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After our two services yesterday morning, I headed out with several other guys to go to the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. It’s about an 11 hour drive from East Lansing to Minneapolis so we decided to stop over night in Wisconsin. It was a fun drive and a fun night with five other guys I really like and respect. And we saw a good part of a great Super Bowl.

After the Super Bowl, NBC went right into an hour long episode of The Office. My relationship with The Office has had a lot of ups and downs. I don’t set the show as appointment viewing. But it’s the only non-sports show on television that I ever watch. It’s absolutely hilarious at times, and my wife likes the Jim/Pam relationship thing. So we’ve watched it from time to time.

So, on the one hand, I think the show is very funny. Its satire of corporate America and its ingenious characters always provide many opportunities to laugh aloud. But on the other hand, the sexual innuendo, sexual sin, sexual perversity, and sexual talk, always give me reasons to cringe. So over the past few years I’ve been up and down about the office. At times I’ve really enjoyed it and have even been thankful for its humor as a gift from God. At other times I’ve mentioned to others (including our college students a college retreat) about how it offends my conscience.

Well, after watching last night’s episode–which made me laugh uproariously at several spots–I think I need to pay more attention to my conscience. I’m not trying to make viewing decisions for every other Christian. It’s unwise to lay down absolute entertainment standards for everyone else. All I know is that after watching The Office last night I did not love Christ more; I was not more ready to worship him; I was not more aware of the closeness of God; I did not feel like I was obeying the command “Be holy as I am holy.” It felt more like worldliness to me.

Again, I laughed a lot. And maybe other people handle the sexual stuff in a different way. But for me, I can’t, in good conscience, give thanks for what I saw last night–and the ability to give thanks is the crucial test for gray areas of Christian liberty. As we get ready for a great Pastor’s Conference I couldn’t help but think about pastors of old. Did George Whitefield get to be George Whitefield by listening to an endless stream of sexual jokes? Would Calvin or Spurgeon or Athanasius dared to have watched The Office. Different times, sure, but most people in our culture, myself included, are more apt to define deviancy down than to live in fearful prudishness.

Let each person be convinced in his own mind. But my mind right now says The Office is not good for my sanctification. And that means its not good for me, my family, or my church.

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