edwest211:
As Catholics, we need a guideline to measure against. Without that guideline, whatever is pervasive in media today and what our friends like, can replace that guideline, and encourage the totally false notion that as adults we are free of even thinking about sin.
I actually believe that a well-developed conscience can be a guideline. One must also take into account the age, background, and reason a person is reading a certain book or watching a certain show. I could probably enjoy Lucifer, a Neil Gaiman comic, as art, since I have liked some of Gaiman’s past work and find it insightful on subjects of good, evil, death, other aspects of the human condition, plus I have some interest in graphic novels in general. This is way different from someone decades younger than me who is watching “Lucifer” because they want to see the sexy parts.
The trouble with setting media guidelines is they tend to skew to the lowest common denominator, which is people who are immature or unduly influenced by some edgy material. I don’t really need or want a nanny for my viewing habits as an adult. If a show bothers me because it seems to be one long round of boring gratuitous sex or violence, I can find the off button on the remote myself. If it’s a show I personally get something intelligent or enjoyable from beyond the risqué bits, I don’t feel I should have to turn it off because some immature viewer out there is not ready for it.