One of the best teachers in the occult practices and ideologies is Kurt Koch, is somewhat famous world traveler has written many books and how to combat and educate yourself from the occult movements and their devices. One particular subject that he writes about that caught my attention was television and certainly he has passed away and has not seen the technological development that we have developed smart phones meta-verse virtual reality etc. But no matter the technological development one thing never changes and that’s the purpose and the procedures of the occult.
Kurt points out that every cultural and technological progress that has been made at every age, the conservative Christian, has always regarded it as the devil’s work. For example when the bicycle first came out Christians rejected using bicycles as a means for travel because most of the long walks were designated for meditation on the word of God and the bicycle would cut that time down. Another example would be the train most Christians regarded as the devils carriage. And Kurt is very clear and saying “it is not a sign of deep spirituality to ascribe all technological inventions to the devil”. Certainly television has been used to spread Christianity with the ability to televise Billy Graham crusades etc.
But certainly there’s another side to this coin, it is said that for every five good programs there are 100 terrible programs. And there is no into the category of horrors which had resulted from television. This particular technology seems to affect children far more than adults and a quick Google search will show you the amount of tragedies that happened because kids were mirroring what they saw on television. And that’s just television, that’s not taking account the Internet and social media and Kurt’s research has been limited because of course he’s a very old man when he wrote about this. He wrote “only the future will tell how much harm television has done particularly to children and young people whose nervous conditions have not yet been firmly established. Although most people do not realize it, television brings about a weakening of the human will, and a uniformity of thought. Television also tend to control decision making and two obstruct are powers of judgment.”
It’s amazing to think that that was written 50 years ago. It’s also interesting is particular concern about children so let’s look at some modern day research to see how it turned out.
The department of development and behavior pediatrics at the first hospital of Jilin University completed a study about the correlation between screen time and autistic symptoms. They found that, “The longer the screen time, the more severe the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder children (especially sensory symptoms), and the more obvious the developmental delay, especially in autism spectrum disorder children with a longer screen time and younger age, particularly in the language domain.”
The Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan studied of the effects of television exposure on developmental skills among young children. They found that, “Viewing television increased the risk of delayed cognitive, language, and motor development in children who were frequently exposed to television. Cognitive, language, and motor delays in young children were significantly associated with how much time they spent viewing television.”
Jennifer A. Manganello, PhD, MPH; Catherine A. Taylor, PhD, conducted a study on television exposure as a high risk factor for aggressive behavior among three year old children. And they came to the conclusion that, “Three-year-old children exposed to more TV, both directly and indirectly, are at increased risk for exhibiting aggressive behavior.”
Victoria L. Dunckley M.D, go an article on “how the tech industry uses psychology to hook children”. She writes “Many adults, influenced by persuasive design, are challenged to look away from their phones. However, children and teenagers are far more vulnerable, as their brains are still developing and executive functions—including impulse control—are not well developed. As Ramsay Brown, neuroscientist and co-founder of the artificial intelligence/machine learning company Boundless Mind, says in a recent Time article, “Your kid is not weak-willed because he can’t get off his phone… Your kid’s brain is being engineered to get him to stay on his phone.’”
The scientific data goes on and on, it’s effect on the development of cognitive abilities and aggressive behavior very clear. The television itself is not a demonic device, but certainly can be used as a gateway for the occult and needs to be highly regulated by parents. As Christians we should be really cognizant of this issue especially since the recent push to move Christianity in to the digital realm. Some so called Christian to make a living training Christians on how to interact in the digital age. If you study how Christianity began, and how it historically operating throughout the ages and how Christianity they will operate in the future period of great tribulation. Christianity has always operated in the individual one on one face-to-face interaction. I’m not saying we should reject digital media but I am saying there should be certain qualifications before we use it. For example if you go to church and you don’t know how to talk to the person sitting next to you, then digital media and social media is not for you. If your church members have no idea how to explain the gospel, how to explain why they are a Christian there is no reason to reach out on digital media. Good example of how digital media is used properly by the Christian is Ray comfort. He started his evangelistic work with the one on one interaction then grew that to millions upon millions views on YouTube. It didn’t work the opposite way if you can get famous on the Internet you can’t work backwards on the social skills. And that’s one of the biggest problems we seen missionary work today is if you can’t tell the person who lives 50 feet away from you about Christ why in the world do you think you can tell someone who lives 1000 miles away.
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References
Correlation Between Screen Time and Autistic Symptoms as Well as Development Quotients in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
(https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.619994/full)
Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0163638314001192)
Television Exposure as a Risk Factor for Aggressive Behavior Among 3-Year-Old Children
(https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/382349)
How the Tech Industry Uses Psychology to Hook Children
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-wealth/201810/how-the-tech-industry-uses-psychology-hook-children)