THE CHURCH AND THE MEDIA

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Media is the greatest experiment that has ever been unleashed in the world
without consideration of what it would bring to mankind. There is a good and bad side of
media, perks and consequences, but it’s how man uses media that somehow leads to
manipulate violence around us. The various forms of media are now the powerful
instruments of corrupting the minds of the people, giving a distorted outlook in life,
breeding violent behaviour, and promoting sexual permissiveness. In this lesson, the
church teachings on the evil effects and the steps of addressing the problem on
pornography and violence in the media are presented. In our society today, pornography
and violence in media become a serious social problem because media has made violence
and pornography very accessible to both adults and young children in books, recordings,
magazines, videos, cinema, theatre, and even in advertising billboards. In connection with
this, Christ calls mankind to be the bearer of peace, justice and holiness among men. As
part of the church, we must accept this call and responsibility to express our opposition to
the proliferation of pornographic materials in our society. We all know that pornography
distorts the innate goodness and beauty of human love and sexuality. It encourages
violence as a suitable means of gratifying desires.
There are some definitions of what media is.
 Media is information
 Media is entertainment
 Media is a vehicle for selling
 Media is the last tribunal of justice
 Media is an instrument of power
The Pontifical Council for Social Communications provides us a clear definition
of pornography and violence in the media. Pornography in the media is understood as a
violation, through the use of audiovisual techniques, of the right to privacy of the human
body in its male or female nature, a violation which reduces the human person and human
body to an anonymous object of misuse for the purpose of gratifying concupiscence.
Violence in the media may be understood especially in this context as a presentation
designed to appeal to basic human instincts of actions contrary to the dignity of the
person and depicting intense physical force exercised in a deeply offensive and often
passionate manner.
Clear effects f Pornography and Violence in Media

 Sin
 Confusion to the young
 A link to sadistic violence
 Development of “desensitizing Effect”
  Wrong way of Sexual Expression
 Reinforcing Agent
 Treatment of Human Being as Objects rather than Persons
There are two basic reasons for prevalent dissemination of pornography and
violence in media such as: For Financial Gain and Freedom of expression
We as the body of Christ are challenged to commit ourselves to work towards
eliminating pornography and violence in media. We must voice our strong support to
fully enforce existing obscenity legislation. Finally we are called to be the “salt of the
earth”, a “light of the world,” but, first, we must be holy ourselves, a temple of the Holy
Spirit. Jesus’s teachings about sexual morality are clear: “if man looks at a woman
lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:29).
Pornography is, of course, spiritual adultery. Christ also said “but anyone who is an
obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, it is better he be thrown
into the sea with a great millstone around his neck”(Mark 9:42). With this we are being
called to remember the basic principle of justice and that is we are created according to
God’s image and likeness.