In my last post I made mention of the role seminary videos had on forming my understanding of certain gospel principles. Ninny Beth, who is like my soul doppelganger, made the suggestion of having a discussion of media in the church. For the purposes of this post, when I say "church media" I mean to include both church produced media as well as media produced by church people (Michael McLean, Saturday's Warrior, etc.). So here are some questions to get the ball rolling. What perceptions of gospel topics did you have in your youth that resulted from church meda and how have they changed? For example, the video I referred to in the previous post about the girl who had to postpone her marriage because she broke the law of chastity with her boyfriend. I think for me it painted a picture of lots of tears and feeling bad as a form of true repentence. Should it have been any different though? It probably also started the process of me learning gospel principles, albeit imperfectly. Maybe it was good enough at that age? Maybe it could be improved upon? How? What church media is inspiring to you as an adult? Anything?
Also, this could be expanded to include stories that are passed on, like comparing breaking the law of chastity to chewed up gum. Have you heard others that you think are more destructive than helpful?
As a side note to give more perspective as to why I think this type of discussion is helpful, I think part of growing into healthy adulthood is being able to thoughtfully deconstruct and objectively look at those things that had a big part of forming me in my childhood and adolescence, whether talking about family or church or other things that had a large influence. I think it's through this process that I learn that I have have certain ideas or perceptions or ways of being in the world that have been with me for years that have held me back or limited my understanding of certain things or kept me from existing in the world in a way that produces happiness. Kind of like what Wendy talks about in my previous post about "habits of unrighteousness" that get passed on through family or church until someone makes the choice to dismantle them.
So I guess in a way, this excercise could be a practical application follow up to my last post. I should also note, the purpose of this exercise isn't to find ways to blame the church or family for warping me. I'm sure the intent of church and family isn't to warp. We are all unique individuals who are affected differently by different things. There is probably someone out there who thinks the seminary video I mentioned is amazing and helped him in ways nothing else has been able to. I'm just curious about what your perceptions and thoughts are.
Discuss...
I remember that seminary video about the girl postponing her wedding, and more than anything I got the idea that shame was a part of the repentance process. And I still get shocked that it is not formally listed in Sunday School. I know that isn't the intent (at least I hope not)...but a lot of Church media has the sinner go through a lot of public shame in the repentance process.
ReplyDeleteIronically, one of the best repentance theme videos was one from the 1970s called "Pioneers and Petticoats." It's about a girl in early Utah that was supposed to be the head of a Young Women's sort of organization but was secretly fooling around and trying to wear bad clothes (ones that showed her neck and forearms)...anyways, I was always glad that a inactive "bad" girl in town was the only one to defend the main character when the other girls found out. All the technically obedient girls wanted to kick the main character out of the organization and the bad girl in town showed up to defend this main one and explain how the main character had been an example to her and deserved to be treated kindly even if she had made mistakes. It was tender to see fellowship rather than sin-and-cry be the message.
I recall a seminary video that I think was called "spiritual crocodiles." The setting was a rural outpost in Africa. This outpost was surrounded by a fence, and the keeper of the outpost warned visitors of the danger of going beyond the fence on foot: crocodiles lurked in the surrounding areas, and they were hard to see because of mud and tall grass.
ReplyDeleteA visitor decided to climb the fence to venture into and explore the African wilderness. The keeper of the outpost yelled at the visitor to come back, but he continued walking farther away. Soon enough, he was attacked and presumably eaten by a crocodile. The video didn't include anything gruesome, but you knew exactly what had happened.
As best as I can remember, the video compared going beyond the fence to leaving the safety of obeying the commandments. What I got out of the video is that commandments are there to prevent me from suffering consequences I may or may not perceive; it worked well for my 15-year-old mind.
I know a couple people in my class didn't like it. Actually the one who disliked it the most was a girl who we knew was the high school bicycle (everyone got a ride, hahaha).
I think my life was highly influenced by the church movies they show at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building: Legacy, The Testaments, Joseph Smith. I always felt the spirit really strongly during those videos and had my testimony strengthened in church history (as taught by the church), the Book of Mormon, and God's love for me.
ReplyDeleteI have come to realize that those emotional responses that I was always taught were the spirit, aren't unique to Mormon situations and that I can get them watching a good R-rated movie. They aren't the spirit, they are just emotional responses and can be evoked by music and imagery. The Seminary videos are designed to evoke those emotional responses so you think you are feeling the spirit.
