Media Abstention Assignment

[The following is an assignment I give in Christian Ethics and Modern Culture, as I have been doing for fourteen years. I challenge some of you to do it. "Absention" is probably a better word that "fast," since the participant it not refraining from eating--the biblical meaning of "fast." The class readings are primarily from my book Truth Decay and Kenneth Myers, All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes, a classic on popular culture.

Don't send me the report, though, please--if anyone is tempted! I have enough student papers to cope with. But you could write it up and put it on your own blog or give to friends or make a short post on this august blog. My students almost always report very edifying effects from this change in their lives. Hundreds have done it over the years.]

Media fast report.

Engage in a media fast in which you abstain from one or more popular electronic medium that you typically use—TV (especially recommended), radio, recorded music, email, etc.—for at least ten days, and write up a report on the effects of this fast on your life and walk with Christ. Do not fast from the newspaper or reading magazines, please. You must incorporate Scriptural insights and class materials (readings and lectures) into the paper. Consider meditating on Isaiah 58 (true fasting and justice); Matthew 5-7 (Christian virtue); Exodus 20 (God’s commands); Gal. 5 (fruit of the Spirit or ways of the flesh) in relation to this fast. This must no more than five pages, double-spaced and typed, excluding endnotes and bibliography.