Winter 2011/2012 Newsletter:
Just how dangerous is the TV for children?
Parents today are harassed like never before and in many households both parents need to work to provide for themselves, their children, and to have a decent lifestyle. They sometimes need to take turns in being with their children as work patterns allow. The television has therefore become an invaluable babysitter a safe place where parents can leave their children and have a few moments together or make the dinner. However, the television is damaging their children in more ways than one.
We do not want to case a guilt complex for parents put in this predicament by the TV. In the case of very young children using the television as a babysitter has serious implications for the children’s brain development and can cause lack of speech acquirement and ADHD. Perhaps if they need to do things about the house, let the children play with their toys, they do not need the TV to keep them busy.
In the case of older children from 5 to 12 the TV can make children grow up too soon sexualises them and makes them indifferent to suffering by the overexposure to violence. The very worst scenario for child TV exposure is that it not only destroyed their innocence and robs them of their childhood it can also lower their intelligence.
Modern secular television can also rob them of their faith for TV producers have very little sympathy for Christian teachings and if you are trying to bring them up as Catholics it’s even worse. If you couple this with the sometimes indifferent catechises they are receiving locally then you will have the worst case scenario. Below is a copy of the epetition we are running that television programmes and channels directed at children should carry a health warning. This is to alert parents who might leave their children in front of the TV for hours and that this could harm them.
TV programmes directed at children should carry a government health warning
Responsible department: Department for Culture, Media and Sport
We petition that all television programmes directed at children should carry a government health warning. There have been many studies on the effects of the television on children. Most have come to the conclusion that it is better not to expose young children to the TV at all. Some national governments like the French have issued warnings about children and TV exposure. Researchers have found that watching television undermines the development of children under three, encouraged passivity, delayed language acquisition, increased agitation, reduced concentration and increased the incidence of sleep disorders. The French broadcasting authority Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) actually banned TV channels from marketing shows aimed at toddlers. With the recent riots in London and other cities involving many children there is strong evidence that television violence can cause violence in society.
To sign our petition go to epetition or log on to our website www.cutunplugtv.co.uk and see the box on the home page which will lead you to the Government epetition.
Research shows the harmful effect of children’s TV
The major problem in getting the message across that the TV is bad for young children is that the most powerful form of the media, the TV will only give these studies scant coverage, if any. We are talking about children’s TV here, specifically targeted channels like CBeebies and DVD’s such as the Baby Einstein range. Where is the Panorama programme on the damage that specifically targeted children’s programmes are harming them? So we will do so here and hope that the reader will have a look at our website which has links to some of the research that has been done. And that the parent will continue to monitor these sites for further information.
In order for a child to get any kind of useful learning experience from the TV a parent must be present and even then it is the interaction with the parent that improves cognation and not what’s come up on the TV screen. In fact it would have been more useful for the child to have played with toys such as labelled building blocks with its parent than to have had the TV on. Just to leave a child of 2 or 3 alone in front of the TV does nothing for its learning experience. Children up to two years of age will be engaged by the images on the screen but the sounds will not mean anything to them. It can no more understand what’s being said than an animal’s sounds. And what is more it never will understand what is being said if just left alone in front of the screen.
Professor of Pediatrics Dimitri Christakis in a conclusion to his study ‘The effects of infant media usage’ says ‘No studies to date have demonstrated benefits associated with early infant TV viewing. The preponderance of existing evidence suggests the potential for harm. Parents should exercise due caution in exposing infants to excessive media’(1). A 2007 Seattle Children's Research Institute study showed that for every hour per day infants spent watching DVDs and videos they learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos.(2)
Dr Ari Brown, managing director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP's,) council on communications and media, recently stated that ‘Children learn to think creatively, problem solve, and develop reasoning and motor skills at early ages through unstructured, unplugged play(3)’
There are some research studies that suggest that TV is educational and these studies have been highlighted by those who support children’s TV. At CUT we are calling for an open debate that covers all research this is why we have a government epetition requesting a parliamentary debate. If the concluding to this debate is that children’s TV does not harm children then so be it. CUT has so many other reasons to persuade Catholics and others to give up the TV. Rendering blasphemy as entertainment is enough reason in its own right let along the sexualisation of older children (see page 6).
