When I was 13 or 14 years old, my mother offered me $10 to read a book titled “Four Arguments For the Elimination of Television” by leftist commentator Jerry Mander. I read the book, collected my $10, and never gave it much thought until about ten years later. Before our first child was born, my wife LeXuan and I decided to completely renounce broadcast television, retaining only the ability to watch an occasional video. This is one of the best decisions we have ever made, and we have never looked back.
The decision to be TV-free has enriched our marriage, liberated our children, and deepened our spiritual lives. It has also earned the wrath of the Devil, who has rewarded us with plenty of mischief. In this four-part presentation I will explore television’s moral content, information content, neurological effects, and spiritual effects as they relate to the Catholic home.
Moral Content of Television and Film
The Popes have been cautiously optimistic about television, understanding that technology is a tool that can be used for good as well as evil. But they have also issued dire warnings about its potential for mischief — a potential which in our time has been fully realized. Pope Pius XI was aware of the dangers as early as 1936, when he issued the encyclical Vigilanti Cura. This encyclical gave a ringing papal endorsement to the American Legion of Decency, which had been formed two years earlier to combat the immorality that has dominated the film industry from the very beginning. He wrote:
“All men know how much harm is done by bad films; they sing the praises of lust and desire, and at the same time provide occasions of sin; they seduce the young from the right path; they present life in a false light; they obscure and weaken the wise counsel of attaining perfection; they destroy pure love, the sanctity of matrimony and the intimate needs of family life. They seek moreover to inculcate prejudiced and false opinions among individuals, classes of society, and the different nations and peoples.
“Moreover stories and actions are presented, through the cinema, by men and women whose natural gifts are increased by training and embellished by every known art, in a manner which may become an additional source of corruption, especially to the young … Wherefore especially the minds of boys and young people are affected and held by the fascination of these plays; so that the cinema exercises its greatest strength and power at the very age at which the sense of honor is implanted and develops, at which the principles of justice and goodness emerge from the mind, at which the notions of duty and all the best principles of perfection make their appearance. But alas! This power, in the present state of affairs, is too often used for harm. Wherefore when we consider the ruin caused among youths and children, whose innocence and chastity is endangered in these theatres, we remember that severe word spoken against the corrupters of youth by Jesus Christ: ‘But who shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and the he were drowned in the depth of the sea.’”
Pope Pius XI saw that the emerging cinematic technology posed a serious threat to the innocence of childhood. Professor Neil Postman, in his book “The Disappearance of Childhood”, expands upon this insight considerably. He notes that television, unlike literature, does not discriminate or segregate by age. TV watching requires no special skills, makes no complex demands on the intellect, and appeals to senses and passions that are common to all ages. As a social phenomenon, television erodes the distinction between child and adult.
Pope Pius XI also noted that “There are surely many Catholics among the executives, directors, authors, and actors who take part in this business; it is much to be regretted that their actions do not always conform to their faith and principles.” It follows that another consideration for the Catholic viewer of television and film must be whether it is licit to view a film that is not only an occasion of sin for viewers, but is also an occasion of sin for the actors, writers, and producers? To what extent does voluntary viewing of immoral films or television programs cooperate with the evil in producing them?
For a time, the Legion of Decency was highly influential in Hollywood and in the ranks of the Catholic faithful. Between nine and 11 million Catholics took the Legion’s Pledge against immorality on film. The Pledge reads as follows:
“I wish to join the Legion of Decency, which condemns vile and unwholesome moving pictures. I unite with all who protest against them as a grave menace to youth, to home life, to country, and to religion. Considering these evils, I hereby promise to remain away from all motion pictures except those which do not offend decency and Christian morality. I promise further to secure as many members as possible for the Legion of Decency. I make this protest in a spirit of self-respect, and with the conviction that the American public does not demand filthy pictures, but clean entertainment and educational features.”
We do well to ask ourselves whether we would take that same pledge today with respect to television programs.
The Legion created a rating system as a guide for Catholic filmgoers and the public at large. An “A” rating meant the film was morally unobjectionable; a “B” rating meant that the film was morally objectionable in part; a “C” rating meant that the film was condemned and that Catholics were forbidden to see it. According to Fr. Frank Poncelet, founder of a Catholic anti-TV apostolate, any Catholic who knowingly attended a “C” film would have committed a mortal sin. In his book “Television: Prelude to Chaos”, Fr. Poncelet tells us what it was like in those days:
“Soon the ratings of all movies were printed in virtually every diocesan paper, and it was the practice of all good Catholics to check the Legion of Decency rating before attending a movie. One movie with a ‘C’ rating is extremely important to note here, and which this author recalls very clearly from the list in approximately 1940. ‘Gone With The Wind’ was rated ‘C’, but was receiving great raves in the papers and on previews. A few of us wanted to see ‘Gone With The Wind’ and approached our pastor asking for an exception to the rule. We heard that its rating of ‘C’ was too severe; that others considered it OK to see. His reply was swift and short; in fact, only one word with two letters: ‘NO’. We did not attend the movie, but many others did, and it marked a change in the strict adherence to the Legion’s rating system.”
“Gone With The Wind” was condemned by the Legion in 1940 primarily because it undermined the sanctity of marriage, and because Rhett Butler spoke a single profanity. Today, most Catholics have seen or heard this much before breakfast — if not on television, then on the radio during the morning commute. If ‘Gone With The Wind” was a danger to Catholic faith and morals in 1940, how much more dangerous is 90% of television and film today! Most of our favorite films would not make the grade. Indeed, the six o'clock news would not make the grade.
A final comment on the moral content of modern television and film. Even today’s seemingly innocent ‘G’ rated material can be harmful. A very common fault of children’s films today is that they undermine parental authority and the respect children should have for parents. The children of today’s “G” rated movies are often disobedient and smart-alecky, and this attitude is presented as a positive, liberating thing. “Free Willy” comes immediately to mind.
Along the same lines, most “G” rated films are poisoned by egalitarian, feminist, and New Age undercurrents. This can be as subtle as a voice: if you listen, you will notice that the Bad Guys usually have deep and masculine voices, and the Good Guys usually have female or effeminate male voices. But very often it is not so subtle. The latest films about Pocahontas, Mulan, and even Saint Joan of Arc, are inspired by feminist revisionism. Pocahontas, for instance, is portrayed as a pantheistic New Age priestess, a feminist prototype who defies her father and teaches Captian John Smith about the ways of the world. Of course nothing is said about the most important thing in her life: her baptism and conversion to Christianity.
Children’s television programming has similar problems with political correctness. Many characters — especially in cartoons — are purposely of indeterminate sex. Styles of dress are typically androgynous. And when boys and girls are noticeably boys and girls, care is taken never to show girls doing anything uniquely feminine, or boys doing anything uniquely masculine, or girls and boys doing anything separately. Parents are almost nowhere to be found, and when they do show up, it is usually just one or the other. It is true, many of these programs do try to support the virtue of kindness, but this is almost always in the confusing context of Non-Judgmentalism. Much more could be said about the dangers of television due to immoral content, but we’ll leave it at that for now.
(Look for Part 2, “Information Content of Television,” here in the Catholic Exchange A&E Channel.)
Jeff Culbreath resides in Sacramento, California, with his wife and three children. The Culbreaths attend St. Stephen's Catholic Church, and are expecting their fourth child in February.
