COMMENTARY: Try a V-chip on the Bible

c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Installing V-chips in televisions to filter out objectionable programming is the latest idea to protect youngsters from programs containing violence and sex. Politicians-including President Clinton-may favor installing the device, but the V-chip won’t work because it’s another futile attempt to use technology to solve moral problems, something we can only […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

(RNS)-Installing V-chips in televisions to filter out objectionable programming is the latest idea to protect youngsters from programs containing violence and sex.

Politicians-including President Clinton-may favor installing the device, but the V-chip won’t work because it’s another futile attempt to use technology to solve moral problems, something we can only do together with our children.


I recently heard a candidate for public office declare (on TV, of course) that we must replace today’s television fare with more stories from the Bible. A ludicrous idea, because the Bible is filled with sex and violence. But he set me wondering how a V-chip would react when certain scriptural passages are read in synagogues and churches.

Surely, these verses from Genesis would immediately be labeled pornographic:”The two of them (Adam and Eve) were naked … yet they felt no shame … then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked.” Even an advanced V-chip would not know that the Hebrew word for”naked”comes from the same root as the term for”shrewd.”The V-chip would be unaware that this similarity of language has stimulated intense debates among Bible students for centuries.

Were Adam and Eve really naked in the Garden of Eden, or were they shrewdly attempting to deceive God by appearing innocent after eating from the tree of good and evil? Is being totally exposed-physically or psychologically-merely a clever ploy to gain sympathy when one has committed a wrong?

The V-chip would go wild over Cain’s killing his brother Abel. But to censor this troubling story would prevent children from having a serious discussion about family tensions, especially sibling rivalries. Because of the V-chip’s technological censorship, youngsters would miss out on the cryptic verse uttered by Cain:”Am I my brother’s keeper?” And what about one of Noah’s sons viewing his father, the ark-builder, lying naked in a drunken stupor inside a tent? If the V-chip deleted this graphic scene from the Bible, it would be a great loss. Historically, the story has helped children understand that every parent has human weaknesses, but the Bible also makes clear that respect and honor must be given to one’s parents.

We frequently think that only mothers and fathers abuse their offspring and conveniently forget that children often abuse their parents. The arrows of anger go both ways. However, the V-chip would bleep out this poignant story, and a vital lesson would be lost.

The V-chip would go ballistic when confronted with the mystifying story of Abraham binding his beloved son, Isaac, to a sacrificial altar and then raising the slaughtering knife high over the hapless child. But this painful episode has been the source of countless impassioned discussions focusing on the limits of obedience to God.

The story raises disturbing questions: What kind of God would demand such a sacrifice from a devoted person like Abraham? Are there ever limits to one’s faithfulness? If so, who decides what those limits are? Thanks to the omnipresent V-chip, this perplexing story would be eliminated because of its violent theme.


And finally, how would the V-chip handle the story of a band of brothers who sell one of their siblings, Joseph, into slavery because they cannot stand his arrogance? Since this biblical tale does not exactly represent positive”family values,”it would probably be expunged from all houses of worship.

Yet, the extraordinary saga of Joseph ends with a verse that has echoed through the centuries whenever estranged individuals, families, or groups became reconciled with one another:”I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” His siblings, gripped by guilt for what they had done to Joseph, were afraid their politically powerful brother would have them killed. However, the adult Joseph is no longer an insolent teenager, but is forgiving and filled with familial love.”Do not be pained,”he reassures his brothers,”and do not be upset that you sold me here to Egypt.” This story teaches there is nothing sweeter in life than the reconciliation that comes after years of separation and hostility. If Joseph and his brothers could achieve that blissful state, so can we.

This is the folly of the V-chip.

Banishing pain, evil and excess in the Bible is as impossible as banishing it from real life. We may not want our children to be entertained by pornography or violence, but as moral beings we must understand that these things exist. Then we must learn to deal with them. Together.

JC END RUDIN

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