British Psychologist and broadcaster Dr Aric Sigman has no doubt regarding the harm the TV does to children. In his book Remotely Controlled he goes to the heart of the issue. The brains of very young children are rapidly developing and the TV hinders this. He states that new research by the London Institute of Psychiatry found that early TV exposure significantly increases the risk of ADHD for every hour a child per day there is a nine per cent increase in attentional damage (4).
References:
1), Christakis D A, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. 2008
2), Zimmerman, Dr F J, University of Washington Baby DVDs. 2007 “Baby DVDs, videos may hinder, not help, infants' language development,”
3), Brown, Dr. A. American Academy of Pediatrics, Boston, Mass. USA. 2011, Telegraph online report
4), Sigman Dr A, Brain & behaviour – Blame it on the box – the TV screen affects, TES 19/09/ 2008.
Is there a child abuse cover up at the BBC?
Let me say first of all that we are not accusing anyone at the BBC of child abuse. Although perhaps targeting children with their own channel like Cbeebies may be construed at the very least as misguided. To this one is tempted to say surly not? However, see our article on the recent report by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This clearly states that targeting very young children with TV programmes stunts their brain’s development. This is not an isolated report on the negative effects of TV on Children but is part of a large but underreported section of paediatric research.
The question we ask here, is the reporting of child abuse at the BBC selective? A sort of coverage blackout for certain parts of society whilst at the same time is concentrated on one institution and section of society – Catholics? We ask is this an intuitional directive or is it an unspoken understanding among BBC presenters and producers? If this is so, why? Do they have issues with Catholic teaching and is this the real reason?
As Christians it gives us no comfort to report that there are similar problems in other Christian denominations and other religions, yet these hardly every get a mention. And when they do it’s not the particular domination, religion or institution that’s found to be at fault but the individual. The Anglican cathedral of Llandaff in South Wales is going through its second child abuse scandal in recent years and there are many others in the C of E but these do not get the same sort of national coverage by the BBC as they do to the Catholic Church. In secular institutions and in society in general child abuse is at epidemic levels with about 60 new cases being reported every day. There is strong evidence that proportionately the ‘community’ where there is the highest level of child abuse is among homosexuals but this not mentioned by the BBC.
According to B W Clowes on Lifesitenews a study in The Achieves of Sexual Behaviour says that “The best epidemiological evidence indicates of only 2-4% of men attracted to adults prefer men. In contrast, around 25-40% of men attracted to children prefer boys. Thus, the rate of homosexual attraction is 6-20 time higher among those attracted to minors”. Clowes also cites another study in The Journal of Sex Research that states that “the proportion of sex offenders against male children among homosexual men is substantially larger than the proportion of sex offenders of female children among heterosexual men” they conclude that attraction to minors is “more closely linked with homosexuality than heterosexuality”.
One would think that a form of institutional anti-Catholic bias exists at the BBC. For more often than not whenever Catholicism is mentioned or a Catholic is interviewed the child abuse scandal is thrown in their face. For example recently when Radio 5 breakfast presenter interviewed a young nun from the New Forest Dominican Convent, he just couldn’t resist throwing into the conversation the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. The nun was being interviewed regarding the startling phenomena (to the secular world) of the large numbers of young women becoming nuns. Perhaps he was simply piqued that this is happening despite the best efforts of the BBC. It is almost as if they are implying that Catholics have a predisposition to abuse children. This constant attacking of Catholics is working and creating a culture of hatred to Catholics. The numbers of Catholics who have reported to CUT that they have been verbally abused is rising. The incidences occur at work, in their social lives and even between various parts of their families. If you let it be known that you are a faithful Catholic in these situations you can sometimes be in for a rough ride. Is this selective reporting of scandals an unspoken understanding is simply because they do not like us or our beliefs then this is simple bigotry. If their aim is to create hearted of
Catholicism by the exploitation the victims of child abuse, then this is disgraceful in its own right. So what is the real problem with the media and Catholicism? There is evidence that many in the broadcasting world have issues with Christian teachings on morality, especially sexual morality.
