With the final of The Apprentice declaring Lee McQueen the winner last night we got to thinking about why Seminarians are so interested in reality TV shows. You may remember our excitement at the beginning of the year over X-Factor, since then we have been watching every episode of 'I'd do anything', 'Britains's got Talent' and 'The Apprentice' sharing the joys and the sorrows of each and every contestant and praying hard for our particular favourites to win. But why?
The shows provide a perfect opportunity for us to share an hour or two each week with eachother, debating who's going to be fired this week or who will be trying to hit that vibrato in 'He needs me'. We all suddenly become experts in professional singing and business enterprise when we point out people's mistakes and shout phrases like, 'Muslims don't sell Kosher chicken idiot' and 'Diction dear' at the television.
One theory is that these people are on the same kind of journey as we are. They are ordinary people trying to enter into an industry that will catapult them into a world of fame and fortune. We are ordinary men who believe we have been called by our Creator to go into the world and make Him known to all His creation. Seminary and reality TV both take an ordinary person with an, as yet, unrecognised talent and form him/her to become extraordinary person with a highly acclaimed talent.
We have no interest whatsoever in shows such as Big Brother, which debase humanity turning God's most significant creatures into mere animals, because that is the complete opposite to Priestly Formation and the pastoral care of a priest.
It is an interesting thought and we look forward to hearing what you think about this phenomenon - particularly from Seminarians in other Seminaries.
God Bless,
The Seminarians
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2 comments:
"These people are on the same kind of journey as we are "
(a dumbstruck silence will now follow)
Oh God, Everyone. It really IS worse than we thought.
I watch these shows, as I teach Business Studies, following a career of 15 years in the cut-throat world these people come from. I am, however, uncomfortably aware at times, that I feel like a rubbernecker at the scene of a car crash, taking a prurient interest in the weaknesses and misfortunes of young, and, in some cases, morally rootless people.I also had the experience of chatting, on a long train journey to one of the more famous (and unashamedly Catholic) contestants from a few years ago, so know that slick editing sets these people up for ridicule to make "good telly". If that show tells me anything, it is that man cannot serve two masters. You have picked the right master. Those contestants who haven't - need to be careful that they render unto Caesar only that which is Caesar's - otherwise there will be predictable results from their Faustian pact, and their journey will lead......somewhere you don't want to go!
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