a convenient 30 minute or one hour escape from life's problems, a chance to "veg out" and get away from it all. However, as much as television has become our best friend--in ways that perhaps our spouses and children have ceased to be to us--it has also, in a very real sense, become a doorway for values and principles that are, at best, alien to the Christian mind.

It is not my intent here to advocate some sort of half-baked legalism that would have committed Christians throwing away their televisions for the sake of their spiritual well-being. Legalism has never served Christianity well, and I personally believe that the grace of Christ Jesus allows us to make decisions that may not reflect the same convictions that other believers in Christ might not have. However, I think that every Christian--no matter what background or experiences that Christian has--should have a clear understanding of the cultural values that are reflected on the small screen, and we should all--Christian or not--be willing to examine, to question what we see on that screen.

With that in mind, I would like to focus my blog on examining one of America's greatest television genres--the sci-fi genre. Though this genre seems to have faded in the wake of reality television, it still has a captivating hold on the American imagination, and therefore, it deserves serious scrutiny, both from a Christian and from a culturally critical frame of reference. What values does this genre seem to be advocating? In what ways has the sci-fi genre shaped the American cultural consciousness, the way we view God, the way we view life, and the way we view ourselves as a nation? These are questions that I will explore in my next few posts.

With that in mind, I would like to begin by examining the one show that, in a powerful way, has come to define the genre--Star Trek.