Anti-Catholicism on Desperate Housewives

[BLB_Oregon]

Richardols:

A truly intelligent person simply doesn’t lower his mind to the level needed to “enjoy” that trash. It’s all a part of the dumbing down of America.

There are not a few truly intelligent people who want to give the intellect a rest and just like silliness. Rachmaninoff reportedly laughed until he cried, listening to Jack Benny on the violin. It’s like chefs who like corn dogs… so what?

I am not suspicious of intellectuals who can’t enjoy vulgar entertainment, but I kind of wonder if some of them aren’t afraid to listen, lest they find they like it.

I think it is a good thing to enjoy what you enjoy. If it isn’t sinful, you shouldn’t give a fig what anyone else thinks. If they want you to hand in your Mensa membership card, let them have it. (And no defense of Mensa is necessary; I’m sure there are silly people in Mensa, too!)

 

[Beverly]

mozier:

My wife and I watch Desperate Housewives each week, without fail, along with 24 on Monday nights. Both shows are appointment TV for us, two over-the-top shows that entertain without being taken too seriously.

I have yet to see any Anti-Catholicism in Desperate Housewives. If anything, it has actually been pro-Catholic. Gabrielle, the selfish spoiled one, is the ultimate example of a Cafeteria Catholic, or at least a “Cultural Catholic.” Yet despite everything in her life that is the very anti-thesis of being a devout Catholic, it is still deep within her.

Two examples are given. First, when she is in the hospital with the priest after her mother-in-law is hit by a car, she confesses to the priest about her extra-marital affair. The priest, who is surprisingly quite orthodox, tells her of how wrong she is and that her immortal soul is in danger! Now is that Anti-Catholic? She does rebuff his advisement, but you can tell that it is eating at her soul.

And second, when she approaches the priest after she learns she is pregnant (and the father may or may not be her husband), he at first expresses delight in seeing her at church. But when she gives him that guilty look, he sighs and says, “Oh Holy Mother of God, what you have done this time, Gabrielle?” Pure Catholicism right there! She then tells the priest about her predicament, and the kind but firm priest once again tells her that a child is indeed a gift from God! She isn’t convinced, but abortion is never mentioned. Lapsed Catholic that Gabrielle is, even she knows that this would be wrong.

Again, I do not see any Anti-Catholicism on this show. If anything, I am looking forward to seeing Gabrielle go to confession some day and start being a happy character for the first time in the show’s run. Being a terribly lapsed Catholic, she is absolutely miserable and yes, desperate.

I think you are really reaching with this one. You may look forward to Gabrielle going to confession some day and start being a happy good Catholic, but I would bet the bank it won’t happen because that would not be “entertaining” to people who watch this stuff.

 

[Listener]

I do think that Desperate Housewives is a very entertaining show. I do wish they would clean it up a little - it has had a few sordid scenes that I really could have done without.

Now, it is possible that the writers of this show could have anti-Catholicism in mind. However, in my mind, the opposite seems to occur. This show seems to do a good job of illustrating the “ripple in a pond” effect of people’s actions. It also shows how stressful that today’s workplace can be on families.

The housewife with the four unruly kids gets mad at her husband. He didn’t tell her that his old girl friend, the one he had before getting married, is back working with him at his workplace. The housewife is upset because her husband is carpooling and doing projects with his old girl friend. The housewife has lunch with a powerful woman from her past in the work force. She mentions that it might be time for her husband to change jobs, and she also mentions what a wonderful employee her husband’s old girl friend would make. Awhile later, the husband receives the news at work that his old girl friend has been promoted to Vice President! “We had to promote her to keep her”, the boss says. She received another offer for work elswhere! Meanwhile, the husband gets upset because he didn’t get the promotion. He asks why. The boss tells the husband that his wife came to him and asked him not to promote her husband. There would be too much traveling, and the kids would never see their dad. The husbands says “I quit!” The boss says, “have your desk cleaned out before tonight!”

On the last episode I saw, the housewife Susan was moving in with her new boy friend, the plumber. Her ex-husband comes by and says, “I don’t want you living in sin in front of our daughter.” Of course, the ex-husband had originally left his wife devastated because he left her for another woman. This show seems to show what hypocrites people are capable of being.

I don’t think I’m the only one who finds it very entertaining!

 

[Brad]

Listener:

I do think that Desperate Housewives is a very entertaining show. I do wish they would clean it up a little - it has had a few sordid scenes that I really could have done without.

Now, it is possible that the writers of this show could have anti-Catholicism in mind. However, in my mind, the opposite seems to occur. This show seems to do a good job of illustrating the “ripple in a pond” effect of people’s actions. It also shows how stressful that today’s workplace can be on families.

The housewife with the four unruly kids gets mad at her husband. He didn’t tell her that his old girl friend, the one he had before getting married, is back working with him at his workplace. The housewife is upset because her husband is carpooling and doing projects with his old girl friend. The housewife has lunch with a powerful woman from her past in the work force. She mentions that it might be time for her husband to change jobs, and she also mentions what a wonderful employee her husband’s old girl friend would make. Awhile later, the husband receives the news at work that his old girl friend has been promoted to Vice President! “We had to promote her to keep her”, the boss says. She received another offer for work elswhere! Meanwhile, the husband gets upset because he didn’t get the promotion. He asks why. The boss tells the husband that his wife came to him and asked him not to promote her husband. There would be too much traveling, and the kids would never see their dad. The husbands says “I quit!” The boss says, “have your desk cleaned out before tonight!”

