The Devil’s in the Entertainment

The devil is in the entertainment. Sometimes literally, as in the television show ‘Lucifer’ where the devil, not Jesus Christ, is the son of God, and his ‘Dad’ is always being mean and spiteful.

Watching today’s devilish entertainment cannot help but corrupt us. On television, sexual gratification is something to be pursued, not delayed or denied. Even if the object of one’s sexual desires is married, of the same sex, or a Catholic priest.
On General Hospital recently, a Catholic priest who had not yet left the priesthood had sexual relations with Ava Jerome, a lady mob boss. Ava once had a sexual encounter with her worst enemy. In a crypt. At a funeral. The resulting baby was named Avery. Let’s hope Ava doesn’t give Avery a brother or sister in nine months!

Television was not always like that. In the early days television executives feared the power of angry Christian priests and pastors to turn Christian people away from this new form of entertainment. Television featured things like the Fulton J. Sheen television show, Life is Worth Living. There were wholesome entertainment shows for kids such as Romper Room and the Roy Rogers series. Even on Westerns featuring saloon girls there was no hint these girls were based on real-life Western prostitutes and madams.

Even by 1966 when Star Trek premiered, the liberal Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry could not show forth all of his extreme views on a show meant for general audiences. Roddenberry believed that in the future era where Star Trek was set, marriages would be temporary arrangements. But there was no hint of this in any of the series episodes, and married women were known by husband’s surnames.

Roddenberry wanted the Enterprise to have a chapel, in which Captain Kirk could conduct a wedding. But he wanted no chaplain. But again, the networks would not have allowed that situation to be made explicit. Both the networks and Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to be popular with a mass audience, even those audience members who were Christians.
That is one reason why there were so many Bible quotes on the Star Trek series. It was one thing even liberals like Gene Roddenberry knew how to do at the time.

But today’s televised entertainment has no place for Bible quotes or even for non-blasphemy. Christian characters are haters who usually turn out to be the real killer. Other ‘Christians’ support gay ‘marriage’, abortion ‘rights’ and casual sex, just like all good liberals do.

Christians are called to be in the world but not of the world. (John 17: 14-15) Since the world hates us, and the world is ruled by the Evil One, is there any reason to expect that the entertainment provided for the citizens of the Evil One’s kingdom is good enough for redeemed Christians?

There is the possibility of alternative entertainment. We may not be able to produce our own movies and television series. But we can entertain ourselves with books written by faithful Christians who share our values. This may not be as exciting as the latest action movie filled with expensive special effects and budget-level actors. But it’s possible to find books with Christian values that are exciting and action-packed. Perhaps Christian families should start having family reading hours to replace nights spent watching the worst of what is offered by television.