Why Bother Resisting The Devil

I've been a huge Star Wars fan most of my life. As a kid, I had all the toys, watched all the movies multiple times, and could recite many of the lines from the films from memory. I loved everything about the Star Wars universe. After coming back to the Church and joining the Courage Apostolate, the apostolate in the Catholic Church for us who experience same-sex attraction and choose to follow the teachings of the Church, I started paying more attention to what companies promote through their products and in their corporate structure. I was disheartened when, a few years ago, Disney began to promote homosexuality in their animated and live-action movies. When they acquired LucasArts and announced the new Star Wars movies, I was thrilled, but then my conscience was pricked. How can I support a corporation that is openly promoting an identity and behavior to kids that I know from personal experience to be destructive?

I really wanted to see the new film, but I also really wanted to do what I felt was right, which was to starve the beast. To deny a company the financial food it needs to continue to promote the evil it does. At the same time, I was aware that most companies and corporations are involved in some activity that violates the teachings of the Church. I couldn’t decide what to do, so I decided to ask the opinions of two priests who are orthodox and also "both/and" rather than "either/or" kind of priests, so moderate in their living out of the truth of our faith.

The first priest I questioned about my dilemma reiterated what I’d told myself about all companies being involved with evil, and told me it was not direct involvement with sin to see the movie. He then told me some people were called to go beyond what is acceptable and engage in an activity that requires heroic virtue. I felt by mentioning this to me he was suggesting that may be the case for me but knowing he’d given me enough info to make an informed decision I...asked another priest.

The second priest reiterated what the first said, but was more of the opinion that we can’t avoid everything in life that had any connection to “evil” in this busted world, so we have to be reasonable in our decision-making. I agreed with his view, but the idea of heroic virtue resonated with me. Despite this, I decided to see the first of the new trilogy as well as the following two films.

A few years ago, Amazon banned books from a therapist named Dr. Nicolosi, who writes about the sources of homosexuality and how to prevent and repair the wounds that he believes are part of the cause. The reason given was that they were “hurtful” to people in the LGBTQ community. I immediately went out and found the books elsewhere and bought them, and also bought the ones that were still listed on Amazon. Though I saw the evil they were doing, I continued to feed the Amazon beast. I was offended by the truth they were repressing from my people, but being able to buy socks, apricots, and books all in one place and have them shipped to me for free was worth feeding a beast that I believe is leading people astray—no desire for heroic virtue in this case at that point.

This past December, when Amazon decided to shut down Parler and also to ban another book about transgenderism, I again started asking myself, Why do you continue to feed this beast that is doing evil to those God has called you to help? What exactly do they have to do to offend your morals and violate your ethics before you will take action?  When I mentioned this to a friend, his response was “What difference will it make?”  That stuck in my craw. Do I only do what I feel is right to make a difference, or do I do what is right just because it is right, even if I see no impact in the business I am acting against?

Porn is very destructive to those of us who consume it, to those involved with its production, and to society in general. It is an evil. I have used porn off and on for over 30 years in different forms. Whether I have been actively using it or not, the industry has continued to grow. My decision to throw away all my magazines, and then buy more, to destroy all my porn videos, and then buy more, to delete all the porn on my computer and apps on my phone, and then re-download and reinstall, had not changed the flow of money in a noticeable way. Does that mean I shouldn’t have bothered deleting and destroying? Did I waste my time doing what was right just because I didn’t impact the industry in a discernible way?  Of course not!  I did what I did just because it was right and was good for me. So why not do the same with this other beast called Amazon?

"Right is right when nobody is right, and wrong is wrong when everybody is wrong." This quote from St. Thomas Aquinas is one of many powerful statements that have stuck with me and guide my decision-making process. Porn is wrong. Censorship of truth is wrong. Promoting evil is wrong. If everyone buys porn, wants the truth banished, and loves evil, that doesn’t change the wrongness of the activities, and so I should take action based on that wrongness and the impact it has on me and my soul. And so I do.

Amazon gets no more of my money, though I still have a difficult time avoiding SW stuff. I will go out of my way to spend it with other companies that may not meet the standard of goodness set by the Church, but are not going as far as Amazon and Disney do in censoring and spreading evil lies. It may not impact the bottom line of the company, but it does impact the bottom line of my soul.

Human-Written, AI Spell-Checked 4/1/21 AD

Image from Craiyon.com