Me too.
Go to Catholicvote.org (you don’t have to be Catholic), register–it’s super simple–and vote for a commercial on non-contraceptive family planning! Let’s show them we think it’s important, beautiful and life changing!
Would You Like to See a Hip NFP commercial?
May 10, 2009 at 9:37 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Catholic, Catholicism, Catholicvote.org, Family Planning, Marketing, Media, NFP
Sex Sells…and Saves (Updated)
May 7, 2009 at 10:40 pm (Events, Morality & Ethics, See it!)
Tags: ABC Nightline, Alice von Hildebrand, Birth Control, Catholic, Catholicism, Christopher West, Contraception, Family Planning, Fr. Jose Granadas, Hugh Hefner, Mary Shivanandan, Media, News, NFP, Nightline, Pope John Paul II, Sex, Theology of the Body
(Newly Updated 5/8/09)
ABC’s Nightline did a piece tonight on Christopher West and Theology of the Body tonight, and I tuned in to see how badly the media would mess it up.
But guess what? It was brilliant. Zero trace of anti-Catholicism, and several money moments for telling the Good News of Sex and Marriage, complete with married couples’ testimonies, the bulimia-contraception analogy, and the mutual climax quote from John Paul II (You’ve got to see the clip or read the books to know what I’m talking about).
A downside in trying to pack in so much in ten minutes is that you leave out all of the dimensions of the Theology of the Body, like the beauty of vocation, celibacy and consecrated life, its implications for art, liturgy and beyond. As I said recently to a friend, sometimes people get the idea (as it would be easy to) that TOB is “Theology of the Genitals,” when, in fact, it’s Theology of the Body, Soul and entire person.
Another critique I have, which is probably a critique that many have of Christopher West, is that if you didn’t know Christopher West, Theology of the Body, and the context, he might come off a little like a sex maniac. However, if you know how far he’s come in his personal and professional development, you get it. West is really good at what he does–communicating and getting one’s attention so that he can share Theology of the Body. This is a message people need to hear, and one that has affected the lives of so many already.
Did you see it? What did you think?
Things you can do:
- Read Theology of the Body for Beginners, or buy it for someone who’s not read it
- Pray for hearts and minds of those who saw this tonight to be opened
- Thank ABC (see link above) for doing a piece on TOB
Update: Read CNA’s Interview with West regarding the “sensationalism” of the interview content.
Update 2: CNA’s Interview with Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand, Mary Shivanandan, and Fr. Jose Granados.
Update 3: Facebook conversation on Natural Family Planning discussion board.
Medocrity & Marketing NFP
October 15, 2008 at 11:13 pm (Humor/Wit, Ideas)
Tags: Art, Contraception, Family Planning, Graphic Design, Humanae Vitae, Humor, Humor/Wit, Marketing, Media, Natural Family Planning, NFP, Theology of the Body, World Contraception Day
I was trying to find some video of a dynamic Natural Family Planning, contra-contraception, or Humanae Vitae talk on YouTube, and I couldn’t find anything! (Yes, I know, the seminarians are there, but the novelty is wearing off.) There were a couple of decent homilies, but they weren’t the speed I was looking for for the blog.
So you know what I found instead? This jazzy cartoon:
Are you just so *sold* on World Contraception Day? Well, naturally, I was curious and checked out their web site, YOUR-LIFE.COM (note to self: future Humanae Vitae site will be HIS-LIFE.COM). There was the usual mis-information about natural methods of family planning , although it wasn’t as ridiculously incorrect as it usually is, and there weren’t any cartoons making fun of it. Overall, though, it was an all-around cool site, anti-fertility, anti-family messages notwithstanding. I really liked the FAMILY/TEACHERS/PRESS bars on the side, giving information to parents on how to talk to their kids about said travesty (“Listen Son, you’re beginning to have special feelings, so I want to teach you about something that has divided your mom and I so that you, too, can objectify and poison that special someone.”) teachers about how to give workshops (“Hey kids! Here’s women’s lib’s gift to you: poisoned relationships between the sexes, higher STI rates and a massive correlation to the world’s highest divorce rate. C’mon!”), and press all sorts of media-related goodies–videos, photos, press releases, etc.
WHAT A GREAT RESOURCE if you don’t believe that contraception is the greatest societal cancer to women, children and families, the fallout of which we’re just now experiencing!
But seriously, folks. This is great media presence here, particularly for the youth/ young adults and their parents/ mentors. The million dollar question (or mostly likely the ten thousand dollar question) here is: WHY DON’T WE HAVE THIS KIND OF MEDIA PRESENCE FOR HUMANAE VITAE, THEOLOGY OF THE BODY AND NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING!? Now, to give credit where it’s due, there is good web presence for Theology of the Body & Chastity (but it could be better) and a few good sites for Natural Family Planning and at least one fair site for Humanae Vitae. (I won’t name my personal taste here because there will be a firestorm of comments from such-and-such a group/NFP method/diocese/whomever complaining that I’m being unfair and they’ve gotten really good feedback from their favorite techie. Good for you, but sometimes, “Hey, it’s a great web site compared to all the lame churchy web sites” is not a qualifying statement for the great web site awards. As you know, the artistic bar in the Church is not set too high in most places.
Back to the question: Why does our media suck–especially for such vital evangelization efforts as marriage and sexuality–and what can we do about it? Do you know of an off-the-hook web site, brochure or media campaign? Let me know!
