Why I Stopped Watching Secular Entertainment Media

Back in 2009, the Harry Potter movie, “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” was erroneously supported by multiple foreign and domestic Roman Catholic media newspaper sources.

This is just another example of how the creators of secular media (leaving out God) have yet again "snuck" lies into the minds of millions of ignorant viewers. The Catholic reviewers of these films were so distracted by the argument between whether or not the series promotes active use of magic and witchcraft, that they missed other real moral concerns.

Even if movie goers do not actively practice magic and witchcraft, they are still being taught to be their own god among other grave sins. And as stated in Scripture [Gal 5:19-21, Rom 1:28-31, 1 Cor 9-10, Eph 5:3-5. Col 3:5-8, 1 Tim 9-10, 2 Tim 2-5, Mat 15:19-20, 1 John 16-17] and the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” # 1852 call sorcery a sin of the flesh, and a mortal (grave) sin because it prevents one from entering heaven.

So for anyone who is Catholic, especially Catholic Leadership and Catholic Media to support the viewing in any way of any media that shows the lie of doing sorcery as a good way to achieve a good goal is directly disobeying God and His Church. Making something evil, entertaining or comical, in no way legitimizes watching evil.

Only Satan gives parts of the truth mixed with lies, which in turn, results in supporting varying degrees of dysfunction and teaching lies. God never supports this and He always gives the entire Truth in an entirely good way. Praise God for bringing good out of everything, if we are trying to cooperate with Him. However, this and the movie’s partial goodness, and any entertainment value, does not justify or rationalize the production and or viewing of this or any media that leaves out God either directly or indirectly.

As supported by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1789 “One may never do evil so that good may result from it;”. For example, the “functional sexual act open to life” is a good, created by God, which needs to never be left out of of the intentions of the person. And that does not justify the watching of any type or degree of pornography or any degree of human objectification, including so called romantic physical intimacy in the media.

Even if the people on the screen are married to each other in objective reality (for if not, and are romantically physically intimate, they are sinning) it is still wrong for us to use God’s gift of our sexuality, our bodies, and physical intimacy as entertainment. Human beings are never to be (selfishly) used for anything, for any reason, including for entertainment.

What is the goal/end? If my goal is to use the human audience to get attention or primarily to get money, than that is always wrong. If my goal is to use the media or the performer’s performance primarily for my entertainment than this is always wrong. And this is one of the greatest sinful idolatrous addictions of human beings today: wanting to be entertained.

If the primary goal is not about God, for God, and/or to bring me and others closer to God, than my priorities are wrong; i.e. bad, which I am wrongly justifying/rationalizing by my wrong intentions (the whys); i.e. false: emotions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, wants/desires, likes, and attractions, all of which result in my wrong; i.e. bad exterior choices of entertainment and enjoyment, in what, when, and how often. Wrong priorities, as well as these wrong intentions, and wrong choices are all sins that we need to be repenting of.

Any entertainment media’s minor good qualities, such as if good triumphs out over evil in the end, or some form of evil is being fought, never justify any media as good to watch, when any other direct or underlying immoral and false message is being shown and/or taught. As neither does a good means justify a partial or entire bad end, nor does a partial or entire bad means justify a good end. As already quoted from the Catholic Catechism, is basic Catholic Moral Theology.

An example of one of the bad means and sins taught and supported in this Harry Potter movie is the underlying theme of euthanasia:

1) The sequence of events supporting euthanasia begins in the scene with the three main children discussing how old and useless some people (adults and parents) think Professor Dumbledore is. The children then laugh about how old he is as the scene ends.

2) The movie shows scenes that insinuate that Dumbledore tells Professor Snape to kill him. Where Snape says, “You ask too much of me.”

3) In the rock cave Dumbledore tells Harry that he (Dumbledore) should drink the liquid because “I’m much older, much cleverer, and I’m much less valuable.”

This sequence of events, plus Dumbledore’s words and actions both inside and outside the cavern, insinuate that the old should sacrifice their lives for the young because the young are the “chosen ones”….can you spell Euthanasia?

Any themes of “sacrificing one’s life for the good of others” could only be projected onto the movie by a viewer who already knows and believes the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who is God. And this theme of real sacrifice was not shown correctly in this movie. Again, because the “chosen one” must do the sacrificing in order for it to be an accurate allusion to Christ; of which Harry was told not to do.

