When news broke that openly homosexual Empire star Jussie Smollett was attacked in the Democrat-owned and operated city of Chicago by two white men shouting pro-Trump slogans, I had my doubts.
I always find it helpful in these situations to ask, “who benefits?”
Turns out those instincts were right. Smollett’s tale has turned out to be an elaborate fabrication. “Fake news!” as President Trump likes to say.
One has to wonder how many other stories the media feeds us that are pure fiction.
When I first read the headlines, I had no clue who this fellow was. Probably because I don’t watch a lot of television (maybe a half-hour of Tucker Carlson once in a while). Most of my free time is spent eating with friends or at the nearby adoration chapel (there are no occasions of sin when you “watch” the Body of Christ).
Regrettably, most Americans spend too many hours in front of their televisions, or, as a priest I know calls it, “the devil’s tabernacle.”
Several years ago, I was teaching political science at a local community college. While lecturing about the media, I asked my students to keep their hands raised if they had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 television sets in their house. Sure enough, everyone had at least 2. Astonishingly, almost all of them kept their hand up when I got to 4. A few of them, seemingly embarrassed, admitted to living in a home with 6 televisions. One had 7!
“No wonder they don’t do the assigned reading,” I thought to myself. “They don’t have the attention span for it. They’ve been lobotomized by watching TV.”
The Christian life, simply put, is not the life of television. Christians must work out their salvation with fear and trembling. They are called to go forth and preach the Gospel, perform acts of mercy, and, as St. Peter tells us, be ready to explain their faith. The sloth-inducing, sin-filled programs on television today war against this supernatural battle in every way by dulling our minds and making us comfortably numb to the sufferings around us. A sedentary life results.
The devil knows we will be held to account for the gifts we have been given. He wants us to not use our talents and to waste the time God has gifted us by mindlessly surfing the internet and consuming as much television as possible in this life.
But consider that no one on their deathbed ever said, “I wish I watched more television.” What almost everyone says is that they wish they spent more time with family, doing penance, or praying.