Worldly media? Why doesn’t the Church take a clearer stance?

[TotusTuusForever]

I don’t understand why so many of my catholic peers are so obsessed with worldly shows like Friends or Two and a Half Men. I’ve tried to watch Friends on several occasions because all the “cool” kids do, but haven’t been able to make it through even one episode. The sex jokes I witnessed make the show seem akin to How I Met Your Mother, and the like. How is this compatible with a lifestyle of someone desiring sanctity? The amount of Catholics who watch these types of shows, etc. make me think that only a minority of Catholics are actually trying to root out impurity in their life. And we have to be pure if we want to go to heaven.

I’ve also heard a priest say before that assuming we will go to heaven when we are not trying to be saints is the sin of presumption. It seems odd so many Catholics are living worldly lives. I say this with sincerity that it makes me worried for the church. If we feed our senses we put our souls to sleep. That’s not to say we have to become Stoics but even clergy are watching these shows and including them in homilies. It’s just concerning. I can’t really imagine St. Paul or St. Padre Pio enjoying these shows because their primary loyalty was with Christ and I can’t see them enjoying anything that disrespected God’s laws which are founded on the love and respect of God and the human person. Game of Thrones is another one that is mind boggling too. I’ve heard it labeled porn before because of all the sex scenes. To my knowledge the Church doesn’t have a very clear stance on media since what might cause one person to sin might not cause another to sin. I’m done rambling, but is anyone else as concerned about this?

 

[Jesuslover]

only a minority of Catholics are actually trying to root out impurity in their life. And we have to be pure if we want to go to heaven.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14). The culture of the world is garbage, and we must be in the world but not of the world.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

If a show bothers your conscience, or you personally just don’t like it, don’t watch it.

If you don’t think it’s good material for a Catholic to watch, you can tell your friends. Be prepared for them to say, “Well, that’s just your opinion” and continue to watch.

There are all kinds of reasons people watch movies and TV shows. I personally watch them from a film-making perspective. I am interested in the techniques used to make the movie or the show, and whether they work or don’t work, whether the movie is made well or made badly (which can be amusing). While I don’t want to watch a 2 hour gore-and-porn-fest, I’m not going to run and turn it off if it has a sex scene or a gory murder in it. I’m an adult, there are no kids around, and I am not going to go out and commit sins of sexual immorality (or even feel any lust at my age) or murder because I saw it in a movie. I also sometimes enjoy looking at the clothing and sets in a movie more than I enjoy the movie itself, especially if the movie was made before 1980.

How about you just do you, and stop assuming that everybody else watching media that you personally don’t like is automatically falling into sin?

And if this is a case of your friends not sharing your values, perhaps you should find some other friends who agree with your taste in TV shows.

 

[TotusTuusForever]

I’m an adult,

Which means we should be mature enough to protect our senses from things that could lead us to sin down the line.

One example: a show has a song with bad language. Said song get stuck in head. Now you have bad language stuck in your head.

Honestly, I think too often “adults” use the term to excuse bad choices and shirk responsibly. The reason Jesus loves children so much is because they are humble and pure hearted. The disorder in the world eventually corrupts that sense of innocence. Even if we are adults we can be innocent without being ignorant of Christ’s own words. It’s a shame it’s considered prude when it’s actually a huge sign of strength to resist our base desires for entertainment and pleasure.

 

[TotusTuusForever]

How about you just do you, and stop assuming that everybody else watching media that you personally don’t like is automatically falling into sin?

I’m actually thinking of a priest who used one of these shows in his homily. If felt weird and irreverent. And by the way, I am doing me. This is me. I’m picking people’s consciences. It’s a spiritual work of mercy. And if you are innocent there is no need to be angry.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

I’ve tried to watch Friends on several occasions because all the “cool” kids do

Really?? Friends??

That show is like 20 years old. It’s also quite lame. I could go on.

But anyway, the “worldly”ness in the media is largely an American phenomenon. What is troubling to me is knowing that media will produce whatever it thinks it can sell. So if it’s putting out almost exclusively stuff like Friends, Judge Jerry, and sensationalized “news” - what does that say about the average media consumer in the US? Not good.