In conclusion, there is we believe a totally different way the BBC will treat the other religions and other Christian denominations to the Catholic Church. This is yet another reason why Catholics should not watch the TV and fund this bias Corporation.
Not in front of the children
The TV as a cause of aggression and sexualisation in children
There can be little doubt that violence of the television causes violence in society. It is hardly surprising that so many young people took part in the riots last summer when they are fed on a diet of TV and film violence. Likewise the sexualisation of children has been in the news recently and the TV broadcasters have got in on the act by pointing the finger at covers of some magazines and the internet. This is of course fair enough for there is real evil going on in the internet. But companies like Channel 4 and the BBC are just as culpable by showing many programmes and films that have been quite exploitative. A recent report said ‘The sexualisation of children can occur from an early age. If a child is exposed to sexually provocative media, whether it’s a music video on TV or a computer game, they can learn distorted concepts about themselves’ (Government of Western Australia). How dangerous and exploitive modern secular TV and the media has become.
Primetime Propaganda Exposes the Liberal Monopoly on TV
by Antonina Kerner Human Event website 06/02/2011
Ben Shapiro’s newest book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV is, as he describes it, a “constructive exposé” of the liberal agenda entrenched in the television industry almost since its inception. The result of his own research composed of hundreds of interviews with top television writers and executives, Shapiro offers a fresh challenge to conservatives dissatisfied with what they see streaming from the tube: Instead of attempting a boycott of television—which is ineffective because of the simple fact that Americans love television—conservatives ought to break into the industry as writers and producers and change it from within. The task, however, will be a slow and uphill battle. CUT – Human Events is an American conservative political website, nevertheless if USA TV is liberal then what about British and Irish TV? The very means of funding them, by a compulsory TV tax is a socialist concept. Therefore, we should not be surprised by their left/liberal politically correct output. It is a long and difficult struggle to persuade Catholics that the TV and particularly the BBC is against us. For like Americans most European Catholics love the Box and would rather attack CUT than get rid of TV. But we will continue until someone comes up with a better idea. Every time someone writes to us and says that because of our campaign they have given up the TV, makes it all worthwhile. However, we do get involved perhaps by redirecting to licence fee if you do give up the TV to EWTN or Vatican TV like TelePace and Sat2000.
The homosexual infiltration of the media
By a Catholic Doctor
There is very little need for investigative journalism when something is this obvious. As a homosexual producer of "Coronation Street" has openly said, he uses the show as a platform for pushing homosexuality. The BBC thinks nothing of showing a homosexual couple in bed together on "East Enders," another allegedly a family friendly programme.
According to the Guardian (11 Feb 2011) "He has owned Channel 5 for little more than 6 months but Richard Desmond, the owner of the Daily Express, OK! and adult TV channels has made his stamp on the broadcaster-unveiling a reality TV show set in a Soho lesbian bar."
Nor is this programme of psychological desensitisation limited to adults. Emily in "Pretty little liars" comes from a conservative family background and keeps her love affair with another girl a secret. It all ends well for Emily when she and her partner are fully accepted by the family. "I'm often delightfully surprised how un-shocked young people are" commented Oliver Goldfish, a producer of the programme. He need not be. They have been fully desensitised. Kurt, a homosexual in "Glee" is unconditionally accepted by his father. In "90210" Teddy "hooks up" with classmate Ian. The programme features a transgender girl pretending to be a boy. And so the sad list goes on and on. For some of us, there may be a duty to keep up to date with issues like assisted suicide. For most of us, Catholics please unplug your TV.
