Entertainment and the Desire to Sin

The best way to avoid infection by the desire to sin is to avoid popular entertainment, such as television (and the subversive commercial advertising that goes with it), movies, video games, sports, newspapers, magazines, music, and every other aspect of “popular” culture; these things are filled with a massive craving for everything unholy and have their basis in an indifference and contempt for anything holy.

We watch television and sports and we read newspapers and magazines in the hope of seeing something that will make us feel good about ourselves. We play sports and video games in the hope of accomplishing something that will make us feel good about ourselves. We listen to music and chat on cell phones in the hope of hearing something that will make us feel good about ourselves. We make food into an addiction in the hope of smelling and tasting something that will make us feel good about ourselves. We strip sexuality of its reproductive responsibilities and make it into the most pervasively sought-after entertainment of all, in the hope of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and accomplishing something that will make us feel good about ourselves. Yet, in the end, we have really done nothing but draw ourselves away from anything holy.

So be careful here not to deceive yourself by attributing any meaning to these illusory “hopes.” Don’t believe for a moment that there is such a thing as “wholesome entertainment.” The desire to be entertained—to be soothed, satisfied, and fulfilled—is, at its core, a social “religion” unto itself that serves the god of narcissistic happiness in the frenzied quest to feel good about our bodies while ignoring the most poignant hopes of our lost souls.