I saw an advertisement for a TV show on a bus that read Girls who like boys who like boys… it promises to be a fresh perspective on relationships, as the title implies. I’m not personally of the opinion that the old perspectives of relationships need revising but I do think it needs a revival.

I don’t really watch much television so I have to be honest most of my opinions about it are formed only after taking a cursory glance at some of the shows that are aired today. And there you go, as soon as I say “today”, I’m sure the reader can feel an opinion coming regarding “TV today” as if “TV yesterday” was so much better. I promise you, I’m not arguing at all that TV yesterday was any better than it is today.

I do however want to highlight a particular show that managed to maintain a strong sense of family values and entertain at the same time. It was a show that at its core held true to the concept of honoring your parents, as well as showing a husband who loved his wife and a wife who respected her husband. It was the Cosby Show. It ran for 8 seasons, and back then seasons meant years. It aired from 1984 to 1992 and for five of those seasons it was the number one rated TV show according to Nielsen Ratings.

As a youngster, I loved the Cosby Show. It instructed me, as well as stimulated within me an internal dialog about what kind of man I wanted to be once I reached the point of marriage and fatherhood in my life. It also taught me to value education. It wasn’t a Christian TV show, but it wasn’t vulgar or indecent in anyway. It stuck to a set of values and succeeded while doing so.

It was criticized by many, particularly in the African –American community for, supposedly, not being a realistic representation of Black families. Some felt having a father who was a doctor and a mother who was a lawyer was not how Black families were truly structured. I have to admit, growing up in Harlem I didn’t see any families structured quite like the Huxtables (Their fictional family name), but I didn’t watch the Cosby Show to get a dose of reality, I watched it to get a dose of possibility. I’m not saying that there are no African – American families structured like the Cosby Show’s family; in fact, as an adult, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting quite a few. My point is this is what good fiction is capable of: imparting values that uplift human character and developing within a person a sense of hope for higher ground.

When I was a young man I hoped to be like Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby’s character) in the way he conducted the affairs in his home. My father and step father were not great examples of how men should conduct themselves in their homes, and for me, Cliff Huxtable offered an alternative.

And that’s what’s missing today, an alternative. In my lifetime, vulgarity and indecency has been on TV but it’s never driven the whole entertainment industry as much as it seems to now. I often wonder what happens to that young impressionable boy or girl, who is now like I was when I was in my teens, but are being feed a steady diet of reality shows that thrive off of folks who live by such low standards.

And I know Christians to the right of me will say that people should not watch TV at all. I’m not against that as a way of life, but do we care at all about young folks who are not growing up in a home structured that way? I didn’t grow up in a home structured that way and I’m a witness to the value of good TV and I’m very aware of its import in shaping who I am today.

If I were to complain about TV today, my premise would not be to attack what’s being aired as much as what’s not being aired. Where are the shows that celebrate success in marriage and the joys of parenthood? Where are the shows that balance entertainment and upstanding values? Where are the alternatives to the inundation of alternative lifestyles that permeate media?

We have to counter the messages that are currently sent to the world in media. In order to win souls we have to win the message war and that will be difficult to accomplish if the greatest influencer of our generation, called TV and Movies (the art of the moving image) is not deployed to argue the case for high standards.

And just to be clear, I’m not trying to preach the values of Jesus without preaching the person of Jesus, which I know is a dangerous and false doctrine. I do believe, however, that it’s harder to witness to someone about Jesus if you haven’t won them over with the values of Jesus. And this is the essence of what Jesus means when he says, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Mathew 9: 13)

And here’s the kicker, if the Cosby Show could have the ultimate effect of infusing me with values that made me pliable to receive Christ at some point in my life, how much more would a show that is specifically anointed by the Holy Spirit? Brainstorming, I’m thinking something like: Girls how like boys who like Jesus…

Blessings…

I watch these episodes and I see so many opportunities to Christianize the scripts... Here is one of my favorites from Season 1 Episode 2 called Goodbye Mr. Fish...