Is it sinful to watch this kind of TV?

  • Thread starter Thread starter UKcatholicGuy
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
40.png
UKcatholicGuy:
Is it sinful for Christians to watch shows like Desperate Housewives or NYPD Blue? You know, shows that are more sexually explicit, violent, and use more curse words than most.

Well?
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t call this sinful. Depending on the show, I’d just call it a waste of time- there are way better things to do to keep yourself occupied.
 
40.png
MEP:
A better question might be, “Why would you want to?” Particularly NYPD Blue, Law & Order(s), CSI and just about every other “detective” show that is on TV nowadays. Most of them aren’t mysteries or dramas or thrilling whodunits so much as they are just fictional chronicles of human misery and despair. I don’t get the appeal at all.
Click to expand...
Good point.

On the subject of quality television, I’m a fan of “Murder, She Wrote,” to tell you the truth.

God bless.

-J
 
Michael Welter:
As a man, I struggle with sexual sin. Shows that cheapen sex, like Friends or Will & Grace, tend to numb me to the sinfulness of recreational sex. For me, it is sinful to watch such shows because they lead me away from Christ, not toward Him.
Click to expand...
I don’t like Will & Grace either, but it’s more because of the stereotypical way in which they portray homosexuals as flamboyant and sex-obsessed- incredibly lame.

I’m heterosexual, but from my own experiences with people who are cut from the gay bolt of cloth, I’ve found they’re like me- pretty casual about affairs of the flesh- that is, sex is a topic on the mind, but it doesn’t dominate their thinking.

And as for popular misconception of predominant flamboyance, I can’t help but think that to some in the gay community that is the precursor to a war of words or some uninformed knucklehead nursing a black eye or a fattened lip.
 
I find the worst stuff on television these days is being pushed on kids- I mean, the sheer lack of imagination and innovation in programming is downright disheartening- I mean, if I were a kid today, I’d be downright insulted. Gone are the shows that dare to treat children and their intelligence with some level of respect, to be replaced with programming that is either little more than half-hour commercials for cheap merchandise that must have been conceived after a mis-spent night on cough syrup and marijuana (ex: Spongebob Squarepants and The Powerpuff Girls) or relies on characters and concepts culled from thinly veiled (if there is any veil at all) stereotypes (ex: Disney’s *The Proud Family, *which is so peppered with stereotypes it borders on being racist.).
 
Doesn’t anyone listen to Jesus he explicitly said that sin cannot enter a man from the outside sin comes from within.
 
I have never watched NYPD Blue, I’m a Law & Order fan. When I first saw Desperate Housewives ads I thought it was horrible and was totally offended, being a housewife. I actually watched the show one night and was amazed. It isn’t like Sex in the City where casual sex is glorified and there are never any totally serious complications, it is more Shakesperean where the Character’s weaknesses get them in the end, they always have consequences and the writing is great. I feel the same way about Sopranos. Sopranos is extrememly violent and shows alot of immorality, but the bad guys eventually are faced with their bad deeds, and it bites them in the tukus in the end.
 
40.png
romano:
Yup. It sure is. Such shows may be “brilliant” and “funny” but they serve to corrupt us in various ways. Anyone who sincerely wishes to live as a Christian would throw their TV out. TV is an addiction and a distraction. It takes our minds away from what we really ought to be thinking about. Its main purpose is to waste our time and make us stupid. And it does a very good job of this. Look around. Look at how unreal people have become. How sloppy. How dumb. How uncaring. How immoral. What do you think taught them this? What gave them their role models? What but TV?
Click to expand...
I agree with you, I watch tv at night when my kids are in bed, the house is cleaned and I’m too exhausted to do anything else, but too lonely to sleep. I Usually only watch tv when husband is on a mission. I know, it’s pathetic. I used to try to do constructive things like reading and scrapbooking but they would get me all keyed up and I woudn’t be able to sleep. I find that a few episodes of a well written tv. show or a movie put me out like a light, sleepy enough to pray and go to sleep. I agree with you, you are right, I
 
40.png
WolfStar777:
I find the worst stuff on television these days is being pushed on kids- I mean, the sheer lack of imagination and innovation in programming is downright disheartening- I mean, if I were a kid today, I’d be downright insulted. Gone are the shows that dare to treat children and their intelligence with some level of respect, to be replaced with programming that is either little more than half-hour commercials for cheap merchandise that must have been conceived after a mis-spent night on cough syrup and marijuana (ex: Spongebob Squarepants and The Powerpuff Girls) or relies on characters and concepts culled from thinly veiled (if there is any veil at all) stereotypes (ex: Disney’s *The Proud Family, *which is so peppered with stereotypes it borders on being racist.).
Click to expand...
All those shows are banned at my house, along with Rugrats, and many others, but there is also the flipside of the coin. There are a few of my favorites:

Between the Lions (for preschool and early elem. reading skills)
Liberty Kids (animated revolutionary war historical fiction-great!)
**StoryKeepers **(animated, early Christians bravely pass on thestories of Jesus.
**Magic School Bus **animated science the school bus shrinks and the kids go on adventures!

