Is this a religious thing or just a personal issue? (churches, atheist)

[glass_of_merlot]

The lady that babysit for me and my husband is very nice, understanding and extremely reliable. In the one year she has been watching our son she only canceled on us twice. That was when her kids were really sick and it was contagious. She is availeble 24 hours a day seven days a week. Even on holidays! Her and her family are not doing good financially and live in a small apartment (1100 sq feet) with their 4 children in a questionable neighborhood but I trust her over most people with my son.
They are big into church. They go to at least 2 services every sunday and they are really trying to live a good "christian" life.
This is all fine with me. I am not a church person and I can't even say I am a Christian. I believe in something but I am very conflicted between science and religion.
Saying all these things, the baby-sitters husband is kind of "different" to me. The only thing they show on television in their house is kids movies. After the kids go to sleep they watch cute child proof movies. Absolutely no action, no thrillers, no news, no entertainment shows. One time there were a "bad word" spoken. I think it was "damn it". And he got really upset and turned the TV off. I later found out he does not like the radio so there is no radio in the apartment. One time I asked my babysitter if they would like to come over for dinner one night and we could have some wine and just talk. She said that her husband don't allow any drinking.
Is these things just a personal issue or a christian thing?

[bobmulk]

It's a personal issue. Their belief system does not allow them to watch something that they believe is bad. Many people feel that there's too much filth on television and they want to be away from it; they don't want to be desensitized to it. Who's to say that not watching all the violence and sex and garbage on TV is a bad thing?

[Reverend1111]

It's a personal thing. They have good intentions, however, I feel they are dead inside their soul. They won't be able to teach your children the proper way. Children need live people not dead ones.
I'm not saying that they should be watching other types of shows, I'm saying that they have no life outside of their own.

[DaniMae1]

Originally Posted by Reverend1111

It's a personal thing. They have good intentions, however, I feel they are dead inside their soul. They won't be able to teach your children the proper way. Children need live people not dead ones.
I'm not saying that they should be watching other types of shows, I'm saying that they have no life outside of their own.

What?! You're making harsh judgement based on the television shows they watch! That doesn't even sound like you.

To answer the question....I'd say it is a "Christian" thing. Probably belong to a Pentecostal or Holiness type of church. I was trapped in one of those holes for a long time. Just make sure she doesn't believe in hitting other people's kids. Common in extreme church types.

[mari4him]

I'd say it is a combination of both. The religious aspect can be seen in the part that they are church attending, bible believing people who are trying to live in such a way that is pleasing to God. The personal aspect is because I believe that short of major things like fornication, stealing, adultery, blasphemy, etc, other things such as secular programs to watch or music to listen to, moderate consumption of alcohol, manners of dress, etc become personal choices in how one lives their life.

I don't know what particular church/denomination they attend and if this has anything to do with their manner of life and the decisions that they make, or if these are simply personal convictions they hold separate and apart from church dictated mandates.

As a believer we do understand that there are certain things that we really should refrain from watching, listening to, and participating in. This may be because blatantly they are displeasing to the Lord or sinful in nature. This may also be simply because while it may not necessarily be a sinful thing, it may just not be edifying to our own life. It may also be because one is trying to do as scripture says and guard our hearts because what we listen to, watch, participate in can have an influence upon our feelings towards such things and may turn our hearts from a God view of life. The bible says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. If we are constantly bombarded with foul language for example, it may not be long before we find ourselves spouting off a few foul words ourselves. Or, if we are bombarded with sexually explicit images, it may not be long before we find ourselves battling some form of lust or addiction.

I knew a great guy, totally on fire for God. He loved to have a good time just like the next person. However, when he was getting married he asked his soon to be wife if she would please cancel her subscription to the Victoria Secret Catalog. There were people that sort of judge him on this as being a bit radical or what not. Being a friend of mine, I understood why he made this request, which his wife to be also understood and gladly canceled it. The reason was because for a long time he battled a pornography addiction. To him, the images on the Victoria Secrets Catalog were "soft porn". He felt God had helped him overcome his addiction and thus now felt he had a responsibility to guard his heart from becoming entrapped by that addiction again. To many people, a Victoria Secrets Catalog is no big deal. To him, however, having that catalog laying around the house somewhere was a source of temptation that he did not desire to have tugging at him. He too was very careful about what came through on their TV set. He did not want to entertain anything, or be entertained by anything, that could arouse in him the slightest desire to stray from what God had called him to do and be.

In regards to your babysitter and her husband, who knows what that couple has battled with in the past, for how long they battled with it and what they are trying to now guard their hearts from. Therefore, I think it is a combination of both, their faith and their personal choices.

[Submariner]

glass_of_merlot -
Every person, every 'Christian' must decide what goes into their head.

I am a Christian. I met my Dw through church, we were very active and attended services Sundays and twice mid-week [so really 3 times a week] for 20 years. We are not very active with it now.

I can say that for a long time we did have a huge collection of 'children's movies', and anything else was kind of child proof.

I like action stuff. My Dw hates thrillers.

We have been on and off again with the news, it seems that there is a great deal of propaganda going on, by each news media organization.

We have lived over-seas a couple times, so we had no English-language TV available to us. During these times, we broke our 'addictions' to having a TV turned on.

