On consecrated virginity and writing “secular” entertainment
I am a Consecrated Virgin Living in the World. On August 15, 2016, Bishop Sheridan consecrated me, and I was thus espoused to Christ the Bridegroom. I am His bride and and His alone. I will never marry another.
I am also a screenwriter. I write screenplays. I aspire to be an author as well. I am currently writing my first novel.
As I work to publish two of my screenplays, which are not explicitly religious in any way, I sometimes wonder about the tension between these two things — consecrated virginity and secular (as opposed to sacred) screenwriting. At the crux of that niggling thought is the question of whether secular entertainment itself is inherently good, bad, or neutral (in moral terms).
If secular works are inherently good, then there should be no tension at all.
If secular works are inherently bad, I should stop immediately and go to Confession for having even entertained the idea of publishing secular scripts.
I don’t know that there’s been a definitive teaching from the Church about the inherent moral value of secular art and entertainment, but I tend to think it receives its moral value from its content. If the content promotes vice and becomes a near occasion of sin for consumers, of course it’s morally bad. If it upholds virtue and points the consumer toward goodness, truth, and beauty, it’s morally good — regardless of whether God or Jesus are explicitly mentioned.
Let’s take an innocuous example: Singin’ in the Rain happens to be my favorite movie. It’s not sacred by any means. It makes no mention of religion at all. It’s purely secular entertainment, but I would argue that it points toward goodness, truth, and beauty — both in its content and its quality. I can’t imagine that anyone would argue that it’s sinful to watch Singin’ in the Rain (unless, of course, you’re avoiding work or necessary duties to watch it, but let’s assume for the sake of our example that we’re talking about responsible recreation). And if it’s not sinful to watch something like Singin’ in the Rain, how could anyone argue that it’s sinful to create that kind of entertainment?
In his Letter to Artists, Saint John Paul II says: “Those who perceive in themselves this kind of divine spark which is the artistic vocation—as poet, writer, sculptor, architect, musician, actor and so on—feel at the same time the obligation not to waste this talent but to develop it, in order to put it at the service of their neighbour and of humanity as a whole.”
After you read my screenplays, you can argue with me about whether what I’m doing really reflects a “divine spark which is the artistic vocation,” but I do truly feel “the obligation not to waste [my] talent but to develop it, in order to put it at the service of [my] neighbour and of humanity as a whole.” Above all, I want what I write to be a gift to my readers. I want to serve others by offering them recreation that is wholesome and decent and fun.
My screenplays are not sacred. They do not explicitly evangelize or give praise to God. But I believe that I give praise to God in my creativity — hopefully because my creativity expresses goodness and truth and beauty — the same way that a kind gesture gives praise to God in its expression of goodness, and logic gives praise to God in its expression of truth, and mountains and sunsets and my cat give praise to God in their beauty.
Lord, may the things I write always give you praise and honor and serve for the benefit of all who read them. Amen.