Two demons are trying to win a man’s soul in “The Screwtape Letters,” a classic work of fiction by C.S. Lewis. They agree that getting the man — whom they call the patient — to avoid church services is a big win.
As for prayer, “The best thing, where it is possible, is to keep the patient from the serious intention of praying altogether.”
I wonder how these demons would react to today’s TV shows, which have edited out a crucial feature of human life.
Action shows drip with gut-wrenching violence, ranging from strangling and shooting to torture and terrorism — and while directors once considered it common decency to avoid showing mutilated crime victims, today they give us close-ups.
In some shows, women meet total strangers in bars and indulge in a one-night stand with them. The next day, they boast to their girlfriends about the escapade, as casually as if they were discussing a brownie recipe.
Still, despite the proliferation of gore and lust on TV, one topic remains taboo — and it’s religion.
Television takes us into the operating room to view people’s intestines, and into the medical examiner’s office to watch bodies sliced open during autopsies.
But we hardly ever see families attending services at a church or synagogue — unless it’s a wedding or funeral — or getting down on their knees to pray.
For some reason, scriptwriters studiously steer clear of such images, even though 55 percent of American adults say they pray at least daily and 77 percent say religion is important to them.
Fortunately, there are some exceptions, such as “Blue Bloods,” which features an Irish-Catholic police family that faithfully has Sunday dinner together, where they say a blessing over the food and sometimes mention Mass.
Please don’t get me wrong — I’m not saying every show should feature elaborate segments on churches, along with reflections on sermons, prayers and hymns.
However, it’s odd how rarely we glimpse someone heading into church or even hear a mention of God.
Oh, wait, we do hear the name of Jesus Christ quite frequently, but it’s nearly always used as a curse word — and when God’s name is uttered, it’s usually paired with “damn.”
Some shows will have a token Christian worked into the plot, but they’re often humorless, strict fanatics, such as Angela in “The Office,” who’s also the classic TV Puritan with a hidden sexual agenda.
And yes, we occasionally see people wearing crosses around their necks but the necks often belong to gang members or Mafia guys.
Scriptwriters are constantly upping the ante on how much sexual activity to show — and the staged bedroom couplings are cringeworthy to watch.
But when was the last time you saw a child earnestly reciting night-time prayers? Or a Jewish family carefully preparing the Sabbath meal?
When was the last time a show featured a pastor who wasn’t stealing from the church till or sneaking around with someone else’s wife? Or a rabbi leading prayers at a synagogue?
Many shows feature characters undergoing terrible crises, like financial ruin, divorce, the death of a spouse and acts of violence — and we often see them hitting the bottle, taking drugs or considering suicide.
But we don’t see them opening a Bible to read a few verses or stopping by church for prayer time. In fact, with the exception of courtroom scenes, Bibles are forbidden objects in TV Land.
If C.S. Lewis’ demons could watch an evening of contemporary shows, I imagine the twosome giving them a high five. And concluding that folks on TV have played right into the devil’s hands.