So when we do turn one on, we try to watch stuff, but we soon find that whatever is trying to 'convince' us of a mindset, so we turn it off again.

My Dw strongly dislikes 'foul language', so effects what has been shown on our TV.

We do drink. My Dw likes wine, I brew beer and like rum or whiskey.

I think that for us, by stepping outside of our culture a few times, we have been able to decide for ourselves which parts of the culture we wish to be a part of.



To answer your question. It may be a part of the lifestyle they see presented by their church.

I think that few people living within the modern culture can 'see' how much goes on.

[Spotted1]

It's a personal choice but it's also somewhat marginally caused by religion. So many churches preach that every little thing in life is not 'of' god or is 'sinful' that some just go over the top in trying to protect themselves from it all. Take into consideration all of the people that scream about how "demonic" Harry freaking Potter is or that an animated sponge character is gay, after all.

[cncracer]

Originally Posted by glass_of_merlot

The lady that babysit for me and my husband is very nice, understanding and extremely reliable. In the one year she has been watching our son she only canceled on us twice. That was when her kids were really sick and it was contagious. She is availeble 24 hours a day seven days a week. Even on holidays! Her and her family are not doing good financially and live in a small apartment (1100 sq feet) with their 4 children in a questionable neighborhood but I trust her over most people with my son.
They are big into church. They go to at least 2 services every sunday and they are really trying to live a good "christian" life.
This is all fine with me. I am not a church person and I can't even say I am a Christian. I believe in something but I am very conflicted between science and religion.
Saying all these things, the baby-sitters husband is kind of "different" to me. The only thing they show on television in their house is kids movies. After the kids go to sleep they watch cute child proof movies. Absolutely no action, no thrillers, no news, no entertainment shows. One time there were a "bad word" spoken. I think it was "damn it". And he got really upset and turned the TV off. I later found out he does not like the radio so there is no radio in the apartment. One time I asked my babysitter if they would like to come over for dinner one night and we could have some wine and just talk. She said that her husband don't allow any drinking.
Is these things just a personal issue or a christian thing?

I am not one to defend personal religious choices, but I am afraid I would do OK with your sitter’s husband on my part. He might object to my being an atheist, but the rest I think we would do OK with. I find TV dull at best, something to put a brain in a growth coma, I also don’t cuss, and seldom listen to the radio. The exception for me would be public radio; which I tune into when in the car. These are a personal choice from being raised to not cuss, and finding activities better than the tube. My Wife and I drink so seldom as to be considered non drinkers by our friends, this is again just a personal choice. A glass of wine on New Years will give us a good buzz, and I suspect a hard drink would plant us for the night. For our part they are all personal choices. We have seen movies and TV where action and sex were part of the plot, but an evening together is always much better than an evening in front of the TV watching someone else enjoy sex, or running a race.
I think your sitter’s husband might be a person who has a mind remaining to think with on something other than the boob tube. Invite them over without wine, you might like it too.

[Miss Blue]

I also think it is a personal choice, although there are some religions that pretty much try the mind/lifestyle indoctrination course of gaining followers..

Your babysitter and her husband may just not want their children exposed to the violence and bad language they see TV can put into their minds..

Personally I hate smutty, gutter talk and dirty jokes..Not so much because I am a believer, but because that is just who I am I also enjoy the occasional drink and love a good thriller movie, and buy lottery tickets now and then and it does not interfere with my relationship with God..It is who I am

[Miss Shawn_2828]

Originally Posted by glass_of_merlot

The lady that babysit for me and my husband is very nice, understanding and extremely reliable. In the one year she has been watching our son she only canceled on us twice. That was when her kids were really sick and it was contagious. She is availeble 24 hours a day seven days a week. Even on holidays! Her and her family are not doing good financially and live in a small apartment (1100 sq feet) with their 4 children in a questionable neighborhood but I trust her over most people with my son.
They are big into church. They go to at least 2 services every sunday and they are really trying to live a good "christian" life.
This is all fine with me. I am not a church person and I can't even say I am a Christian. I believe in something but I am very conflicted between science and religion.
Saying all these things, the baby-sitters husband is kind of "different" to me. The only thing they show on television in their house is kids movies. After the kids go to sleep they watch cute child proof movies. Absolutely no action, no thrillers, no news, no entertainment shows. One time there were a "bad word" spoken. I think it was "damn it". And he got really upset and turned the TV off. I later found out he does not like the radio so there is no radio in the apartment. One time I asked my babysitter if they would like to come over for dinner one night and we could have some wine and just talk. She said that her husband don't allow any drinking.
Is these things just a personal issue or a christian thing?

I think it is a personal issue with them wanting to live the way that God wants for them to live.

I would say like the way that you live, I would say it is a personal issue.

It sounds like they are living their life the way that they know is pleasing to God, by not drinking, not allowing for their children to watch things that they feel are harmful and things like that.

I don't see anything wrong with that.

If I have a family one day I would want to raise my children up the way that God wants them to go. So, there would be no drinking in my house, no cursing around my children, I wouldn't allow for them to watch things harmful to them. That would be a personal issue between me and God.

So, you can see it as how you live your life and how you decided to live it. That is the same thing that they are doing.