Television is both a reflection of the culture at large but also the means by which future generations are being socialized. It is for the second reason I am never against examining the influence television has on society. And what one finds on television can be rather disturbing indeed.
There is a general agreement that sexuality, inside or outside of marriage, is the norm, and it does no good to call people into accountability and to require them to be chaste. Indeed, many treat any call for abstinence to be immoral. We have been given a new morality, one which says we must allow people to fulfill their desires, as long as it “harms none.”[1] Telling people to follow their passions such as lust is now what it means to be good, and the only evil is to tell people to have any kind of self control. We are constantly being told that the only problem we need to worry about is not fulfilling the passions, but the consequences of such actions. We need to find a way to overcome those consequences we do not like without stopping the actions themselves. Indeed, we are told that it is immoral to have people keep any unwanted consequences for their actions if we can find a way to eliminate them. Thus, the new sexual ethic is not to control oneself and to avoid fornication, but to work for birth control; anyone who doesn’t do it is treated as stupid and worthless, indeed, immoral, while those who practice “safe sex” are treated as the exemplars our new morality.
We find examples of this all over television. We do not have to watch nighttime dramas to get this message. All we need to do is watch shows like The View, Steve Wilkos or Judge Judy, and we will see this false morality being preached. Judge Judy is capable of great rants when she finds a couple, married or not, are having sex and not practicing birth control and ending up with many children. She is not the only one — indeed, this is the norm with daytime reality shows (courtroom drama or talk shows alike). Judge Judy has even suggested that all women should be implanted with a “contraceptive chip” at birth, able to be turned on and off only when babies are wanted (and, in all probability, if the couple can afford them).
It is quite apparent that the birth control crowd engages its greatest criticism not on the rich, who can afford to raise children, but on poor couples whose finances are not so well off. The criticism often given to such couples is how irresponsible they are for having more children if they cannot afford the ones they already have. While it is true that economics can be a serious concern, the solution is not to mandate birth control as if humans were pets to be spayed and neutered. The bond of sex in marriage as a means of expressing love cannot be for the rich alone. As Catholics, indeed, the preferential option for the poor should express even more why the poor need to be affirmed in the gifts they are given. We must move beyond the model of “welfare moms” as women to be insulted if they are married and have many children. Rather, we must find a way to increase our solidarity with the people around us, especially such poor women who are trying to follow the law of love, so that those who are not as economically well off can and will be able to experiences the gifts God desires for them.
But there is more going on than this discrimination against the poor; this contraceptive mentality is actually harmful to women. The lie, of course, is it that contraception and birth control methods give women freedom. But what kind of freedom is it to be enslaved to such unnatural necessities, and to be turned into a mere object to be used by men? The ideology of contraception turns women into objects of desire, and turns sex into the mere gratification of desire. The man can toss the woman aside just as quickly as the used condom, once he has had his way with her. What kind of dignity is there to the woman who is being used this way? True feminists understand the degradation going on with women in such activity and reject turning the feminine merely as the object of lust. The contraceptive culture only adds to the long list of abuses against women that society has come to accept — and nothing shows where this is leading than the desire to force women to be implanted with some unnatural form of birth control at birth. There is no way a true feminist (someone who supports the integrity of women) can support such enslavement of women.
On the other hand, men, though they seem to get more out of the contraceptive culture, nonetheless also suffer degradation as well. There is no doubt about it, just as contraception hurts women, making them something less than themselves, so men are turned into mere sexual machines who have no ability to control their passions and to put a stop to them when they are out of line. The mentality of contraception is to please oneself and to seek after one wants without any consequences; what it does, however, is not beyond consequences. Men have changed and become quite unmanly in the last few decades. There is no doubt a major part of it is they have not learned how to deal with adversity, to deal with challenges, to hold out for what is good. The passions, we are told, are what is good: give in to them. So it goes with contraception, and so it goes with all other activities. Men do not know how to control themselves, and see no need to do so. They do not know how to man up and struggle for the good; they just want to go through the path of least resistance, whether or not it is good.
This is exactly the fundamental anthropological problem we see with the culture at large. Once again, it is the belief that what one wants must be good merely because one wants it. What rarely crosses the social mind is whether or not desire is always good, or if it can be corrupted. The answer, of course, is not only can it be corrupted — it has been corrupted. Even when we are cleansed from original sin, we suffer from concupiscence and must struggle to overcome it. For different people, the struggles will be different, for we all have different weaknesses. Some people are easily addicted to drugs and alcohol and must fight against it. Others are addicted to pornography and must fight against lust. Others are addicted to food, and must fight against their gluttonous desires. The list can go on and on as we describe all the things which tempt us — but the point is, we are all given into various temptations, and we find, like St Paul, that we might want what is good, but our flesh fights against it and desires what is not good. Our social structure has left this struggle behind. Consumerism, it can be said, requires this — how else can a consumerist society exist? And this exactly why Catholics must fight against consumerism, because it is one of the focal points of the culture of death, and as long as the ideals of consumerism are alive, the slavery of the passions will continue to dominate us as a society.
One of the great aspects of the Lenten Fast (the Great Fast) is that it reminds us to simplify ourselves and our lives. To follow its dictates is to be counter-cultural, because it works against the ideals of our consumer culture. We strive to overcome ourselves, our egoistic self and its passions instead of accepting them and buying those goods which would momentarily satisfy them. The prayer of St Ephrem, recited throughout Lent in the East, presents to us what it means to be true men and women of God. Prayed and recited with faith, it serves a good personal antidote for the commercialization of sin found in our culture today:
O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, idle curiosity, lust for power and idle talk. But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to judge my brother. For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.
[1] Of course, the question of how one knows they are harming none is not brought up; only immediate, easily discernable harm is meant here. The Satanic lie that there is no harm for sin continues — originally it was “thou shalt not surely die,” now it is “thou shalt not surely harm anyone.” Of course, all the ruined lives around us should tell us this is not the case.
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