For two decades we had no television. Because our culture is so bound with the box, it was not uncommon for our viddylessness to be casually exposed in conversation. A simple statement. There are some very good programs on the History Channel, very educational. Oh, you're missing some good stuff.
Folks get defensive about their television habits, and they get defensive about their god habits.
I did not attack anyone else's way of dealing with these two icons of culture, yet the reaction was swift and often surly. I have been accused of denying my children of something of great importance, isolating them and causing social stigma, cultural deprivation, eternal wrath. I am pitied for missing out on the wonderfulness of the Mass and the mass media. Neither atheism nor an avideo status are value judgements of themselves. I am a critic of the form and content of most incarnations of both television and theistic religion, however.