Having a hero, who does not show Jesus Christ as his hero, does NOT direct anyone toward Christ; it leads one to make that particular character or real person “our savior”. Whether that hero be a real athlete, actor, musician, or author, or a fantasy character such as Woody or Buzz from "Toy Story", or Harry Potter. As a result, we learn and want to imitate, idolize, and have a fantasy relationship with, or at the very least distract ourselves using, the very imperfect entertainment and existent person or nonexistent character, rather than fully imitate, idolize, and have a real relationship with Jesus Christ. This is not about "make-believe" creativity, this is about idolatry, which is addiction.

To be clear, it is especially misleading when the individual of whom we are trying to use as a role model isn’t even shown to be directly trying to model him or herself after Christ. Therefore who are we following and immitating as a result? The fallible opinions and morality or lack there of, of this real or fictional imperfect character or human being who is not leading us to God.

If you think that any secular entertainment is leading people to worship Jesus Christ you are living in the wizard fantasy world, while in reality secular entertainment is leading people to worship the "star" and themselves as god. They want the Good and Truth and Love to come from themselves or expect it to sufficiently come from other human beings. They want to be like Harry Potter, or Buzz, or Woody, or their favorite athlete, actor, author, or musician,...not to be like Jesus Christ.

Christ, who by the way, defeated Satan and evil by Love and Virtuousness which includes speaking and obeying Moral Truths and Self Sacrifice of “turning the other cheek” and “dieing to oneself”, not zapping it with a magic wand. Christ doesn’t magically zap or kill or try to control the free will of Satan or anyone else in order to defeat evil!

To further the point, the majority of the Harry Potter movie shows teenagers using each other physically as objects by “making out” as if it was appropriate behavior. This Hollywood romance theme of selfish using teaches the lies "physical intimacy is love", "wanting sex is love", "sex is love", "romance is love", "attraction is love", etc. and does more damage to the human psyche (immaterial Soul: Intellect (mind) and Free Will) than any other lies.

Furthermore, these are real people who are engaging in this sinful behavior, which means they are choosing to sin; i.e. disobey God (Truth+Love+Virtues) for money or whatever the ignorant reason, and are thereby psychologically (aka spiritually and emotionally) harming themselves in the process.

The late Great Saint Pope John Paul II, author of “The Theology of the Body”, never supports any media with this physically using behavior in it, unlike the US Conference of Catholic Bishops movie review; “Interwoven with the main plot is the story of the toll adolescent romantic tensions are taking on Harry's long-standing friendship with Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint). There is much talk of "snogging," i.e. kissing, but -- alone double entendre aside -- Steve Kloves' script remains appropriately innocent.”

And the Vatican City (CNS) stated as quoted by The Catholic News and Herald, “The Vatican newspaper said the fact that the teen stars are starting to experience a bit of romance, “with the right balance, makes them more credible.”

These three major influential media leaders of God’s Catholic Church are setting a bad example (sinning) by directly teaching lies and contradicting the Divine Truth on faith and morals of God’s Catholic Church, which is their job to be upholding.

“On the other hand, it would be better for anyone who leads astray one of these little ones who believe in me, to be drowned by a millstone around his neck, in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6, New American Catholic translation)

Any Vatican City or public Catholic support of this film and any other secular entertainment media (leaving out God) is an attack against God and His Church. “He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.” (Matthew 12:30, Douay-Rheims translation).

It is never “appropriately innocent” when passionately kissing or other non-fraternal touching, without a sacramental marriage commitment, because it is always foreplay to the sexual act. Even in marriage when it is using the other person for instant gratification be it physical or emotional, passionately kissing or other non-fraternal touching is not “appropriately innocent”.

This physical intimacy outside of a sacramental marriage commitment is always selfishly using each other for instant gratification be it physical or emotional and therefore is never to be considered innocent or appropriate. Even if the two people on the screen are married to each other, it is still wrong for us to use God’s gift of physical intimacy and use the people doing it as entertainment.

Again, God never chooses to use any type or degree of evil (dysfunction / sin) as a means to show/teach the good end of Truth+Love+Virtues (God Himself), but which all secular entertainment media does in some way, shape, and form. Anyone who is blind to recognizing this, or continues to interact with secular entertainment media knowing these Truths is addicted to secular entertainment media, whatever the form(s).

