Unfortunately, I've watched far too much anime in my day to think your avatar creepy. Actually, there are certain series that, after you've watched them, nothing else is even remotely creepy anymore. Or weird. Or disgusting. Even more unfortunately, I saw some of those, too.
Although few things beat a certain occasion on which my dvd player glitched up... suddenly there were mouths and eyes appearing in very unusual places... like in mid air or on people's foreheads. It was very... interesting... :shocked:
But I did go through a period in my life in which my views on a lot of things changed (for the better), and in which I looked at what I was watching, reading and listening to, and began to ask myself WHY. It was shortly after that when I began throwing things out left and right, and all of my anime posters came down off the walls. And I gave up modern movies pretty much entirely. And I stopped listening to the radio and most modern music.
Among the other revelations I had at the time, was this one: there is something wrong (or at the very least thoroughly hypocritical) about loving or liking characters that are purely evil. Now that says nothing about sympathizing with the guy who may have been forced into a really bad position in his life. But there is something wrong, for instance, with the idea of a Catholic liking a character that is supposedly a devil. (Or a vampire, or any other purely and absolutely evil thing.)
Why is there something wrong with it? Well, it's a matter of principal, I think. If we claim to love God and good, the more we do so, the more certain things are no longer funny or acceptable. Sure this or that character may not really be from hell, because they do not exist to begin with. But in principal, you're giving fond sentiment to something that is supposed to be from hell, and at once nurturing that hollywood poison by which people come to love that which is "bad" or that which is "evil" because it seems to be powerful... in fact oftentimes on screen, even more powerful than that which is innocent and that which is good. What I realized finally, is that this may seem harmless, but it is anything but, because it cements a subconscious attraction to or affection for that which is bad or evil, and associates it in our minds with being "cool" or "good."
But finally, where are our hearts and our heads at when we love such things? (Again, I say this as someone who has been up to her eyeballs with this kind of entertainment until quite recently.) Is there really place in our mind to love and admire Christ with all our minds, hearts and souls, and with our whole strength and our whole will, and at the same time to admire this anime character who is supposed to be a devil, and chances are who in the course of the series kills one or more other characters and probably beats or mutilates or mortally wounds scores of others?
I know this probably sounds like I lecture but... there is a dangerous kind of moral duality out there, that most of us are going to pick up just by being born into this world, if we do not come from a family life reminiscent of a convent or monastery. There is an idea that, that which is bad is good, and that which is good is lame. Or that it is "all right" to like or have affection for that which is bad. And if you think that there's nothing wrong with that way of thinking, I dare you to try and stop it. Immediately you will probably discover that you had far more sentimental affection for those things than you ever realized or wanted to have. And what ends up happening is something far more serious than what we simply watch or read or hang on our walls. We get to the place oftentimes, where we develop a subconscious or unconscious revulsion or contempt for that which is good. Sometimes we develop a quite conscious one, and it's all we can do to keep our faith. But positive sentiment toward that which is evil, or that which is supposed to be evil, will automatically begin to foster contempt for that which is good.
When we get to the place where we would writhe under the title "innocent" and want nothing to do with it, or try shyly to escape being called "good" ... that is a result of having loved that which is opposite. The two, being opposite, cannot be mixed, and where affection for the one exists, contempt for the other will be automatic, even if it grows unnoticed and unintentionally inside of us for years before we finally realize what has happened.
The world is a hard place to quit. But one way or another, we must quit the world (by will) or quit our eternal life. One of the hardest things in my own life, was trying to embrace things like "good" and "innocence" and virtue, after wallowing for so long in a way of life in which they were scorned, to the extent that I myself came to scorn them. I strongly suspect I will be fighting that battle for many years to come, if not for the rest of my life. You can get the poison out of a body (or out of a mind), but sometimes the effects of that poison linger for life.
I guess the lesson is this. Very few things in life are really "harmless." If Christ wouldn't make them, wouldn't do them, wouldn't watch them, wouldn't listen to them, wouldn't like them, or couldn't let them into heaven... chances are, they are not harmless for us. If there are no demons in heaven, there shouldn't be any in our hearts or in our heads. (Or on our walls.) Even movie/book/animation ones.
Topic: Your username and avatar (Read 2533 times)