CUT Newsletter No 22, Summer 2011
TV LICENCE FEE VERSUS THE GOSPEL
When TV licence fee paying time comes around do Catholics ever wonder what exactly they are funding? Some will say ‘Oh I only watch the news, or sport’ with football, cricket, golf, snooker and rugby all being cited as unmissable. And ‘I do love a good drama like the classic serial’ or ‘I like to watch documentaries’, and ‘I only watch selected good programmes, like EWTN’. However, in Britain, as in many countries where a licence fee exists, the fee also funds pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, ‘politically correct’ and often anti-Catholic propaganda. Perhaps saying ‘I do not watch bad TV’ whilst funding it is not really a good excuse. Would you buy poison for other people even though you would never take it yourself? The licence fee also helps TV advert revenue go further, re: C4’s Skins.
The TV licence fee - funding Culture of Death propaganda
If you just watch the News or documentaries, can you trust the licence fee funded BBC news to give the truth, the whole truth, and to be fair and impartial? We believe not. For example, will it give you the number of abortions that day? Even independent advert funded TV has ads for abortion companies these days. The latest law change the BBC appears to be trying to achieve is the legalisation of euthanasia, with Sir Terry Pratchett’s documentary showing the death in a Swiss clinic of a sick man through assisted suicide.
There can be no doubt that the influence of TV, funded by viewers paying the licence fee, has radically changed society and its laws. Licence fee funded drama has been used to promote the legalisation, acceptance and normalisation of abortion through emotive plays and soap opera story lines. The BBC is adept at twisting any argument using various TV and radio genres to create a discussion format ‘with an unmistakeable flow of meaning.’1
The TV licence fee - funding the destruction of childhood innocence
Some paediatricians are worried that the television corrupts the minds of children and causes bad behaviour. What else can the TV do but destroy childhood innocence with programmes that contain pornography, violence and story lines that promote life-styles that are incompatible with Christianity. Teachers in a Lancashire school came out on strike last April because their pupils were out of control, - pushing them, challenging them to fights, and threatening to film their lessons and post the film online. Advert funded TV is just as bad.
Sport on the telly is just another distraction, funding immensely rich sportsmen who sometimes give scandalous examples to the young. Footballers appear to spend as much time cheating (on and off the field) and taking out gagging orders as playing football.
Every year since the TV became the dominant media force church attendance has dropped. People have ‘better’ things to do than say their prayers and go to church. One should also ask, is the TV of any use for our pilgrimage through life and into eternity, or is it a hindrance? I was considering the headline ‘Is paying the licence fee a sin?’ for this editorial. You may be wondering, how on earth can paying the TV licence fee possibly be a sin? After all, didn’t Jesus say ‘Render therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s? Yes, this is true, and we are not suggesting that anyone should watch the TV and not pay the licence fee. What we are saying is: give up the TV and by this means avoid funding the decadent dictator in the living room; do not subject your family to its brain washing subversions.
Could it be argued that by watching TV you are making an offering - the licence fee - on the altar of the antichrist? Therefore, go that extra mile for Christ, throw out the TV.
Reference: 1 MacMurraugh-Kavangh M K, Drama into News: Strategies of intervention, Screen 1997, London.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE CORNER OF THE PRO-LIFE CAMPAIGNER’S LIVING ROOM
Pro-Lifers are by their very nature caring, hard working, and have spent much of their life campaigning against abortion. They have raised millions in funds for pro-life causes. They have engaged in prayer vigils at abortuaries, and tried (with some success) to persuade pregnant women who may be going to have an abortion to keep their babies. They are the true heroes of our modern world; they have suffered abuse, even violence, in their peaceful pro-life work. This is why every CUT issue carries at least one free advert for a pro-life organization. The writer of this article is a supporter of several pro-life societies. This should not be taken as a criticism of pro-lifers, these are good people!
