Sisyphus & the Nastification of America

So you’re voting for Bush because he’s Pro-life? Great! But don’t just be an election year Pro-lifer: Do something in between elections. Help out as a sidewalk counselor outside an abortion mill. Contribute money to Pro-life organizations. Volunteer at a pregnancy helping agency. Adopt! Something.

Maybe even disconnect your Cable.

I guess what I’m saying is, if your opposition to abortion is strong, as it should be, then yelling about it in the fall and doing something else for months in between is just … well, playing. You are a Pro-life Pretender.

Everyday there are women, many teens, making heart-rending decisions that will scar them for life … and possibly end that of their baby’s.

“Hey, whaddya want me to do? I voted for Bush” — just doesn’t cut it.

We can’t have it both ways. We, as a people, obviously support Porn being broadcast via Cable and Satellite into our homes daily. We let our children watch gutter trash — and many parents let their children dress like prostitutes. Sex is more prevalent than … well, sex. And then what? We expect our children to be abstinent in the midst of such enormous temptation? Teens? Do you remember being a teen? Can you imagine being a teen in a world where the adults want you to see sex, dress like sex, rap about sex, and then … not have sex?

Lord have mercy.

Face it. Everyone puts on their “holier-than-thou” attitude at election time … then goes back to watching Britney Spears in between times.

The problem with sex is that most folks are interested in it, intrigued & tempted by it. Like the weather, it’s something we all hold in common. But unlike the weather, which we can’t control, we can do something about what’s broadcast on TV and available on the Web. Don’t support it. True, it’s hard not to look. Try harder. And for goodness sake: Shield your children from it. It’s soul corrupting.

I remember being a kid, sitting in the back of the library with my pals and looking at National Geographic and hunting for cuss words in the Dictionary. (Sorry mom.) But for heaven’s sake, that sounds almost virtuous compared to today’s resources! I would be willing to bet that if you are reading this at your computer, and you’ve been using online services for a year or more, you’ve seen Internet Porn. (Some of you may even be addicted.) Do you think your children haven’t? Chances are they soon will.

I’m the chief of sinners and no prude. (Come to think of it, we could use more prudes.) But when visiting Europe I noticed that topless females were used to sell toothpaste in TV ads. (Sorry, I can’t remember the brand.) However, to me, that’s not nearly as prurient as a fully clothed model eating a Hardee’s hamburger while riding a mechanical bull — an ad currently being broadcast in America. We Americans just have a way of nastifying things.

A Russian Orthodox priest once told me about watching a sporting event with his saintly bishop. He and fellow clergy knew that the bishop enjoyed soccer, but didn’t watch TV. They had a get together to watch the World Cup — which was delightful, until the beer commercials. The bishop stared at the half nude seductresses on the screen, then looked around at his priests and, quite innocently, asked: “So you all watch this?” Needles to say, their embarrassment led to a soccerless time of brotherly fellowship.

Pregnancies don’t just happen. A woman or girl is not just walking along one day and discovers she’s with child. Young or old, females don’t just wake up one day and decide to have a abortion (i.e., kill someone). Good heavens! No. Rather, it takes having sex to make a baby. (I realize that science is trying to change that, but I’ve yet to hear of someone aborting a child conceived artificially.)

Is it still within our collective creative power to think of some other topic? Is there no art worth broadcasting? Must even the sports, arts, and visual entertainments that are worthy be supported by the sex industry?

Do you support the sex industry and oppose abortion?

Do you oppose abortion and support the sex industry?

This sounds like Sisyphus rolling that big stone up the hill, only to have it roll back down on top of him. Over and over, amen. In a word, hell.