It is very clever, but offensive at the same time toward conservative Christianity. The Church seems to be Catholic, but since a gay marriage is taking place there, it has to be Anglican/Episcopal, no? But what is offensive in the commercial is the stain which is sin. Clever, but....
This commercial is mild compared to some for viagra and other sex products that children view regularly all of which very soon will have gay components and you can only imagine what these will offer. If I showed some of these to children at school for comment, I would be expelled from the priesthood, yet the hustlers for the products that are sold using these kinds of commercials get away with it and are applauded for their creativity regardless of the fact these are shown on most cable networks that young people could be watching.
And have you seen VH1's "Dating Naked"? I came across it accidentally the other night. VH1 is a competitor to MTV both of which are geared to young audiences, teenage and above. This show leaves nothing to the imagination and at one time would have clearly been seen a pornography. I can only imagine that eventually they'll have gay couples dating naked too. Equal opportunity.
Then I saw a commercial for a new comedy on TBS which at one time showed racy Gilligan's Island day and night (now it is known at the "Big Band Theory" non stop network. I can't remember the name of the woman who will have a new comedy in couple weeks on the network. She's nicely dressed in a dress telling about her comedy show and then at the end, and to my absolute shock and I hope others were shocked, she pulls up her lovely dress and squats to show that she has a pair of what only men should have and they actually show these dangling between her legs! I thought I was seeing things. I couldn't believe it.
But have you heard of any religious group, even fundamentalists, complaining about this or threatening boycotts of advertisers?
The media, both television and the internet is such a cesspool these days that no one knows what to do about it to clean it up. And it seems that the general population doesn't want it cleaned up.
How do parents protect their young people from this but also prepare them to see it when they are adults making their own choices, not going overboard as some children do who come from families that forbid alcohol in the house?
We live in difficult times. And just wait until ISIS takes over!
28 comments:
We are on a crash dive to Hell, Fr. The good people should have started shooting years ago.
During this painful time in the Church I keep going back and reading the Book of Lamentations. That book of sacred scripture is more meaningful in the last two years than probably the last 2000 oft he Church.
1 How lonely sits the city
that was full of people!
How like a widow has she become,
she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the cities
has become a vassal.
2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
she has none to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,
they have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
and hard servitude;
she dwells now among the nations,
but finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
4 The roads to Zion mourn,
for none come to the appointed feasts;
all her gates are desolate,
her priests groan;
her maidens have been dragged away,[a]
and she herself suffers bitterly.
5 Her foes have become the head,
her enemies prosper,
because the Lord has made her suffer
for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
captives before the foe.
6 From the daughter of Zion has departed
all her majesty.
Her princes have become like harts
that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembers
in the days of her affliction and bitterness[b]
all the precious things
that were hers from days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the foe,
and there was none to help her,
the foe gloated over her,
mocking at her downfall.
8 Jerusalem sinned grievously,
therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
for they have seen her nakedness;
yea, she herself groans,
and turns her face away.
Remember, Father, if it's not smut, it's not entertaining these days. About ten years ago, there was a show on MTV, called "Dismissed." If I remember correctly, the person, male or female, would decide which of the three dating-hopefuls would eventually become the featured person's boyfriend or girlfriend. After going on a date, sometimes a pretty "spicy" date, with all three dating-hopefuls, the person would choose which "contestant" would be his girlfriend or her boyfriend...after the others were "Dismissed." Well, as you can imagine, they, eventually, began showing homosexual episodes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, at 4:30 in the afternoon, in 2004. Even though this was during the unfortunate period of my life when I was away from the Church, I was, most definitely, shocked at this show "Dismissed," showing racy, homosexual episodes. The first kissing scene was all it took for me to turn off the show and never watch it again. I remember working at the Georgia National Fair, in Perry, that fall, with a client of ours. We were all taking a break and one of the guys started talking about "Dismissed." At that point, I brought up the fact that homosexual couples were now being featured. Mentioning the racy kissing scene, the guys started laughing, saying that it gets a whole lot worse than just kissing. And, again, this was in the fall of 2004. We have been on a long downhill slope, directly to Hell, for quite a while now. Why wait on ISIS to destroy us, our sick culture is already taking care of that for us!
The problem is that young people who no longer live in Christian homes, or religious homes of any persuasion, are being malformed by MTV and other media, and now by the pornography that is available to them on their devices. How to stop this is beyond me and thus, yes, we are being destroyed by our technology devoid of any morality from our Judeo-Christian heritage.
In my opinion, MTV played a critical role in the normalization of aberrant behavior over the last 25 years. I remember that I was not allowed to watch MTV when I was young, and this was at the time they were still showing music videos exclusively. Once they started showing The Real World (sic), their agenda really took hold and captivated the public -- at that point, my parents watched more MTV than I ever did. I believe that The Real World Season 3 probably did more to influence people in my generation to accept the homosexual proclivity as normative than anything else.
"We are on a crash dive to Hell, Fr. The good people should have started shooting years ago."
Conservative logic:
Talking about sex: Bad
Talking about shooting people we disagree with: Fun
The technology available today offers up a wide buffet of both heterosexual and homosexual immortality. Take your pick...Satan will be your server and will have your Kool-aid out to you shortly!
