All that was to address your final point (whether or not it was a helpful preface is up to you). You mentioned that though TV is a great aid in getting to know a person, that conversation about TV “isn’t an end in and of itself when it comes to conversations with our acquaintances,” and I agree. While watching TV is probably a good aid for building friendship through common interests and, consequently, commonality, I found it a great challenge to find ways to get to know people through other means. When I was still working, I frequently was asked by my coworkers, “did you see ___ last week?” after which I had to explain why we didn’t own a TV and what we actually did in our spare time. It was difficult, because TV so dominates the lives of many, but I was typically able to get to know people very well. I worked with a good range of types of people and once the shock of my not owning a set was out of the way, I had some great dialogue with people, from the surface, and even sometimes, the depths. All I’m trying to say is that TV is often a good starting point, but I think that it’s a good practice to not always fall back on that.

Hope that all came out right.

p.s., there’s no reason for Jessica to not like Guitar Hero III (save perhaps for the fact that it’s harder than II).

Of course now I’m hearing rumblings that they’re bringing Rock Band out for the Wii as well.

By the way: Rockband is total party game (and Rocks!!*) and though I don’t have a Wii to compare with, it seems that all current console-platforms now have a social game.

*note the capital R—it is important.

I hope that makes sense and clarifies my position a bit.

The Dane: You know well that I only want to be popular with you>/i>. ;-)

I’ll have to sit here with my chin on my fist and think about it.

C’mon, The Pundit. Don’tcha wanna be popular?

You wrote: “The challenge for Christians is not to write off a creation of man (and therefore God), but instead to decide if it’s possible to use it for the growth and expansion of God’s kingdom.”

I disagree.

While we are not to “write off creation” like a bunch of Gnostics, neither are we to use creation to expand Christ’s kingdom.

The kingdom of Christ is the church, which does not advance by means of TV, but by Word and sacrament. Why can’t I just watch TV and enjoy it for its own sake? Why do I have to “redeem that time” by finding some token of spiritual truth or means of kingdom-expansion in it?