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What Are the Three Most Disturbing Words on TV?

by: Jonathan Parnell
Mike Cosper has an excellent post on the three most disturbing words on TV. You could not guess what they are. Think Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and the crescendo of each episode. The three most disturbing words on TV are “Move that bus!”

Really?

Cosper writes:

Again, there’s no arguing with the warmth and altruistic sentiments of the show. The families who have been profiled always seem to be wonderful people, I don’t impugn them or the show’s creators with secret evil intentions. But a disturbing thing happens in the final moments of the show. After profiling the family’s suffering, after talking about hardship and perseverance, after recruiting an army of volunteers, the family is brought in front of the new home, which is hidden from view by a large touring bus. They count down and call out those three words, and the reaction can only be described as worship. There are tears and shouting while people fall to their knees, hands raised in the air.

Here it is on bold display: the ultimate hope of most Americans. It’s as though a phantom voice is responding to their suffering with the words, Well done, good and faithful servant. Here is your reward: dreamy bedrooms, big-screen TVs, privacy fencing, and wireless internet. We watch. We weep. And we hope for ourselves. It’s yet another gospel alternative, this one packaged as a heart-warming vision of the way life is “supposed to be.”

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Desiring God exists to say, "God's ultimate goal is to glorify himself...and that's good news." Everything they do aims to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. Desiring God provides free access to the preaching and teaching resources of John Piper, pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and author of over 30 books on ministry.