On the last episode I saw, the housewife Susan was moving in with her new boy friend, the plumber. Her ex-husband comes by and says, “I don’t want you living in sin in front of our daughter.” Of course, the ex-husband had originally left his wife devastated because he left her for another woman. This show seems to show what hypocrites people are capable of being.

I don’t think I’m the only one who finds it very entertaining!

Oh, that’s greeeaaaatt!!! Let’s watch a show with sordid scenes and be entertained by seeing how hypocritical and sinful people are. Let’s not watch shows that lift people up and look for the goodness and character with moral courage. Let’s support yet another show that demeans men, making them look like hypocrites, pigs, and mental incompetents with the added bonus of sex-starved housewives that are overly focused on their own unihibited sexual appetites and not their children. Let’s undermine religion and tradition as guideposts for our lives.

As I’ve said before, this show is just another lame-brained Disney/ABC product to attach the traditional family as being any better than the rest of the morally deprived culture - and therefore irrelevant.

If that’s the best entertainment we can get then entertainment is not for me.

Do you think Jesus would sit on the couch and watch that show?

Good grief.

You can do much much better.

 

[OriginalJS]

It’s easy. If you don’t like it, turn it off. If enough people turn it off, it will go off the air.

The producers of entertainment have to sell their shows. Morality is not their business - money is. Desperate Housewives sells, so do Lost and CSI Miami as well as a plethora of afternoon soap operas where everybody has been married to everybody else at least once.

As far a being Anti-Catholic, I don’t see it at all.

 

[NFPfamily]

I am personally offended by the premise of this show. I have never watched it because of the story lines being promoted. This kind of program breaks down the structure of the family and treads on dangerous ground in my opinion. I believe that crude humor and poking fun at immorality in a sense numbs us to such occasions and drives us just a little further from God each time we let it into our lives. I am a stay at home mom. I left my job teaching middle school to answer God’s calling to be a mother. I am so disgusted by the mere title of this show. I consider my job a vocation from God; therefore, I consider it holy. I consider this show anti-Catholic, anti-family, and will not let this type of program penetrate the boundaries of my values and those of my family. By showing religious articles in the background, which is a very deliberate placement I’m sure, they are mocking Catholics. Yes, I do believe there are Catholics who may live these kinds of lives, as there are people from all religions who do so, but they continue to make Catholics the forefront because we all think we are "holier than thou." I don’t think so- when I know of people committing grave sin, I don’t look down my nose at them; rather, I grieve for them and pray for their redemption as I hope others will do the same for me. I choose to surround myself with families and people who embrace God and the Church to strengthen my own faith. Lastly, I think that finding the destruction of family values entertaining is a victory for Satan. This may seem far fetched, but if he can get the structure of the family broken down, then it is much easier to pull us away from God. Just because something may be entertaining to watch doesn’t mean we should watch it. I guess that’s a little more than my two cents worth, but I got a little razzled reading the other posts.

God Bless!

 

[Brad]

NFPfamily:

I am personally offended by the premise of this show. I have never watched it because of the story lines being promoted. This kind of program breaks down the structure of the family and treads on dangerous ground in my opinion. I believe that crude humor and poking fun at immorality in a sense numbs us to such occasions and drives us just a little further from God each time we let it into our lives. I am a stay at home mom. I left my job teaching middle school to answer God’s calling to be a mother. I am so disgusted by the mere title of this show. I consider my job a vocation from God; therefore, I consider it holy. I consider this show anti-Catholic, anti-family, and will not let this type of program penetrate the boundaries of my values and those of my family. By showing religious articles in the background, which is a very deliberate placement I’m sure, they are mocking Catholics. Yes, I do believe there are Catholics who may live these kinds of lives, as there are people from all religions who do so, but they continue to make Catholics the forefront because we all think we are "holier than thou." I don’t think so- when I know of people committing grave sin, I don’t look down my nose at them; rather, I grieve for them and pray for their redemption as I hope others will do the same for me. I choose to surround myself with families and people who embrace God and the Church to strengthen my own faith. Lastly, I think that finding the destruction of family values entertaining is a victory for Satan. This may seem far fetched, but if he can get the structure of the family broken down, then it is much easier to pull us away from God. Just because something may be entertaining to watch doesn’t mean we should watch it. I guess that’s a little more than my two cents worth, but I got a little razzled reading the other posts.

God Bless!

Amen sister. You are specifically the one attacked by this show and have every right to be offended.

It is amazing where we have come as a culture to where Christians think it’s ok to watch slop because it demonstrates the “human condition”. Perhaps we should show the real human condition. Maybe ABC should run a show called “Desperate Teenage Girls” where they get pregnant and then have an abortion. And we must see all of it to understand what is REALLY happening in America. We could see a real slice of reality. How wonderful.

