AT ONE TIME, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH MADE SURE THAT THE HOLLYWOOD FILM INDUSTRY DID NOT PRODUCE MOVIES THAT GLORIED IMMORALITY BECAUSE OF THE CHURCH'S CONCERN FOR THE COMMON GOOD

 

HARVEY WEINSTEIN IS ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG! LOOK AT WHAT IS ON SCREEN IN MOVIES AND TELEVISION AND THE INTERNET.  LOOK WHAT ACTORS MUST DO ON SCREEN AND OFF SCREEN TO GET A JOB. AND OFTEN THEY GIVE IN TO MAKE THE BUCKS THEY NEED. LET'S DEAL WITH THE CULTURE OF HOLLYWOOD WHO KICKED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OUT OF ITS BUSINESS SO IT COULD DO THE SEX BUSINESS AND MAKE MORE MONEY BY EXPLOITING EVERYONE, FROM ACTORS TO VIEWERS.

From about the mid 1930's until the late 1950's the Catholic Church was able to influence the movie industry by forcing them through censorship to produce movies that did not glorify immorality.

I read this unattributed article which is eye-opening in terms of the power of the Catholic Church over the movie industry but lost now because of the modern Church's loss of credibility:
 
Hollywood once lived in fear of the Catholic Church and its movie watchdog, the National Legion of Decency.

The Legion of Decency was founded in 1934 as part of a campaign for the “purification of the cinema,” the church’s response to the growing popularity of movies—especially gangster pictures that glorified violence and the widespread portrayal of the free-and-easy sexual attitudes of the Roaring 20s. Catholics were urged to pledge to “remain away from all motion pictures except those which do not offend decency and Christian morality.”

At the same time, a handful of influential Catholics—including Joseph Breen of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, Fathers Daniel Lord and FitzGeorge Dinneen (both Jesuit priests), Father Wilfrid Parsons, the editor of America, and Martin Quigley, editor of the Motion Picture Herald—created a code for motion picture standards. It was designed to self-police the industry and turn popular entertainment into an “ally” of “basic teachings of the church,” according to Gregory Black in his 1996 book, Hollywood Censored.

The code they designed became the Motion Picture Conduct Code, popularly know as the Hays Code after it was adopted by William Hays, a Presbyterian elder who was hired by the major studios to help clean up the industry’s image after it was rocked by a series of scandals. The code, says Black, “was a fascinating combination of Catholic theology, conservative politics and pop psychology—an amalgam that would control the content of Hollywood films for three decades.”

Beyond banning images of married couples sleeping in the same bed or criminals profiting from criminal activity, the code was designed to emphasize that “the church, the government, and the family were cornerstones of an orderly society; that success and happiness resulting from working within this system,” says Black.

The Legion of Decency was created as a counterpart to the code to make sure that the threat of a Catholic boycott of indecent movies keep Hollywood on the straight and narrow, a task that, Black notes, the church was well-equipped for:

The Catholic Church, twenty million strong, heavily concentrated in urban centers, and boosting its own national press with a circulation of more than six million readers a week, was in a unique position to exert influence on the industry.

Films were rated on a scale from “A” (morally unobjectionable, which had four sub-ratings, from acceptable for all to acceptable for adults with reservations), to “B” (morally objectionable in part), to “C” (condemned). This rating system, which was even more stringent than the Hays Code, “dominated film production during Hollywood’s golden era,” says Black. Movie producers lived in fear of obtaining a “condemned” rating from the Legion and adjusted their output accordingly.

The Legion of Decency's motives was not only to protect the morals of America, but directly protect actors from being exploited on the screen, since making movies was their bread and butter, how they supported themselves. Movie moguls, especially if they were amoral, could take advantage of stars and make them do immoral things on screen and off screen for them.

Oh! That happened off-screen on the infamous and well-known casting couch. But in the movies themselves, actors were not exploited into doing something that could offend Christians and others who hold to a higher sexual morality.

The Catholic Church's preoccupation with modesty in general and in Hollywood pictures in particular is based on the reality of human nature disordered by original sin. What remains after holy Baptism is concupiscence.

Have you ever heard a homily on concupiscence? Has it been taught in Catholic schools and CCD programs today? What is it?

In Catholic theology, concupiscence is seen as a desire of the lower appetite contrary to reason. For Christians, concupiscence is what they understand as the orientation, inclination or innate tendency of human beings to long for fleshly appetites, often associated with a desire to do things which are proscribed.

At one time, parents taught their daughters to be careful in their relationships with men/boys when they started to date. They should dress modestly so as not to tempt the boy into doing something or proposing something immoral. They should avoid the near occasions of the sin so as to prevent the desires of the flesh from overwhelming.  Heavy petting and even kissing should be avoided because of concupiscence that could lead to actual mortal sin.

With the sexual revolution, promoted widely by the movie industry and the loss of Catholic censorship of the industry, rules of modesty were thrown out in society and the Church.

Will Harvey Wienstein help us to recover it? Maybe!

The Catholic Church has recovered common sense rules concerning the interaction of adults and children. The recovery of these rules acknowledges that reality of concupiscence and that children could be at risk because of it. Rules are in place to protect minors. But adults must be vigilant when the rules are thwarted in one way or another in favor of a predator.

Hollywood's problem goes way beyond Harvey Weinstein. Look at what actors are asked to do on screen and for what purpose?-- to titillate the audience, manipulate people into giving into base instincts.

We need the Catholic Church to be the Catholic Church and once again exert the influence of the Church toward modesty on and off the Hollywood screen.

Why should actors have to strip for a movie executive in order to show their bodies, because their bodies will be used on screen to sell a product. Why should actors have to sell their bodies on screen and give into the demands of movie executives to use their bodies for the executives' private pleasures off screen?

Modesty is not a four letter word.