How Would You Caption This Picture?

So This Is Dear Leader's Way of Uniting Us?

This item ran in the Washington Post on August 15th, 2007:

Drawing a sharp contrast with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama said in an interview that he has the capacity she may lack to unify the country and move it out of what he called "ideological gridlock."

"I think it is fair to say that I believe I can bring the country together more effectively than she can," Obama said. "I will add, by the way, that is not entirely a problem of her making. Some of those battles in the '90s that she went through were the result of some pretty unfair attacks on the Clintons. But that history exists, and so, yes, I believe I can bring the country together in a way she cannot do. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be running."

If, for the sake of argument, we posit that this man's opinion was correct, then I shudder to imagine how Mrs. Clinton would have "united" the country if she had been elected.

Actor Jack Black Prays to Satan on MTV

When MTV first appeared back in 1981, I, like many other American young adults, watched it with interest because it showcased videos of many bands that were popular then: The Police, Duran Duran, Squeeze, Genesis, The Go-Gos, Hall & Oats, Blondie, etc. But after the initial novelty of 24-7 music videos wore off and it became apparent that MTV was lurching steadily toward a darker, more erotic, and increasingly decadent format, I tuned out for good.

The rapid transmogrification of MTV from a purveyor of meaningless, if at times mildly entertaining, videos of pop rock bands, to full-on, in-your-face glorification of vice and sexual deviancy must be reckoned, I believe, as one of the integral reasons for the equally rapid unraveling of the moral fabric of Western society. The dramatic rise in on-campus student violence, promiscuity, sex crimes, and the growing modern obsession with death and the devil (to name just a few examples) can be, I believe, directly attributable in some measure to the nearly 30-year steady diet of moral corruption that MTV has been feeding its viewers.

The truth of the maxim "garbage in, garbage out" has nowhere been more spectacularly verified than it has been with MTV.

That's why for many years now, I have been warning parents everywhere — in my parish seminars, in radio interviews, and most recently on my "Open Line" radio program — to not allow MTV in their homes, to not let their children watch it. Of course, I am far from alone in this, and mine is just one of many voices that have been "crying in the wilderness" about the dangers of MTV's nefarious content.

And now here's another voice — that of the comedy actor Jack Black — that is reminding all of us why MTV is such an aggressively pernicious danger to anyone who watches it. Read the news report below, written by James L. Lambert for The American Family News Network and then watch the accompanying video. It says it all.

And for those who may think I'm being alarmist and extreme in my warning about MTV (believe me, there are Catholics and Protestants out there who have told me exactly that), I can only say that if this video is not enough to make you say, "Enough!" to MTV, and to remove it forthwith from your home and forbid your children from watching it, then I don't know what else I could possibly say to you to get your attention.

During last month's MTV music video awards ceremony, actor Jack Black urged the audience join hands and pray to "dear dark lord Satan." In his prayer, the actor prayed that the musicians and nominees would have "continued success in the music industry." The awards program was [broadcast] on the MTV network (a subsidiary of the Viacom Corporation) throughout the country through cable and satellite television.T

The Radio City Hall audience readily acquiesced to Black's invitation to pray to the devil. In a video posted on YouTube, Black encouraged the large audience to join in by saying, "let me see those horns." Black, dressed in a "muscle suit" continued by asking the awards ceremony audience to join hands during "the prayer." He then held hands with actress Leighton Meester while he prayed aloud.

Black's prayer went basically unnoticed among most conservative and Christian media circles -- perhaps because they feel the comedian was simply joking as he displayed his contempt for Christianity with the prayer invocation. In fact, this would be in keeping with Black's previous behavior.

In 2008 he participated in a video that mocked supporters of California's marriage initiative, Proposition 8. In commenting on that video, the Culture and Media Institute (CMI) said Black "appears as Jesus rebuking the Proposition 8 supporters while munching on a shrimp cocktail and saying that the Bible condemns eating shellfish too. Then he [Black] reels off some scripture references without context to suggest that the Bible is self-contradictory and unreliable." In their press release (December 4, 2008), CMI described Black as "an anti-Christian bigot."

Others claim last month's public "prayer" to Satan was just a publicity stunt to promote the new heavy metal video game, "Brutal Legend."

But regardless how one looks at Black's actions, it sets a dangerous precedent. Author and King's College professor Paul McGuire labels Black's prayer to Satan as "just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening in our nation and in the entertainment industry." The conservative commentator contends that "although it is hidden, Satanism is one of the fastest growing religions in America." He adds: "We can expect to see Satanists demanding and getting the same rights as any other religion." . . .

Radio talk-show host Jesse Lee Peterson . . . says it is "disturbing that MTV continues to promote the most degenerate and base programs on its network....[They] intentionally air programming designed to seduce and corrupt the minds and hearts of America's youth" (like Sex...with Mom and Dad, among others). . . . (continue reading)