Garbage In Garbage Out

I have a hard time watching television these days. I don't know if you do or not but when I watch TV it seems that the bulk of what's available is a combination of self worship, pornography, and moral indifference. It doesn't help that much of broadcast television is generally poorly written fare, with the best writing reserved for cable where the highest quality programs frequently are the biggest offenders.

Maybe your tastes aren't with television. Maybe you love the sound of popular music, but can't stand the lyrics because they are almost always either pornographic or promote self worship. If you don't believe me simply go find the lyrics of the top songs on the pop radio stations and read them. You'll see what I mean. Pop radio is everywhere, too, pumped into restaurants, waiting rooms at doctors offices, and at sporting events on television. It's played everywhere to the point that we don't even notice its presence anymore. Silence is hard to find in the public square.

I've only been Catholic now for two years. When I was in RCIA, our deacon tried to convince us of the need to be careful of what kind of media we consumed. “Garbage in, garbage out,” he would say, meaning that what we internalize can have an impact on our actions. It's interesting that the conversion process will influence what media you are attracted to. I love hard rock and metal music, and I noticed pretty quickly that the bands I would listen to would become fewer in number, as some of my then-favorites had frankly awful lyrics. My tastes in films and television changed dramatically as well.

I'm not suggesting that we hide ourselves from the culture. Far from it. Bishop Robert Barron frequently reminds his audiences that have a duty to know what the culture is doing. Not everything the culture promotes is corrupt, per se. There are Christians who say that we should have our own movies, music, and literature. To a degree they are correct, but segregating ourselves from the culture is not the answer. Instead we must be attentive to what we consume. As we should be careful with what we feed our bodies so should we so do with our minds. As food feeds and determines what shape our bodies will take the media we consume will influence how our minds grow.

We are truly blessed that we have a wide ranging variety of Catholic media to feed our minds and spirits with in addition to whatever secular fare we like. Recently I read Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson (my review you can read here). There is a wide variety of Catholic writings, music and films at our disposal to find our minds and spirits, and we should thank God for it. Whether it is the various lives of the saints, the recent revival of GK Chesterton, scriptural commentaries, Youtube commentaries by priests and bishops, or blogs by Catholic writers, we have a great deal to available to challenge our minds and hearts to grow in our faith.

We shouldn't hide ourselves from the secular world, however. Secular media offers us a great deal of insight into the dreams, ideals, and experiences of those in the world who do not share our faith. We are commanded to spread the Gospel to those who consume the products of the popular culture, which is itself a reflection of the minds and hearts of those who consume that media. In a strange way the same media we find so troubling to watch may be the key to understanding those who don't share our values. To that end we should carefully discern what popular media we will consume to feed our relationships with our neighbors. Evangelicals have great success with evangelizing through establishing trust-based relationships, which begin with common interests. This should be the basis of our consumption of popular media, not our own gratification.