The Triumph of Lust
CHRIST & NEIGHBOR
Is it possible to complain about the media’s hard sell of sex, sex, and more sex, without being accused of being a puritanical, Jansenistic, Manichean prude? Probably not. Nor is it likely that one can escape being tagged a representative of the far Right.
Nevertheless, it may be time to call for a new revolution with the slogan “Moralistic mossbacks of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but a reputation for sophistication.”
Recently I watched another primetime soap opera, this one about a priest who for an hour and 45 minutes put up a plucky fight against lust, but then made a graceful surrender, gave up his priesthood, and proved once more that the love of a good, and preferably beautiful, woman is more powerful and in every way more laudable than the love of God.
Then I watched our local Boston public TV station, which is supposed to cater to higher values, showing a teenage girl put up a rather unimpressive fight against lust and then make a clumsy surrender, proving once again that sex, no matter how sordid, must triumph in the end.
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A reader, responding to my slap at Karl Marx and Adam Smith (Jan.-Feb.), has sent…
Media pundits and cultural elites who routinely excoriate the Church with false charges are oddly silent when it comes to flagrant transgressions by Muslims against gays, women, and non-Muslims.
Though the way to sanctity is hard and I may stumble ten thousand times before I reach the top, it is the only road for me.