Q: Is watching shows from services that support abortion and LGBTQ+ sinful? Recently I was thinking about this related to streaming services like Amazon Prime, Netflix and Disney+. I wanted to know if watching shows from these services is bad. – S.
Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC A: There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this kind of question. Obviously, it wouldn’t be appropriate to be watching things with nudity and explicit sexual content. This kind of thing can be classified as pornography, which “does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others” (Catechism, 2354). A wider issue involves cooperation in evil. Disney has long been known for its pro-homosexual tilt, and Netflix isn’t known for its Christian content. You might want to step back and try to think long-term. The culture is in decline. Public discourse has coarsened. Things that would have shocked people a generation or two ago — “transgenderism,” same-sex “marriage,” abortion pills by mail — are now widely considered standard fare. Cheering on many of these trends is Hollywood. So, a question worth asking is: Do you want to feed the problem by supporting media and advertisers who undercut Christian and true human values? Or do you want to draw a line and say, “No, I don’t want to be a part of this”? Or at least, “I’ll do what I can to avoid adding to the problem”? Ask a Priest can’t offer advice on every show or movie. But it can encourage you to think about how you want to follow Jesus. Do you want to support good things or bad things throughout your life? Do you want to go with a culture that is heading over the cliff? Or do you want to push back? This might be worth taking to prayer.
