Is viewing violent imagery a sin?

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The_Scott

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Hi,

I’m sorry that this is another “Is ____ a sin?” thread, but I am just wondering what your take on it is.

With the recent news of the death of Muammar Gaddafi, there are many reports that there are videos of his death. And guess what, as soon as I heard about these reports, I had to take a look. (When I mean “had,” I don’t mean to imply that I acted impulsively or without thinking).

I found videos of the incident, which includes Gaddafi’s bloody body. In one video he was alive, and, I swear, you could tell that he was regretting what he did. At least, let me put it this way, I hope that look was of regret and hope for redemption. Truth be told, I almost felt bad for him…

Anyway, back to my question: was looking for this video, of a human shot, dying, and bloody, a sin? I did it partly out of curiosity of how the rebels would react, and partly out of seeing Gaddafi dead. To expand, is seeing any violent imagery a sin? In one way, it shows the reality of the body’s frailness; in another, it almost degrades the human to an object.

Peace.
 
there is very little that is a sin to view in and of itself. If it presents and occasion or temptation to sin for you, then yes it is sinful for you. If it objectifies people and denies their human dignity it is a greater sin for those who produce and disseminate the image, but those who view it for the purpose of gratifying sinful impulses also sin. You have to differentiate between news footage that follows accepted journalistic practice, and a snuff film, for instance.

I have had to view some horrible things while on jury duty. Do you seriously think that is sinful?
 
That depends on your context. Violence in of itself is neutral. It depends on the situation and who it’s being directed too. In your case, what you’re doing doesn’t sound too different from investigative journalism. You should be okay.
 
When the brutal Ceaucescu, communist dictator of Romania, was publicly executed with his wife in 1989, the crowds were chanting with joy,
“The Anti-Christ Died ON CHRISTMAS DAY!!” and, hating communism as I did and still do, and knowing how vicious the Romanian regime of his had been, I got a kind of pleasure out of seeing his dead body, all glassy eyed.
Now I ask God for forgiveness for reacting like that.
It is PERFECTLY OKAY to rejoice that a remorseless vicious bloody brute
has been brought down, but I think we should stop short of rejoicing at the sight of
the dead body. At least in this life, when we are all still sinners liable to fall into very great evils ourselves if we don’t persistently ask for more and more grace.
But when that beast Fidel Castro finally kicks the bucket, I have to confess that
I will probably shed tears of joy for the people of Cuba THEN, too.
In the meantime, may God grant conversion even to Fidel.
Love to all,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
 
And now,
just in the past few minutes or so,
there is a new video out, on THE HUFFINGTON POST website (which video
I will NOT link to), which purports to show Gaddafi
being sodomized with a metal rod or stick by one of his captors.
There is a warning that the video is very graphic and upsetting.
So why would I or anyone want to watch something like that?
 
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