I truly detest all the awful kid’s programming you mentioned. I can’t stand they way the Proud Famly talks to each other. It is stereotypical, rude and just plain annoying. My kids have real life, african American, Asian and Hispanic/Latino friends, they don’t need to see that junk.
 
hje magic school bus and Rugrats are evil banned tv shwos? :eek:

I have basiicly almsot given up on all tv except for ewtn. I think once I have kids If I get a tv, i will get one and keep it in a room where I can see it and the kdis do not have to wacth somthing I would disprove of.

Tpday I live in a home where my famallys do wacth tv tha I would not let my kids see. They think I am proibably crazy.

Wjat about the Show Full House? lol.Or Leave it to beaver? Its a good thing it doesn’t take a lto to entertain me.

Prasie the Lord for EWTN! Praise the Lord tat you can hear it and wacth it on the internet!
 
40.png
Emly:
hje magic school bus and Rugrats are evil banned tv shwos? :eek:

I have basiicly almsot given up on all tv except for ewtn. I think once I have kids If I get a tv, i will get one and keep it in a room where I can see it and the kdis do not have to wacth somthing I would disprove of.

Tpday I live in a home where my famallys do wacth tv tha I would not let my kids see. They think I am proibably crazy.

Wjat about the Show Full House? lol.Or Leave it to beaver? Its a good thing it doesn’t take a lto to entertain me.

Prasie the Lord for EWTN! Praise the Lord tat you can hear it and wacth it on the internet!
Click to expand...
EWTN has some terrific Children’s programming.
hje magic school bus and Rugrats are evil banned tv shwos? :eek:
Click to expand...
I’m not totally sure what you mean. We just thing Rugrats is junk tv, by our standards. It doesn’t teach anything and I never wanted my kids to act like Angelica

Magic School Bus is imaginative and a good science lesson. I enjoy having a library of a cartoon series called Saints and Heroes. We have a cartoon about Fatima, Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadeloupe, etc.
 
I ahve secretly wacthed a lot of the ewtn kids programing. i really liked Adventures in Odesy hehe.
 
40.png
Bry:
I personally don’t see anything morally apprehensible about these TV shows. Entertainment is what you make of it. If you are watching nip/tuck and are dreaming of yourself being involved in the same immorality as they are, then of course you are sinning. I, for one, can watch those shows and be disgusted by the characters actions but still enjoy the show. Real life is full of immorality and if we are never ever exposed to it, how will we deal with it in the world? A devout and contemplative Christian can use these shows as a way to develop his/her conscience. He/she can examine what to do if ever confronted with similar situations. Isn’t this how we are supposed to form a good conscience?
When we were in school we read books about immoral characters (even pagans). Is this immoral? No, of course not. Even in Catholic schools we read books like Macbeth and other stories full of blood and adultery and pagan worship.
Jesus never condemned entertainment (like plays) that contained immorality in the script nor did the Apostles. If a person feels that a particular TV program may lead them to sin, then I would advise that person to avoid it. Bottom line…it’s ubsurd to say that a particular TV program could be a sin to watch. If that’s the case then I guess we have to avoid great Shakespeare classics and Greek Mythology and even Harry Potter for his sorcery!
Click to expand...

Good points 🙂​

I agree with everything you say - trouble is, I also agree with Brad. OTO, I find a film such as “Scream” (say) hilarious. I think the alarm is excessive.

If we wanted to avoid even the occasion of sin, I don’t know whom we could read. Until quite recently, Boccaccio’s Decameron was not allowed in the US without being expurgated - he is very funny, but some of the stories he tells *are *bawdy.

The Greek and Roman Classics are full of immoral acts of every kind - cannibalism, murder, infanticide, incest, parricide, matricide, adultery, betrayal, & murder, for a start. This has not prevented the Classics being a staple of education for over a thousand years.

Shakespeare, as you point out, is a “no go area” - his plays have ambition, treason, murder, witchcraft, despair, hatred, treachery, vengefulness: and that’s just “Macbeth”; one play down - thirty-six to go.