 

[condan]

NFPfamily:

I am personally offended by the premise of this show. I have never watched it because of the story lines being promoted. This kind of program breaks down the structure of the family and treads on dangerous ground in my opinion. I believe that crude humor and poking fun at immorality in a sense numbs us to such occasions and drives us just a little further from God each time we let it into our lives. I am a stay at home mom. I left my job teaching middle school to answer God’s calling to be a mother. I am so disgusted by the mere title of this show. I consider my job a vocation from God; therefore, I consider it holy. I consider this show anti-Catholic, anti-family, and will not let this type of program penetrate the boundaries of my values and those of my family. By showing religious articles in the background, which is a very deliberate placement I’m sure, they are mocking Catholics. Yes, I do believe there are Catholics who may live these kinds of lives, as there are people from all religions who do so, but they continue to make Catholics the forefront because we all think we are "holier than thou." I don’t think so- when I know of people committing grave sin, I don’t look down my nose at them; rather, I grieve for them and pray for their redemption as I hope others will do the same for me. I choose to surround myself with families and people who embrace God and the Church to strengthen my own faith. Lastly, I think that finding the destruction of family values entertaining is a victory for Satan. This may seem far fetched, but if he can get the structure of the family broken down, then it is much easier to pull us away from God. Just because something may be entertaining to watch doesn’t mean we should watch it. I guess that’s a little more than my two cents worth, but I got a little razzled reading the other posts.

God Bless!

Completely right on the money. Well said!

 

[aimee]

NFPfamily:

I am personally offended by the premise of this show. I have never watched it because of the story lines being promoted. This kind of program breaks down the structure of the family and treads on dangerous ground in my opinion. I believe that crude humor and poking fun at immorality in a sense numbs us to such occasions and drives us just a little further from God each time we let it into our lives. I am a stay at home mom. I left my job teaching middle school to answer God’s calling to be a mother. I am so disgusted by the mere title of this show. I consider my job a vocation from God; therefore, I consider it holy. I consider this show anti-Catholic, anti-family, and will not let this type of program penetrate the boundaries of my values and those of my family. By showing religious articles in the background, which is a very deliberate placement I’m sure, they are mocking Catholics. Yes, I do believe there are Catholics who may live these kinds of lives, as there are people from all religions who do so, but they continue to make Catholics the forefront because we all think we are "holier than thou." I don’t think so- when I know of people committing grave sin, I don’t look down my nose at them; rather, I grieve for them and pray for their redemption as I hope others will do the same for me. I choose to surround myself with families and people who embrace God and the Church to strengthen my own faith. Lastly, I think that finding the destruction of family values entertaining is a victory for Satan. This may seem far fetched, but if he can get the structure of the family broken down, then it is much easier to pull us away from God. Just because something may be entertaining to watch doesn’t mean we should watch it. I guess that’s a little more than my two cents worth, but I got a little razzled reading the other posts.

God Bless!

very good…good post

 

[Listener]

NFPfamily:

I am personally offended by the premise of this show. I have never watched it because of the story lines being promoted. This kind of program breaks down the structure of the family and treads on dangerous ground in my opinion. I believe that crude humor and poking fun at immorality in a sense numbs us to such occasions and drives us just a little further from God each time we let it into our lives.

Well, to each his own, but I still can’t figure out how people who have never watched this show can be such experts on how bad it is. Using your logic, I guess it would be immoral for us to go to the opera, too, since most operas have story lines about dangerous love affairs and tragic endings.

 

[Listener]

Perhaps we should show the real human condition. Maybe ABC should run a show called “Desperate Teenage Girls” where they get pregnant and then have an abortion. And we must see all of it to understand what is REALLY happening in America. We could see a real slice of reality. How wonderful.
[/quote]

I know you were being funny, but maybe that’s an excellent idea! They could show the girls who had abortions getting depressed and commiting suicide. Many women who have abortions suffer for the rest of their lives, which most people would never guess because they don’t print stories about this phenomenon in the secular press. A show like this could prevent more abortions than a demonstration outside an abortion clinic!

 

[Brad]

Listener:

I know you were being funny, but maybe that’s an excellent idea! They could show the girls who had abortions getting depressed and commiting suicide. Many women who have abortions suffer for the rest of their lives, which most people would never guess because they don’t print stories about this phenomenon in the secular press. A show like this could prevent more abortions than a demonstration outside an abortion clinic!

OK. It’s a deal then. I’ll accept anti-family, anti-housewife, anti-men shows like Desparate Housewives if they will also show the tragic results of the sleeping around and not taking responsibility, including the actual abortion procedure on prime time TV. Then we can go into the depression, with flashbacks etc, and ultimate conversion to Catholicism. If that was the show, I’d be all for it. 5 people or so would watch it, but I’d be for it. Care to suggest it to ABC?

 

[NFPfamily]

Listener:

Well, to each his own, but I still can’t figure out how people who have never watched this show can be such experts on how bad it is. Using your logic, I guess it would be immoral for us to go to the opera, too, since most operas have story lines about dangerous love affairs and tragic endings.

I never claimed to be an expert; I simply stated the reasons I choose not to watch it.