But I agree, since the media plays to a low brow audience, most people who consume it will be brought down to its level. It happened to me when I was younger. I bought into that stuff. Thank God I’ve turned things around though. IMO most US media is complete garbage and it’s extremely harmful to our society. I don’t think most people realize the harm it does.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

You’re entitled to your opinion. I don’t find it very productive to get these kinds of lectures from people who don’t even know me, however. It just makes me avoid the person going forward because they’re basically taking their personal concept of “morality” and imposing it on me and everybody else.

Muting now. Have a nice day.

P.S. Not wanting to deal with “picky” people doesn’t equate to being angry. It means I find your approach unproductive and not helpful in my spiritual life.

 

[po18guy]

Flush the media! TV, Cable, Radio, Sirius, FB, IG, SnapChat, People, all of it.

Less of this world’s Angst, more of Christ’s peace.

Less world. More Christ.

 

[TotusTuusForever]

In defense my character, this was a conversation starter not a lecture. And I wasn’t calling you angry. I meant that there is no reason for anyone to react negatively towards this unless they are ignoring their conscience. And I’m using “your” in a general sense not in a personal sense aimed at you. I’m sorry if I was clumsy with my grammar.

 

[JoeShlabotnik]

Everyone has the power to simply change TV channels if they do not like a program.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

It’s a shame it’s considered prude when it’s actually a huge sign of strength to resist our base desires for entertainment and pleasure.

I don’t watch shows that are full of gratuitous stuff because I just don’t have a desire to see anything gratuitous. For me, it’s not entertaining or pleasurable…it’s shallow, predictable and uninteresting. But I really wouldn’t try to push my perspective on anyone else except my children.

So, for me, it’s not about having strength to resist any desire. I have no desire for things that I consider unappealing.

 

[TotusTuusForever]

But I really wouldn’t try to push my perspective on anyone else except my children.

This is difficult though because we all have a duty to share the truth. Those who don’t like it will call it imposing. It’s one thing to share the truth to non Catholics. That’s a very sensitive thing to do and you can’t just go and preach all over them. But talking about the faith among Catholics (like on this forum) should be a totally normal thing and not labeled as “imposing”. And while I don’t judge a person to be evil for watching a show with nudity, bad language, etc., I do have God given judgement (I.e. the ability to reach a logical conclusion) that tells me that person is putting their soul in danger.

When you see someone putting their life in danger you would of course warn them. For Catholics, it is my understanding, that we should have the same attitude towards fellow Catholics who are putting the spiritual life of their soul in danger. We charitably warn them in case they didn’t see the seriousness of the spiritual danger.

I generally don’t like the individualistic mindset that’s says “you do you and I’ll do me”. The idea of “no man is an island” seems to much better represents the attitude of Christ. We are all adopted sons and daughters of God which makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. So it only seems logical to have each other’s back as far as spiritual matters go. Like if I see some Catholics ready to fall if the cliff of sin, I want to be there to catch them. I don’t know though. I guess it’s not politically correct.

I’d love to know where I’m wrong here, and I’m not saying that flippantly.

 

[Joe_5859]

To my knowledge the Church doesn’t have a very clear stance on media since what might cause one person to sin might not cause another to sin.

What are you looking for exactly? A catalogue of “shows to avoid” and “shows you can watch”?

I think the Church has wisely moved away from keeping an “Index of Forbidden Books.” Media in all forms (e.g. books, music, art, film, television, internet) is proliferating at an exponential pace. To create a list and keep it updated would be an exercise in futility.

The Church provides us formation of our conscience and sound moral teaching. It is up to the individual to apply that in our day-to-day life in a great number of circumstances, including in the area of what we watch.

 

[JoeShlabotnik]

You need to better define media. Is it just programming of entertainment type shows or it is news type shows?
And is it just TV or it is the internet?
I do not watch a lot of TV, but I do have some favorite entertainment programs.
As for as news type shows, I watch 60 Minutes on CBS and occasionally watch nightly news on CBS, NBC or ABC.
I am not a fan of Fox News, because they seem to be Donald Trump’s network and that is enough for me not to watch it.
As for the internet, I surf, but I am not a fan of Facebook or another of the so-called social medium.