Why then after all the hard work by pro-lifers is the ‘culture of death’ still advancing? In the last few years we have seen the passing of the Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill with all its horrific side issues. The killing continues of thousands of unborn children every week. Now we have the pro-euthanasia Lord Falconer writing a report on legalising euthanasia and assisted suicide. True to form, this summer the BBC will screen a documentary in which another pro-euthanasia activist Sir Terry Pratchett accompanies a man with motor neurone disease to the notorious Dignitas clinic where this man will commit suicide.
When it comes to laws that protect the vulnerable the BBC has always been at the forefront in changing them, by using their interventionist powers to the full at critical moments in the last forty-five years. Using current affairs programmes, documentaries and even drama they have changed people’s attitudes away from their historic support for life and family values. This trick has usually been employed by BBC when parliament and society debate these issues. From the sixties to the present day the BBC by the use of emotive drama, documentaries and news on the radio as well as the TV have ‘cleverly’ created a flow of dialogue for change. They have continued with their pro-abortion, anti-traditional family values stand ever since. We have strong evidence that the BBC’s support for the culture of death is the main reason why it keeps progressing, why abortion is now so readily accepted by society, why the embryonic stem cell research bill was not challenged by the country. And why euthanasia will probably be legalised.
We ask, is the BBC one of the most evil organisations in the world today? For by using its international reach it has consistently promoted abortion and the other aspects of the culture of death. Its multi-lingual World Service network of TV channels, Radio channels and its website proudly proclaim its partnership with the world’s largest abortion provider, the IPPF. They have brainwashed the majority of the population in Britain into believing that it is somehow a lesser evil. However, as Catholics we say evil is evil and that’s an end to it! This is also the reason why the BBC attacks Catholic teachings. Now we have the continuation of the BBC’s campaign to legalise euthanasia but it will not give equal coverage to the fears of the sick, the old and the vulnerable. The pro-life organisations that try and protect the vulnerable and protest are being ignored as usual. So what is the solution? Complaining to the BBC has not worked, it has never worked and we believe it never will work. We say without hesitation the only way to stop the advancement of the Culture of Death in its tracks is to deprive the BBC of money and influence. The only way to do this is to give up the TV and STOP PAYING THE LICENCE FEE. Pro-Life activists should lead the way. We call on the leaders of pro-Life organisations to ask their members to give up the TV and stop funding the biggest anti-life propaganda machine the world has ever seen, the BBC.
THE EFFECTS OF TV EXPOSURE ON CHILDREN
There have been many studies on the effects of the television on children. Most have come to the conclusion that it is better not to expose children to the TV at all. Below we have summarised some of these studies. Our website www.cutunplugtv.co.uk will give links to some of the most detailed research regarding children and the TV. Some national governments like the French have issued warnings about children and TV exposure. A French government warning being shown before children’s programmes says “Watching television can slow the development of children under 3, even when it involves channels aimed specifically at them." However, the BBC actually targets young children with dedicated channels such as CBeebies.
The TV Stunts a child’s brain development
A child needs to actively engage with its environment to develop its brain and its speech. Reading, playing, interaction with parents, listening and playing music are all beneficial. However, when a young child sits in front of the TV its brain is not developing at all. Scientists have found that the longer a child spends in front of a TV the more the TV inhibits the brain’s development. Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a paediatrician at Children's Hospital in Seattle, says ‘don’t do it’, ‘...the best available evidence to date suggests that certainly watching a lot of TV before the age of two is in fact harmful - harmful in terms of children's attention abilities later in life, harmful in terms of their cognitive development, both of those measured at school entry[1]
The TV makes young people aggressive and can lead to violence and crime
There is strong evidence that violence on the TV and in other forms of screen entertainment is causing aggression in children. Television researchers Bandura and Ross[2] in the early 1960s did a series of experiments known as the Bobo doll experiments to get at the truth about the effects of television violence on children. They split a control group of children into Groups A and B. They then showed Group A a videotape of a child acting very aggressively in which she hit and kicked a Bobo doll. The children in Group B were shown a tape in which the same girl was having a tea party with the Bobo doll. When Group A children were alone with the Bobo doll used in the video they acted aggressively towards the doll by hitting and kicking it. The children in Group B were also put in a room alone with the doll and they played very nicely with it. There have been many similar studies that show how violence on television increases the likelihood that children who watch TV violence act aggressively towards others. Children will imitate what they see on television.
