For millennia words have been the measure of culture. Man has elevated himself above the mundane activities of the world, which he shares with other creatures, by speaking, telling stories, listening, writing and finally reading. Literacy has always been regarded as the distinguishing characteristic of an educated person. Our troubled age, in which the pace of change greatly exceeds the need for change or the capacity of men to adjust to change, is witnessing an assault on the culture of the word. The mass media of television and film surround us.
Surveys indicate that fewer people are reading.
While we are not obliged to reject television or sports outright, as Christians we must cherish, protect, preserve and nurture the culture of the word, which is something God-given. We must recognize danger in order to deal with it. If we spend all our free time watching television or engaged in other forms of activity whose primary goal is entertainment, there will be little or no time left to read and reflect. If we allow our children to grow up in a way determined by social trends, we risk producing a generation which is so used to strong forms of stimulation that it will not exercise its ability to read. Of people who actually read at all, many confine themselves to the lowest form of reading matter.