In Dickens there are countless evils: assault, murder, embezzlement, suicide, hypocrisy, deceit, wrathfulness, cruelty, pride, oppression of the poor, vanity, are just a few of them. And he is one major novelist of very many whose works might be found unacceptable - but: people can do immoral acts in a story, without the story-teller’s being a bad man - one cannot reason from the badness of the one to the badness of the other; it would be odd to suppose that because there are bad characters in C.S. Lewis’ books he was therefore exalting badness or was himself a wicked man. A tale of evil deeds can be very instructive - who wants to end up like the Suitors in the Odyssey, or like a Dickens villain, or like Tolkien’s Saruman ?

As for European literature generally; despite the false gods, and unChristian values in the Classical authors, and the endless evils described in every major author from Dante to the present day, it’s read by Christians; many of whom have contributed to writing it. ##
 
Does anyone here not think that all of this Is it sinful to watch this TV stuff is a bit childish. I really dont think that Saint Peter will sit at the gates of heaven harking out this great big list of sinful TV that you watched, and then judging you on it. If this TV were so terribly sinful then we would here more joint bans from the Pope, college of Cardinals and conferences of bishops condemming this type of TV.
 
Exactly Libero!!! These people seem to think that because I enjoy Desperate Housewives, a show that is wonderful, witty, shows the consequences of sin, and has OH NO! an affair storyline, :rolleyes: that I am going to go out and start acting just like the characters!

Michael 😦
 
Is it psoible that these shwos may not be sinful, but an occation of sin and theys hound be avoided?
 
Hmm, I didn’t know that television was one of the seven sins…but you know, I guess i was missing something. personally, i find the sins to be quite enjoyable. most of them, really. especially lust. and wrath. i could go for some of that right now.
 
40.png
Peace-bwu:
I have never watched NYPD Blue, I’m a Law & Order fan. When I first saw Desperate Housewives ads I thought it was horrible and was totally offended, being a housewife. I actually watched the show one night and was amazed. It isn’t like Sex in the City where casual sex is glorified and there are never any totally serious complications, it is more Shakesperean where the Character’s weaknesses get them in the end, they always have consequences and the writing is great. I feel the same way about Sopranos. Sopranos is extrememly violent and shows alot of immorality, but the bad guys eventually are faced with their bad deeds, and it bites them in the tukus in the end.
Click to expand...

Having watched an episode of Desperate Housewives just the other day, I can’t see what the fuss is about. Some of the characters do rather mean things at times, but that happens in the Bible, too.​

People do tend to be caught out by the unpleasant things they do, even in an episode and a bit of that programme - that’s a very moral lesson. ##
 
Well pput it in your mind like this, seven sins might sound fun, but it isi only a passing wordly thing that hurts God, as Jesus said his Sacred Heart bleeds for poor sinners. Then think about heaven and how much more fun that’ll be forever…or you could think of Hlel but I’d start first with hruting God, because it hurt God.

I have found msyelf turning away form more and more tv shows. Whats leeft but Leaave it to beaver? Owning a tv is not a sin, wacthing certain tv shows can be, or be a near occation of sin. But if tv in itself was moraaly evil, then I don’t think ewtn would exsist. If you can’t cotral yourself, or keep away from immoral tv shows however, I’d throw the darned thing out.

A saitn once said, “run from places of sin, like the plague…” And so I leave you with that note.
 
I like to think about it like this: Would Jesus sit down and watch that TV show with me? Would He laugh at the ‘funny’ parts, and shake His head at the not-so-clean portions? If the show is mostly hilarious, is it ok to watch the few offensive scenes because of the greater ‘good’?

I think different people have a different propensity to sin. Show one person a picture of a scantily dressed individual, and they will immediately start sinning in their mind. Show another person the same picture, and they will shake their head in disgust. But even if you are a ‘strong faithful Christian’, why expose yourself to that? You shouldn’t be tempting yourself. We live in a depraved world, which is full of temptation. Every day! Why try to make Satan’s job easier? I really think wrong is wrong. If the program condones a lifestyle or immoral acts that the bible clearly condemns, we shouldn’t be watching it for entertainment. No matter how strong we are in our faith.

As an example, there are many shows out there that give the impression that it is ‘OK’ to have pre-marital relations. If you keep watching that day after day after day… you may start believing that it is ‘ok’. Or, at the very least, when your buddy at work tells you he is doing the same thing, you don’t think about your Christian duty to inform him that God isn’t happy with kind of lifestyle. Why should you? The main characters on your favorite show are also doing it…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top