The TV and the increased possibility of developing ADHD
Researchers have found that 10% of children develop ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). During research into ADHD at the University of Washington it was discovered that there was a link between television watching by very young children and attention disorder by the age of seven[3]. When watching the television the brain does not need to work. The more fast-paced are the images flashed before it, the more the child becomes reliant on the screen. Like a dummy for the brain it may keep the child quiet but it gives them little in terms of substance. Television watching by children can also lead to myriad of other health problems. Doctors have identified children who watch a lot of TV as having problems with obesity, which can lead to type 2 diabetes.
The TV Sexualises children
With sex and sex references on the TV children are becoming sexually active younger than ever. School nurses are spending more and more time on sex related problems. From government think-tanks to the very media themselves there is increasing concern regarding sexual imagery particularly on the TV[4]. Pop videos and Rock/pop TV channels like MTV and computer games that target young girls like Miss Bimbo where girls order breast implants and try to get billionaire husbands. The watershed is totally ineffective.
The TV Causes bad language and bad behaviour
The television has been found to cause most of the behavioural problems in children and youth today. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said that, according to their members, programmes like Big Brother, Little Britain and EastEnders are inciting poor behaviour among their pupils[5]. Incidents include rudeness in class, answering back, mimicking, using retorts and catchphrases. Teachers are also very concerned by the use by children of inappropriate language following the viewing of television programmes.
References
1) Dr. Dimitri Christakis et al, Pediatrics 2003. 2) Bandura, A, D Ross & S A Ross, 1961, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 63: 575-82. 3) Dr. Dimitri Christakis, University of Washington, 2007. 4) Mel Fletcher of 2020+ the think-tank for social change. (Note: CUT does not endorse all the contents of their website or 2020+ itself). 5) ALT press release 2009.
CUT Newsletter No 21, Winter 2010/11
How the saints have described the TV
St Pardre Pio - described the TV as Satan's Tabernacle.
St Elizabeth Seton - in the early 1800's she reputedly had a prophectic vision of the twenthieth century in which she saw a black box from which Satan would enter peoples' homes.
The Media and the Magisterium
The Catholic Church believes that Jesus Christ "the Logos made Flesh" (St John 1:14), founded the Catholic Church and that the Pope and the bishops are the successors of St Peter and the apostles. Jesus Christ is the source of divine revelation and through sacred tradition and sacred scripture Jesus teaches us about Himself and eternal salvation. Calling on sacred tradition and sacred scripture the Magisterium of the Church teaches her people the truths of divine revelation. On this the Church bases all of her infallible teachings.
The Magisterium of the Catholic Church is the teaching authority of the Church. There are several levels of the Magisterium from the Pope to the theologians. At the highest level is the Pope and when he teaches ‘ex cathedra’ he teaches infallibly. This doctrine is based on Jesus’ pronouncement to St Peter that ‘Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed also in heaven’ (St Matthew 16:19). The next level is the teaching of the bishops in union with the Pope; this is also infallible, pronouncing the ‘extraordinary and universal’ teaching of the Church. Below this is the ‘ordinary’ teaching of the Pope which is not infallible but it is authoritative. Then follows the teaching of the bishops which cannot be infallible unless issued in union with the Pope as stated above. On the last level of the Magisterium are the Catholic theologians who cannot teach infallibly.