 

[MagdalenaRita]

You make very good points. I think many people today are entertainment driven and have become addicted to certain shows and find it difficult to give up their favorite shows despite what is in them. We reason away the sin. A priest recently said, some day we will have to give an answer to how we spend our time. He was talking about the media. I also remember I used to tell my family when they were young, “garbage in, garbage out”. That is true no matter how old you are.

If you don’t think it’s good material for a Catholic to watch, you can tell your friends.

Isn’t that kind of what the OP is trying to do.

I’m an adult, there are no kids around, and I am not going to go out and commit sins of sexual immorality (or even feel any lust at my age) or murder because I saw it in a movie.

Being an adult means we have the knowledge to make right choices that protect our souls.

Really?? Friends??

That show is like 20 years old. It’s also quite lame. I could go on.

I agree it’s lame but shows in the 80’s had quite a bit of impure sinfulness in them also and there is quite a bit in Friends that is inappropriate. You could also go back further and movies from the 1930’s were quite inappropriate, which is why they adopted the Hayes Code, then the movie rating system. Of course now they are not rating everything anymore.

IMO most US media is complete garbage and it’s extremely harmful to our society. I don’t think most people realize the harm it does.

So very true. I could not agree more.

Everyone has the power to simply change TV channels if they do not like a program.

Not a lot of choices or places to change it to today.

But talking about the faith among Catholics (like on this forum) should be a totally normal thing and not labeled as “imposing”.

. So it only seems logical to have each other’s back as far as spiritual matters go. Like if I see some Catholics ready to fall if the cliff of sin, I want to be there to catch them. I don’t know though. I guess it’s not politically correct.

I’d love to know where I’m wrong here

You’re not wrong. You are right, we should be able to talk about moral issues here at CAF and the media and the evil running through it into our families today should be a topic that we can discuss. And you are correct, we should have each other’s backs and want to protect them from falling off the cliff. It’s just sometimes people refuse to see the cliff and so push back.

 

[JM3]

“I’d love to know where I’m wrong here”

Do you read souls? Can you see into someone’s heart and know what will make them sin and what will not?
To believe that you know what’s best for someone else is the sin of pride.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

This is difficult though because we all have a duty to share the truth.

The problem is that some people don’t see. Some people don’t hear. The ones who do, don’t need to be careful around bad media because they can see it for what it is.

It’s the ones who don’t see it for what it is who are going to be influenced by it.

Getting people to see is literally an amazing grace. It is in the realm of God, and though people can preach at each other, there is little that can be effectively done at a distance, or without great effort by a community of people. Even then, it’s still up to every individual to take a step in the right direction, and open themselves up to the possibility that they might be wrong about something.

Wrong preaching makes people double up on their pride, and makes it difficult for them to consider anything that runs contrary to their beliefs.

 

[Zach]

At what point does it stop being pride and start being counsel? Am I committing the sin of pride if I were to advise someone not to watch pornography because it could very well lead to sin and because by watching it they are endorsing sinful activity, which is what the participants are committing?

It’s not about thinking we can read into peoples’ souls. By that logic we couldn’t comment negativity on anything without being accused of presumption. We should be able to advise anyone we want, wherever we want, to watch and read material that we think is conducive to the faith. People can disagree on what this constitutes but the conversation should be had on a Catholic forum without being accused of the sin of pride.

With a lot of these threads someone comes here admonishing something or someone they’ve seen in the culture and other people respond by admonishing that person for admonishing something or someone else. So if I have it right, a Catholic can’t admonish something or someone in the culture but that Catholic can be admonished for admonishing?

 

[SPBlitz]

I think it’s because such topics usually have subtle denigration to them - that watching shows like How I Met Your Mother makes someone a worse Catholic than someone who doesn’t watch it, or that laughing at a bawdy joke makes someone impure, and that that person is unconcerned about purity and is this ‘not being a good Catholic’.

 

[gracepoole]

OP, I think you’ll find that other forums like Fisheaters will offer more comradery on this topic and your views. For what it’s worth.