I have to agree with Pilgrim here. My first exposure to Christianity came in Jr High School at a Baptist School setup under the auspices of Bob Jones University. While I can now appreciate some of the truth I received there, the whole experience was very negative. By that I mean, Christianity was a negative; it was a long list of all the things one could not do, and most of them had nothing at all to do with the gospel or holiness. They had strict rules about hair length, dress, reading material, music, and on and on. You should have seen the list of things you could get demerits for.

Also, this teaching reminds me of the heretical United Pentecostal Church in which my brother is a minister. Just have a look at some of their materials to see this is exact sort of teaching pressed to the extreme. The thing is with legalism, it never stops with one thing, because let's face it, anything in this world can be a cause of sin or stumbling, even a church service, or prayer, or a bible study. If we are to cast off everything that could potentially cause sin, we'd have to live alone in caves. Though honestly, many monks tried that in earlier times and it didn't even work there.

I can sympathize with the view about television; there is no doubt that it is filled with sin and evil, but there is also some good on there that I personally enjoy. For example, I enjoy the broadcasts of John MacArthur's Grace To You. If I tossed my tube, then I would be depriving myself of something I find spiritually edifying.

Anyway, I didn't mean to turn this into a rant, but oneo f the things that appealed to me about the general Reformed faith when coming out of Charismania was the emphasis on Christian liberty, after so many years of being taught to pursue a false form of holiness that was all based on man's rules.

Jeff