For example, the Harry Potter film mixes the themes of showing the lies that any power and goodness can originate from us, euthanasia, using each other as objects, trying to control others in order to fight evil, and ignoring God, mixed with small parts of good behaviors. This is how Satan does it!

Why are we as Christians so adamant about the “planting seeds” mentality when talking about God and Morality but do not see that Satan too can plant seeds and how he does so? We allow those seeds to be planted by supporting and watching movies and reading books such as Harry Potter and other secular entertainment media in the same and other forms such as but not limited to TV programs, cartoons, videos, music, magazines, social media, video games, poetry, and the performing and visual arts.

Knowing consciously that it is entertainment, or not reality, does nothing to protect anyone’s Soul: Intellect (mind) and Free Will from subconsciously being influenced negatively by, picking up, and believing all the lies/false beliefs and other sins, both directly and indirectly within the secular media.

The human beings that are the Catholic media rating sources that review films or other media (e.g. US Conference of Catholic Bishops) are not protected from the harmful influences and affects of interaction with sin and slow desensitization to sin and how to recognize sin, or from distraction of a permanent focus on God's presence. An analogy of this is if you are a white glove and the media is a bucket of mud. When you stick a white glove in a bucket of mud what happens? The glove gets muddy. The bucket of mud does NOT get 'glovey'.

No human can prevent anti-God messages, sinful bad examples, and other false beliefs (lies) from becoming part of their memory and negatively affecting them when coming into contact with them, especially when the individual is unaware of their presence, and especially repeatedly, which is always the result when watching, listening to, playing, or reading secular entertainment media, including things such as the history channels and nature and science channels.

Being secular, regardless of how educational, the history and nature and science channels, just like in class room text books, slip in particular lies directly in contradiction of Catholic teaching and doctrine about science, nature, creation, God, psychology, philosophy, and human nature. Again, anyone who is blind to recognizing lies that are taught directly or indirectly throughout secular media, be it entertainment or educational, has, but is not limited to, an addiction to harmful media.

To be clear, anyone, including the media reviewers of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, will be negatively influenced and desensitized by contact in any degree with the anti-God messages and other false beliefs (lies) in the secular entertainment media, and from their review results, are obviously unable to recognize the harmful dysfunction and lies being acted upon and negatively influencing them and others, which I have recently seen is still the case.

As far as the Roman Catholic Church’s responsibility is concerned, secular entertainment media does not need to be reviewed, while all secular educational media and so called Christian media does. Entertainment from the secular media only needs to be rejected regardless of the secular ratings, even if it is marketed as a "family film" or "for kids". However, the reviews are worthless if conducted by those who are ignorant in any degree of Catholic Moral Theology and True Psychology, and fail to have a daily contemplative friendship with Jesus Christ, much less not in full daily obedience to and agreement with all teachings and doctrines of the Catholic Church.

To beat a dead horse, if any entertainment media’s primary and central focus is not explicitly the Trinitarian Christian God and in full agreement with His Catholic Church, then the entertainment media does not need to be watched, read, played, or listened to by anyone, and therefore has no need to be reviewed.

As Catholic Christians we need to stop justifying and rationalizing why it is okay for us or anyone else to watch the secular media just because it’s entertaining, we are bored, we want to relax, we want to be entertained, we want to have something fun to do with people, we call it family time, we want to (wrongly) cope with stress and other harmful emotions, we want to stop feeling lonely, or we are addicted to it. These are never legitimate reasons; i.e. intentions.

If you as a Catholic are waiting for the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church (Pope and Bishops together in an ecumenical counsel) to make a dogmatic claim on whether or not exposing yourself to certain types of media is wrong before you are willing to believe the entertainment of the secular media is objectively wrong and harmful, then you are simply using that excuse as a scapegoat to justify and rationalize what you want to be true, while not caring about searching for the Objective Truth directly from Jesus Christ.

Did you, while having a close relationship with Jesus, ask Jesus’ opinion on the subject, listen for His answers, and then wait for Jesus to send you additional confirmation outside of yourself? If not, then what makes you think your feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and desires are valid on what is right or wrong?

If you want you or your child to distress, feel better, and relax, go to the nearest Catholic parish with Jesus present in the Tabernacle or a Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation if Catholic, attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and contact me through this website for more assistance. To be entertained, not be harmed, and be making it about God, watch original “Veggie Tales” bible stories.