Choices in entertainment: Moral equivalent of garbage in, garbage out?

OK, just in case you forgot, let's quickly review the Ten Commandments:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.
    

There. Now we have context.

My wife and I have a few favorite television shows we regularly watch. The NCIS family of shows are at the top of the list, along with "Blue Bloods,"  “Person of Interest,” “The Black List,” “Forever,” and “Elementary.”

We trimmed the list of situation comedies, which increasingly seem thinly-veiled means to propagandize particular political, social and cultural causes. 

If you made a steady diet of such shows, you'd likely come to think there's not a single functional family existing that is made up of a happily married mother and father; respectful, focused children; and certainly not one with a meaningful (i.e., reflected in actions) faith in God – unless the latter is portrayed as something to scorn or dismiss as delusional at best, or bigotry worth a trip to re-education camps at worst.

But before we congratulate ourselves on that revelation, I've come to wonder what is, afterall, truly consistent for our Christian beliefs within the worldview of an increasingly radicalized secular society.

I'm talking about the one that ignores the erosion of moral standard;, expanding, greed- and corruption-driven gaps between rich and poor; and growth of violence fed by an epidemic lack of accepting personal responsibility for our actions. Screw up, and it's someone else's, or society's fault.

So, do our choices in entertainment, in form of 42 minutes (plus ads) of dramatic storytelling, underscore the value of moral standards – or work to relegate them to mere situational ethics and self-serving relativism?

The same can be said of our choices in music, reading material, etc. But let's stick with the TV, or universal escape from reality.

One recent episode of one our remaining favorites portrayed people violating eight of those Ten Commandments listed above. Another one, nine – leaving only the fourth, keeping the Sabbath holy, unsullied.

So, there's that. But one could argue that scorecard is, after all, an accurate reflection of what our society has become.

And, to be fair, most of those shows we watch do have some moral components, with the protagonists seeking to protect the innocent, fight evil schemes, sustain friendships, making sacrifices, etc.

TV dramas, like human beings, can reflect a battlefield of the soul. That can be instructive. It may even indicate that despite all the degradation, hopelessness, violence, corruption around us, there still is that flicker of desire for “good” that transcends the individual and reaches the Other.

But it is, too often, merely a flicker. 

That's hopeful, certainly, but still not the kind of raging, love-driven inferno we need to turn things around.

Yet.

Human history is replete with eras of reform, revival and restored hope, usually driven by the purer facets of faith.

Oh, how we need that.