The church has perfected its ability to manipulate our emotions through media, and has even trademarked this technique as HeartSell, which it sells as part of its advertising arm (http://www.bonneville.com/?sid=582&nid=32).
My wife blogged about this here: http://thirdwavemormon.blogspot.com/2009/09/heartsell-your-tithing-dollars-at-work.html
"Te hare un arco iris..."
ReplyDeletealot of it was really unhelpful and even hurtful to me. i mean, look at "saturdays warrior" and their "problem family". and then it all got fixed in the end. and their "struggles". if people have had saturdays warrior lives, i dont mean to minimize their hardships. but i went through some really hard core problems as a kid. like really hardcore. in the church and in life in general. and it just made me feel like i was never going to be able to make it because my problems werent pretty and cute and the kind you could sing along to. the were scary secrets that even my bishops and family didnt want to talk about. and supposedly i was supposed to have access to all the same blessings and promises and the people with cookie cutter musical problems, but that seemed unlikely to me. they solved their problems by singing. and mine were definatly not in the same category.
ReplyDeletei think some (probably not all) of my cynicism comes from that kind of portrayal of sins and struggles and life. our lives are never musicals.
Not to distract from the purpose of the post, but do you include yourself as "church media"?? If I am not mistaken, your family had a production video for the church, right? A slide show type movie (much like old school Johnny Lingo) that portrayed your grandma in a wheel chair. Is that ringing a bell?
ReplyDeleteGrowing up a lot of the church media was my only educational source in the church. To many times I feel parents, teachers or church leaders use church media to teach things becuase it is easier. Who remembers meeting like this......
ReplyDelete"Well today we are going to talk about the principle of chastity, it is important and to help us understand why lets watch this video...........As you can tell from the video chastity is important. Thanks for coming to class today"
I just wish more people took the time to get emotionally close to those they are teaching, or talking with, to explore the teachings of the gospel and not just give us the other end of the co-aux cables , that are for the audio and visual input, to plug into our heads.
However over the years church media has provided some laughter for sure....."the phone call", "Rusty", "Homefront", etc..
holy crap. paul just made me pee my pants a little. Thank you for reminding me of the Hastings claim to fame!!!
ReplyDeleteI've just finished my application to graduate school with the intent to produce educational media (documentaries, etc) that will hopefully help to create cultural shifts. I think no matter what persuasive bent we are taking, we are going to employ a method of emotional manipulation simply because we have an opinion on the matter. I want people to help preserve biological families in third world countries. I will try to be as honest and non-manipulative as I can in that endeavor, BUT I guarantee that some of my bias will come through. We are emotionally manipulating each other all the time when we share our thoughts and feelings. Communication IS emotional if it is done by humans (as opposed to robots and squirrels?) What defines manipulation???
ReplyDeleteOh yeah. I guess I can be included in "church media". Dammit! It was actually my mom that was in the wheelchair though, strangely enough.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Ninny, human communication generally speaking is emotionally manipulative to some degree or another. So does it just become a matter of what we choose to let ourselves be manipulated by?
Are emotional, emotionally evocative, and emotionally manipulative, always and necessarily the same thing? (Only asking the question... too tired right now to think through my own answer)
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I think on some level they could be. Nevermind, I just looked up the definition of manipulate. I was thinking of manipulate more along the lines of merely having an affect on someone, but the definition says it's to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one's purpose. I think emotionally evocative stuff isn't always necessarily manipulative in that sense of the word. Probably more than we realize or are willing to admit though.
ReplyDeleteSo I wonder what the distinguishing characteristics are between emotionally evocative, and emotionally manipulative. Authentic vs. overly sentimental. And I'm sure it's more subjective and individual than anything. I know that many of the movies I consider to be emotionally manipulative, empty drivel, are many people's favorite movies...
ReplyDeleteAnd within the context of the church and/or church media, it might be an important question... When people confuse easily manipulated emotion with the Spirit, they're being set up for a testimony crisis. I always appreciated a Book of Mormon prof I had at BYU that would help us differentiate, "I'm getting choked up because what I'm talking about is emotional for me. But this has nothing to do with the Spirit. Don't mistake all emotion for the Spirit."