It is because of the authoritative and infallible teaching of the Pope and the authoritative and infallible teaching of bishops together and in union with the Pope that the Church retains her true teaching. This teaching is very difficult for the modern world to accept, and historically it is why the Church has suffered persecution and why they crucified Jesus. It is also why the modern secular mass media is completely at odds and are so negative when reporting on the Catholic faith. They do not like the Church’s teachings on faith and morality. For example: do the major broadcasting corporations stand up for and champion the cause of the unborn? – Absolutely not, but the Church does, led by the Holy Father and the bishops. Will the modern media in its many forms state that sex should only be between a man and woman and only then after they are married to exclusion of all others? Of course not, sex in the media is a complete free-for-all and the many forms of the media exploit it for decadent pleasure and profit. If you want to find the real cause of HIV/AIDS pandemic it is the media, particularly the broadcast media and especially the TV. They have exploited sex for so long that it has changed people’s attitudes to it leaving them vulnerable to a myriad of sexual health problems. Their only solution is the condom, which is like playing Russian Roulette with people’s lives. Yet the media and especially the television motivates modern man (who is little more than media fodder) to throw himself onto the funeral pyre of overheated sexuality. When the Vatican urges poeple to live chaste lives and to return to traditional family values to defeat AIDS, it is vilified by the world's media. The Pope rightfully stated during his 2009 trip to Africa, "One cannot overcome the problem with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem". The media's condemnation of the Holy Father's wise words was bellicose and vitriolic. There were condoms thrown at people leaving Mass and 'Gay' and livertine groups posted as many condoms to the Holy Father as possible. the battle has been joined to stop Catholic teaching and undermine the Vatican. These groups, egged on by the world's media, refuse to accept that they and condoms are a major cause of the AIDS crisis in Africa and elsewhere, for they have sexualised society. Yet Does the media and the TV have an effect on the Magisterium?
The TV, the Powerful Media Pyramid,
and the Church
The effect of the TV on the Church
If the bishops are the successors of the twelve apostles, then perhaps you may find among them the occasional Judas? After all if one of the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus could be led astray it must be even more difficult for their successors, particularly when the mass media is so powerful and continuously promotes lifestyles that are the opposite to that required of a Christian.
It would be very surprising if members of the teaching authority of the Church sat in front of the television and watched many of the shows and programmes broadcast. Perhaps they should and see what the television is teaching people. There are many wise and holy members of the Magisterium, yet are they out of touch? I do not mean that they should get ‘in touch’ by changing the teaching of the Church to suit the TV. God forbid. However, it is the television, the most powerful form of the media that is controlling what many Catholics think and believe and not the teaching of the Church. It is not for us lay Catholics to tell the Magisterium what to teach us; perhaps we would like them to stand up to the media bullies and lead us safely to salvation. With salvation in mind, point out the sources of evil and impurity and urge their flock to avoid them. They would soon identify the television as a major occasion of sin. Sadly many in authority are either ignorant of the problem or too afraid of the power of the television to speak out. Yet all is not lost, for it is the experience of CUT that proportionately the number of clergy that have given up the TV far outnumbers that of the catholic laypeople.
The effect of the TV on the Laity
Is there a problem with the Magisterium today? For it is becoming a magisterium of the lay Catholic and the media – a false magisterium. Lay Catholics are influencing the Church, and members of the laity are being influenced by the modern media. Some members of congregations are heavily under the influence of that electronic drug, the TV. Occasionally members of the clergy are afraid to preach on the Catholic truths for fear that they may be collared after Mass by an irate media influenced truthophobe. Therefore, we may hear many wonderful sermons regarding love, peace, charity and justice, which of course are extremely important to a Christian. However, equally important is avoiding the occasions of sin and the possibility of eternal damnation. Our Lady herself showed the seers of Fatima the horrors of Hell and themultitudes of souls lost through impurity. The television on the other hand often shows us scenes of impurity or lifestyles and arguments that deny Christ; if we enjoy them or are influenced by them, they will lead us away from the teaching of the Church. This is just one of the many ways the mass media are the new teaching authority and not the Church. During Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain, The Independent newspaper had for a front cover a picture of the Pope’s back upon which was a long ‘laundry list’ of changes the paper had decided British Catholics want. What The Independent does not understand is that even if the list were true, it’s not up to lay Catholics to demand changes to the Church’s teachings. For Jesus is the source of divine revelation, and through sacred tradition and sacred scripture Christ teaches us about Himself and about eternal salvation. Therefore, let’s hope that soon the majority of the clergy will throw out the television and urge their flocks not to pay too much attention to the media, not only for Health and Safety reasons, but also for Health and Salvation.