MTV? Take a short look at the afternoon soap operas that pre-date MTV by 25 years. Multiple marriages, infidelities, dirty-dealings, adulteries, back-stabbing, etc.
And these were de rigueur viewing for millions of church-going folks long before MTV...
I still have a TV and watch but perhaps it is time we who are serious about our faith and morals to follow the example of the Holy Father. As I understand He quit watching TV in the early 90'S
My desire to shun indecent television commercials form part of my decision to avoid watching NFL games. When FOX Television years ago began airing NFL games, they played a major role in the introduction of indecent commercial into NFL broadcasts.
Today, more than any other major sport in the United States, televised football (NFL) games feature the most indecent commercials. It is not just sponsors who produce indecent commercials that are aired during NFL games.
The common practice among TV networks who air NFL games(FOX, CBS) is that when they return from regular commercials, the networks run promos for their prime-time shows.
They will show, for example, a clip from one of their prime-time sitcoms. Not surprisingly, the show is raunchy...the clip features a raunchy sexual joke..."Be sure to watch "X" this Monday night, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time on your local FOX (or CBS) station"...then the football game resumes.
Several studies have demonstrated the raunchy nature of advertising that is associated with the NFL.
One study in question offered the following examples from NFL games..."FOX aired a promotional spot for its adult cartoon, "Family Guy." This promo showed an overweight adult male animated character doing a strip tease, subjecting viewers to a virtually naked cartoon character. Ironically, the voiceover announcement at the end of this promo warns that "viewer discretion is advised."
"It is also interesting to note that "Family Guy" is rated TV-14 (Parents Strongly Cautioned) for intense violence, intense sexual situations, strong coarse language, or intensely suggestive dialogue."
"During the game, FOX aired a promo for the season premier of their program "’Til Death." The discussion in this promo centered on a woman’s..."
Sorry, but I won't print the remaining description of the FOX promo in question. The promo was simply to raunchy to describe in full.
It is unbelievable that even the promos of Prime-Time network TV shows are dirty. Their shows are so dirty that TV networks are unable to hide that fact even during a 10-second promo.
Television networks traffic in filth. They are unable to find even halfway clean portions of a given show to use during a 10-second promo.
Somebody could suggest that one could simply tape an NFL game, then fast-forward through the commercials and promos.
Well, there is the issue of the game itself...the violence...the fact that almost each game is played on Sunday.
I have given up the NFL. I have soured recently on professional team sports. Well, at least baseball is devoid (almost) of violence.
I had years ago given up on Prime-Time television. I found the shows and even commercials were too raunchy to watch.
Professional sports then served as my means of escapist entertainment. Not anymore.
Anyway, the bottom line is that the near occasion of sin abounds via television viewing.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
No, Angry Hippo, shooting people I disagree with would not be fun. Shooting you would be fun...
"Big Band Theory" . . . Is that being taught this semester by Harry James, Stan Kenton, or Charlie Barnet?
In America, it is beyond human means to "clean up" television or overall entertainment.
Once upon a time, 75 percent of Catholics in the United States attended Sunday Mass regularly. The Legion of Decency existed.
During that time, the Catholic Church in the United had almost single-handedly had kept America's movies, and TV and radio airwaves clean (pretty much so).
Today, about 80 percent of Catholics shun Sunday Mass. Among the 20 or so percent who assist at Sunday Mass, the majority favor abortion, artificial birth control, homosexual "marriage"...and many men and women attend Mass dressed in clothes that...well, you know.
In light of the above, the Catholic Church in the United States, in Her state of horrific collapse, is incapable of combating impure entertainment.
But in regard to television, His Holiness Pope Francis has the perfect solution as to how to "clean up" TV.
Pope Francis hasn't watched television in 25 years.
Stop watching television. That is the only way to "clean up" television.
Pax
Mark Thomas
Cable and satellite and the Internet give us literally hundreds of entertainment options. If you're determined to find something that will offend you, you're sure to find it. Yes, MTV is a good place to start. If you want to find something more edifying, or to avoid the trash altogether, you can do that, too. Last I heard, they were still printing books.
About 15 years ago, I had an interesting (to me) conversation with a brother in Christ who had attached himself to an SSPX chapel.
When the conversation had turned to the world of entertainment, he told me that he and his wife had thrown away (literally) their television set. I thought that to be extreme.
Looking back...I wished that I had tossed my TV set when he had discarded his set.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark mentioned the Legion of Decency in his post above. The history of censorship, especially the censorship of film, is of particular interest to me since I enjoy studying and watching films.
The history of media can serve in our times to create a false sense of nostalgia for a "better" time when society was much more "moral" than it is today. This is the Leave-It-To-Beaver-phenomenon, if I can coin a phrase.
Society was not more moral in previous generations, it is simply that the censorship was more active. With the advent of active censorship efforts, though, there sprung up a negotiation about what is decent and what is not -- in a sense, this repressed our ability to appreciate art as art without turning nearly everything into a suggestive double entendre. We are still feeling the effects of this today, and that sort of thing usually leads to an overcorrection in the other direction, which we are certainly experiencing.
