Dear Ed,
In this whole matter of secular entertainment, dear brother, we must always remember that we are ‘aliens and exiles’ in this world and thus it behoves us to avoid becoming too engrossed in its pleasures and certainly its extra to the normal indulgences. Our portion upon this earth is all too brief, so let us be jolly careful not to squander an immoderte amount of time on secular entertainment.
God bless and thankyou.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
Dear Portrait,
Thank you so much for your clarity and charity. These are things I sorely miss since they were both far more common before the end of the 1960s. Children were taught good manners and good habits, were taught a level of responsibility according to their age and, of course, were taught what was right from what was wrong. I cannot help but become angry at those who felt it their duty or right to spend millions of dollars to create the original opium dens of the 1970s - Adult Bookstores. The Christians who protested were called religious nuts, we were told that their “freedom of expression” was protected by the First Amendment, and they had lawyers to defend them in court. Of course, such “dirty places” were still regarded that way for a time until the regular media gradually began to catch up with them, followed by the internet in the 1990s. They certainly knew it would produce porn addicts, sex addicts and those whose view of sexual activity would become relative and not based on any standard.
Our fallen nature was given freer and freer access to the ongoing assault on the dignity of the human person, on the family and what it meant to lead a happy, though not good, life. As Pope Benedict has told us recently, we should renounce culture that disguises falsehood as truth.
ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-renounce-culture-that-disguises-falsehood-as-truth
We have not lost our moorings - not all of us. I say this as one who God, by His grace, has given a little knowledge. The faithful have done a few things to deal with this outrage: remove it from their lives completely, or only use it to a very small degree. I sometimes watch the occasional TV show, but those who know me understand my sensitivities. I only listen to Catholic radio in my car.
I recently revisited a few things I thought were OK from the 1980s and saw that I was right. I can’t allow them back in my life because they were wrong. Strange that, in the mid-1980s, it was about half and half. Some things did not offend but the other half did. Today, as far as secular entertainment, I would say it’s about 98% bad. And what does the word entertainment mean today? I believe that all entertainment should be suitable for the entire family, and that was the motto of the secular media for a long time. But this would be pre-1970 media.
In Vigilanti Curia (1936), the Church had attempted friendly cooperation with Hollywood for the same concerns you, I and other Catholics have today.
An excerpt:
"It is promised in this agreement that no film which lowers the moral standard of the spectators, which casts discredit upon natural or human law or arouses sympathy for their violation, will be produced.
"Promises not carried out
"Nevertheless, in spite of this wise and spontaneously taken decision, those responsible showed themselves incapable of carrying it into effect and it appeared that the producers and the operators were not disposed to stand by the principles to which they had bound themselves. Since, therefore, the above-mentioned undertaking proved to have but slight effect and since the parade of vice and crime continued on the screen, the road seemed almost closed to those who sought honest diversion in the motion picture.
"In this crisis, you, Venerable Brethren, were among the first to study the means of safeguarding the souls entrusted to your care, and you launched the “Legion of Decency” as a crusade for public morality designed to revitalize the ideals of natural and Christian rectitude. Far from you was the thought of doing damage to the motion picture industry: rather indeed did you arm it beforehand against the ruin which menaces every form of recreation which, in the guise of art, degenerates into corruption.
"The “Legion of Decency” Pledge
“Your leadership called forth the prompt and devoted loyalty of your faithful people, and millions of American Catholics signed the pledge of the “Legion of Decency” binding themselves not to attend any motion picture which was offensive to Catholic moral principles or proper standards of living. We are thus able to proclaim joyfully that few problems of these latter times have so closely united Bishops and people as the one resolved by cooperation in this holy crusade. Not only Catholics but also high-minded Protestants, Jews, and many others accepted your lead and joined their efforts with yours in restoring wise standards, both artistic and moral, to the cinema.”
My dear brother in Christ, the Church follows Christ’s example. It speaks directly, carefully and with gentleness. It does not force. But through subtle and not so subtle means, those who deceive or are deceived, need to have the truth spoken to them. The lies are spread daily anew. New words and phrases are given to us to dull our understanding or make something appear neutral or OK. I was shocked to see the words “violence porn” in a movie review. The meaning being that the movie had so much excessive violence that no one could say otherwise, and that those who liked it were into “violence porn.” The mystery is adding the word porn. I was shocked to see that word associated today with those who like a particular historical subject.
We must not remain silent. And I thank you for your well-chosen words. They encourage me very much.
Thank you again, and God Bless,
Ed
God bless