Is the trouble with Peter Tatchell and British television -
Blatant Hypocrisy?
In the lead up to the Pope’s visit to Britain there were a plethora of anti-Pope and anti-Catholic television programmes. The British mass media in general was so biased against the visit it was hard to find anything positive. It is almost as if there is fear that there may be a spiritual revival and they do not want it to be Catholic at any cost even if it means blatant lies. It is perhaps no coincidence that all this anti-Catholic hatred followed several Anglican Bishops’ request to join the Catholic Church when the Pope issued Anglicanorum Coetibus as a positive response. Even though Catholicism has less child sex abuse than any other institution, church or secular, it is the Catholic Church that gets all the bad publicity. Not surprising then for the modern secular fundamentalist media to try and stop us in our tracks. To divert us from the Church’s time honoured teachings against abortion, contraception, homosexual activity, woman priests, etc. And her teachings in favour of charity, chastity, priestly celibacy, and traditional family values.
One of the many televised Catholic haters is the homosexual Peter Tatchell who was allowed in his The Trouble with the Pope TV programme to vent his anti-Pope spleen. In a piece of breathtaking hypocrisy he dragged out the tied old discredited arguments re condoms to stop AIDS in Africa, and clerical child sex abuse to make it seem as if this was all Pope Benedict’s fault. Yet Peter Hitchens of the Mail on Sunday 11-09-10 recalled that Peter Tatchell wrote to the Guardian newspaper in June 1997 defending a book about ‘Boy-Love’ (homosexual euphemism for sex with a boy) in which he made this appalling statement: ‘While it may be impossible to condone paedophilia, it is time society acknowledged the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted abusive and harmful’ (Tatchell, The Guardian newspaper 26 June 1997, cited Christian Order 11-10).
Such statements should make Peter Tatchell hang is head in shame and issue a public apology. Far from it, Channel Four gave this apologist for pederasty his own hour long show in which to attack the Vicar of Christ. Perhaps Channel Four and the other British Broadcasters should issue an apology to the Holy Father and to the Catholic population of Britain for such bias, bigotry, duplicity and lies? A member of CUT who saw the programmes said every argument put forward by Tatchell was blatant nonsense and easily refuted yet her detailed letter to Channel Four with a response to the programme’s assertions was brushed aside. The shrill media vitriol made sure it was the Pope who apologised for the few but shameful incidences of child sex abuse by Catholic clergy. No such demand is being made of Tatchall or the other leading homosexuals for child sex abuse within the homosexual ‘community’. Yet as the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, said last April, psychologists have found that there is a link between homosexuality and paedophilia. For although homosexuals account for less than 2% of the population they commit a third of all incidences of child sex abuse (Lifesite.net 2007).
As we know the Holy Father won over most of the British media, for the duration of his visit at least, fortified by the prayers said by members of the Crusade of Prayer, Aid to the Church in Need and many other Catholics. However, even as BBC Radio 4 was broadcasting the Pope’s Christmas Eve Thought for the Day, Radio 5 still needed to mention the Catholic Clergy child abuse, as if it’s part of being a Catholic, nothing has changed the bigotry is still there. What they actually want is a complete change in Catholic moral teaching only this will satisfy this dictatorship by broadcasting. The sad thing is many in hierarchy are now too afraid to defend Catholic teaching on homosexuality. One could be forgiven for believing that the media browbeating of the Church is working.