If you want a taste of where society's morality was in previous generations, watch the pre-Code films, which are now readily available. You can decide for yourself whether the illusion of morality created by censorship is better than an understood amorality. I can see differences of opinion on that subject, especially when it comes to parenting. The very idea of censorship, though, comes from a societal agreement to abdicate personal responsibility. When it comes to the censorship of art, I think there is a problem with censorship for many reasons.
(Note, though, that most television is not art. It is made with the express purpose of titillating our prurient interests.)
Anonymous Anonymous said..."Cable and satellite and the Internet give us literally hundreds of entertainment options."
Somebody may find decent entertainment via the hundreds of entertainment options that Cable, satellite, and the Internet offer.
But is the following an issue? I subscribe to a cable or satellite provider. I believe that it's routine for said companies to traffic, for example, in pornography.
I find a decent show via my subscription to "X" provider. But via my money (subscription), do I enable "X" to traffic in pornography?
Akin to that question is the following: Just three months ago, His Holiness Pope Francis suggested that Christians who are linked in any way to the weapons business helps to aid the merchants of death.
Suppose that we invest in a company that manufactures various "peaceful" products along with, for example, a part that is used to produce a weapon. Are we guilty of promoting the Culture of Death?
At what point, if at all, do we, via subscriptions to cable and/or satellite TV companies, become part of the dirty entertainment culture?
Suppose that I purchase a "clean" book from a publishing company that also traffics in pornography. Did I somehow help to promote pornography?
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Those who have recourse to Mary ought to seriously consider praying at least one decade of the rosary each day for the conversion of the USA. Our battle is against "the spiritual forces of wickedness" (Eph 6:12) and the rosary is a very powerful weapon.
Y'all seem to be very familiar with smut TV...past and present.
Being a child of the 50's who still remembers with great joy and palpitating heart our first television from Sears around 1957, it is hard not living without it. But the choices are dreadful and I will eventually simply get free television by way of antenna. Currently I usually only watch the news, some old comedy shows and I love Turner Classic movies. I would hate to lose TCM but I might have to!
Fr McD, if the "woman" had real hangy down things, it wasn't a woman.
These people seem obsessed with their genitalia. I wonder what their homunculus looks like?
It was superimposed like a cartoon, but no mistaking what it was. It was completely shocking and not something I thought we would see on TBS which use to have some standards and more family oriented. I am surprised no one else has complained about this particular commercial.
Mark Thomas:
You might as well argue that the broadband fee you pay to access Father McDonald's wonderful reverent informative blog also facilitates pornography.
The solution, I guess? Live in a cave or a cabin off the grid.
I watch daily Mass on EWTN, and listen to Symphony Hall via DishNetwork on my TV. I am not exposed to any of the above mentioned trash until I read about it here.
One is better off not watching Television. Other than EWTN and an occasional sports program, I haven't watched for a number of years now. Since I dropped the TV part of my cable, I watch those over the Internet. Too much of TV today is an occasion of sin. Parents should be constantly vigilant of what their children are watching on the tube and what they are viewing on the Internet. That is critical.
Gosh....I think Carol H and Mark Thomas must be the holiest couple I've ever encountered. Maybe y'all could get together and go on a cruise or something....
Our Lady of Sorrows
Just as the rain, the water from above, comes down to replenish the earth to produce an abundance of growth in properly prepared soil, and in doing so then returns to the firmament to fall again, so too Our Lady's tears of sorrow fall down to water our human estate and to return again to her Mystical estate. In doing so, this water of her tears serve to re-vivify lifeless souls, and to engender a proper spiritual disposition to help produce an abundance of holiness. For whom was the Blessed Virgin sorrowful and for whom did she shed tears if not for sinners and those with little or no faith? The greatest afflictions and grief visited on her and her son Jesus were due to our sinfulness and lack of faith.
Just as the currency we use, while not having great intrinsic worth, is assigned value which is backed by our country's treasury, the Blessed Virgin's tears, sufferings, and sorrows have been given great value from the Divine Treasury filled by the merits of Christ's Suffering and Death. Unlike our currency though, this value does not decrease. In her co-operation with the Holy Spirit, the rain of the Blessed Virgin's sorrows, tears and suffering aid us in corresponding with the sunlight of God's grace in producing the fruit of holiness in our souls. In this way, by the Mercy and grace of God, the effect of the tears and sorrows of Blessed Virgin, not imprisoned in time, produce continuing benefit for us in co-operating with the Will of God to help secure our salvation. So it can be to a lessor degree with our own tears, sorrows, and sufferings. Through the Mercy and Goodness of God, something which in our human nature we find painful and unpleasant, becomes that which can produce great spiritual benefit.
dippy hippy- I am far from holy. If not for Christ's sacrifice, I would be guaranteed eternity in hell several times over.
Jesus is both God and man. God is omnipresent, existing equally in the past and future as he is in the present time as we know it. Jesus has already suffered too much on my behalf, why would I want to heap more upon Him? When I remember my past sins, I feel sick. I love Christ with my whole being so I do my best to avoid near occasions of sin. It's not complicated. I only wish I did not fail so often.
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