Entertainment and the Media
I love movies, I love books, I love media in general. But a whole lot of it is pretty worthless and a whole lot of that is harmful on top of that. This isn’t to say that media’s only worth anything if it shows happy people doing happy things in happy situations (in fact, that would be very dull). The best stories are full of conflict and unhappiness. Les Miserables wouldn’t be any story at all if everyone lived moral lives and never made any mistakes or disagreed with anything.
But context and purpose is important. If good is shown as bad and bad good, if sexual immorality and violence are shown as virtues, then the media can be harmful.
And oh aren’t immorality and violence put pretty high in the media’s eyes. Purposeless sex and violence is everywhere, for no other reason that because it’s exciting (in one way or another). Plot’s hung loosely on one more affair, on one more explosion. And I’ll admit to liking explosions, but I like plot better. I like the story to have some direction. And I don’t like that direction to be “and then they messed around a lot with other people and killed all their enemies and all around had a roaring good time.” Beyond immoral, it’s very bad storytelling.
Why does the Mormon Church think it’s dangerous to portray bad actions without consequences? Why is it dangerous to glorify adultery and murder? Shouldn’t we be too mentally and spiritually tough to resist such things?
It’s dangerous to put too much trust in your ability to watch things and “not be affected.” A diet of violence can make anyone feel less empathetic for human suffering, especially when so much media shows death and abuse to be pretty light fare. A slasher flick takes glee in destroying people in gruesome ways, but doesn’t particularly expect you to care about the characters.
Although most people aren’t going to turn into murderers through watching movies, when murder is shown as okay and sometimes necessary (look!) and that’s what’s drilled into you, the value of human life can go down in your mind. What’s another massacre? Even when violence is shown as wrong, a constant diet of it is never healthy. Mormons have been counseled not to watch R-rated movies, to avoid explicit content, be it violent or sexual.
And sexual immorality is even easier to show as moral or right. After all, there aren’t really laws against sex outside of marriage in and of itself. And, look, it makes those characters happy. And, look, it’s perfectly normal. And aren’t they attractive? Like violence, even in PG and PG-13 movies, sexual material tends to be pretty much a constant. Everyone sleeps around, no one really wants to wait for marriage, and it’s okay.
This is almost impossible to avoid. Media values are skewed terribly in that direction, well away from those values that Mormonism and other faiths tend to hold as important. Avoid media that promotes immorality as best as you can and keep your own values strong in your mind. Avoid media that objectifies men or women, or that downplays the value of life. And, hey, if you’re artistically inclined, work on your own stories or screenplays.
And, above all, veer far away from pornography. To view it can start as simple curiosity or even accident—and can grow into a terrible addiction. Avoid it, avoid it, avoid it. Turn off the computer if it pops up. Let it be. Nothing is more degrading to you. It twists how you see other people.