That's Entertainment

When the demons see that in the very beginning we intend to keep aloof from the witty lecture of a coarse leader, as from an infectious disease, then they try to catch us by two thoughts, suggesting to us: ‘Do not offend the story-teller,’ or: ‘Do not appear to love God more than they do.’ Be off! Do not dally, otherwise at the time of your prayer the jokes will recur to your mind. And not only run, but even piously disconcert the bad company by offering for their general attention the thought of death and judgment. For perhaps it is better for you to be sprinkled with a few drops of vainglory, if only you can become a channel of profit for many.

-Saint John of Sinai, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

 

"The witty lecture of a coarse leader."  Sorry, what? St. John is writing in this chapter about the dangers of verbosity and joking. Proverbs cautions us that "In the multitude of words sin is not lacking,
But he who restrains his lips is wise." St. John warns that a person who tends toward vulgar language and joking should be avoided when he gets going on a speech. There is high probability for sin. He wrote a few paragraphs earlier that "the offspring of chatter and joking is lying," and lying, violating the command against false witness, is sin.

The demons want you to stick around and listen anyway. "If you get up, you'll cause a scene! You'll call attention to yourself and your piety! That would be pride!" Why do the demons care? Why would they try to trick you to stay? St. John tells us: Later, when we are sitting quietly, saying our prayers, the jokes and the vulgarity will return to our thoughts and distract us or derail our prayer. He goes so far as to say it might even be a good thing to prick the conscience of the speaker and listeners a little bit, so that they might take care. You might get "a few drops" of vainglory on yourself, but you might save the whole group, or even part of it, from sin and distraction.

Interesting. I don't know about you, but I don't sit for too many lectures. Is this "relevant?"

Upon reflection, yes, it is. I may not be in a classroom or lecture hall, but I do take in more than my fair share of "lectures." When I read this paragraph from The Ladder, I couldn't help but think about TV, Movies, Radio, and Internet media.

 

It seems to me to be kind of a perennial question: Can Christians watch TV etc? What's the harm? Is there any problem, or, since it's fictionalized, is it OK? What if tremendous evil is depicted, but the "good guy" wins? Is non-fiction TV always ok?

 For me, today, multimedia is the witty lecture of my course leader. If you don't think you're being lectured, you need to pay closer attention! Some of the lecturing is indeed innocuous: How to cook a steak? What is Ohm's Law? How does hydroelectric generation work? Interesting and informative lectures are good for us. They make us wiser and broaden our horizons. But some of the other lecturing is not at all appropriate for Christians. They can be as subtle as the vaguely missing dad or as bald-faced as the homosexual kiss in Buzz Light-year's origin story coming soon to theaters near you.

Murder, sex, divorce, abuse of people and substances, greed, every vice is presented to us hundreds of times a day. Our coarse leaders (because we voluntarily submit to them) pelt us with messages and values that go completely against what is good, what God has revealed to us as the way to live with and for Him.

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." -Philipians 4:8

Dwell on these things. Intentionally put these good things in your mind, and then consider them, reason them out. Do this instead of submitting to the coarse leaders of our multimedia buffet, and when you settle down to pray, you will not be distracted by images of naked people and killers. The dissatisfaction and consumerism won't have you coveting more while you pray to Christ who had no place to lay His head.

Am I demanding "YOU MUST CUT OUT ALL TEH THINGS!!!11one"  ?? 

No, and I'm not about to tell you what you can or can't do/watch. I am suggesting that I must do a better job, and I need to give serious consideration to what I allow inside my head. It's true, "you can't unsee that," and once it is in there, it will float to the top often at the worst time. I think if we are to be serious Christians, we all need to do that. We need to vet our leaders, and if their lectures are too coarse, we need to fire them and kick them out of our homes, and we shouldn't be afraid to say that we don't consume certain media because it is counter to our Christian values. 

"Always  be prepared to give an answer for the hope that is within you." You can do that when your dwell on "whatever is true" etc.