Satan's Chapel by Samuel Milton
Vernon Amusements in the Light of Reason, History and Revelation
1882 we find that as a matter of fact,
the good and the holy of all times have pronounced the theatre
to be disgraceful. We can trace the theater to a
definite beginning in the feasts of Bacchus, 500 years before
Christ, from which time, hand in hand with the wine god, its
first lover and lifelong companion, it has journeyed through the
world, spreading demoralization and desolation on every hand.
We consider it to be the devil's most successful scheme for destroying
the morals of the culture. The theatre, the saloon and the
brothel are the three confederate tempting devils of civilization,
seeking to despoil the flower of humanity. The theatre insinuates
lust, murder, theft, hypocrisy and profligacy upon overworked
and sensitive minds under the name of amusement and recreation. It inoculates our fairest sons
and daughters with the most deadly poisons, corrupting personal
purity, destroying domestic happiness and dishonouring the sanctuary
of home under the guise of entertainment. It has proven to be a school
of vice and the home of debauchery under the name of recreation.
It is black with the curses of the souls it has ruined, infamous
for the social impurities it has nursed into life, and abhorred
by everyone who studies its work of degradation and destruction. We are now to examine the character
of this ancient institution, whose whitened locks, as it stands
before us clad in the robes of its own history, must awaken
our veneration, were it not for the blood-spots on its hands,
the demon Lear in its eye, and the foul odors from its filthy
clothing, proclaiming it one of the vile monsters that still
lingers on the earth, because mankind have not had virtue enough
to exterminate it. From the days of Athens until
now, the wise and good have not ceased to bewail the demoralizing
effects of the theater. Throughout history, Christian
people have always been at war against Satan's chapel, the theater. Plato says, The diversions of
the theatre are dangerous to the temper and sobriety of mind. They rouse the feelings of passion
and sensual desire too much. Tragedy is prone to render men
unfeeling, and comedy makes them buffoons. Thus those passions
are cherished which ought to be checked. Virtue loses ground
and reason becomes uncertain. Aristotle says the law ought
to forbid young people the seeing of comedies until they are proof
against debauchery. Solon, the wisest of the Greeks
and their lawgiver, forbade theatrical exhibitions as pernicious to
the popular mind. Cicero says, the theatre exists
on lewdness. Seneca, the great heathen moralist
says, nothing is so injurious to good morals as theatres, for
then vice makes an insensible approach and steals upon us in
the disguise of pleasure. Mr. Wilberforce, known and honoured
wherever freedom unfurls her banner, affirms, the debauchee,
the sensualist, the profane, have ever found in the theatre
their chosen resort for enjoyment. He asks, how can a virtuous mind
seek pleasure in such a place amid such companions, and from
such persons as the actors and actresses are generally known
to be? Pollock says, the theatre was,
from the very first, the favourite haunt of sin, though honest men
maintain that it might be turned to good account. And so perhaps
it might, but never was. From first to last it was an
evil place, and now such things are acted there as make the demons
blush. In 1778, Congress passed a law
providing for the dismissal of any officer of the United States
who was found in attendance upon a theater. Soon after the Declaration
of Independence, the following resolution was adopted by Congress,
Whereas true religion and good morals are the only solid foundation
of public liberty and happiness. Resolved that it be and hereby
earnestly recommended to the several States to take the most
effective measures for the suppression of theatrical entertainments,
horse racing, gambling, and such other diversions as are productive
of idleness, dissipation, and general depravity of principles
and manners. Augustine calls the theatre a
cage of immorality and a public school of debauchery. Tillotson,
speaking of the conduct of certain parents, says, they are such
monsters, I'd almost said devils, as not to know how to give their
children good things. Instead of bringing them to God's
church, they bring them to the devil's chapels, playhouses,
places of debauchery, those schools of lewdness and vice. If we may
accept the testimony of those most to be trusted, the theatre
grows worse rather than better as it grows older, a strong indication
that its character is essentially bad. To consent to look upon
vice without a protest against it is the first step to moral
degeneracy. Editor's note, I wonder what
the author would say about much of today's entertainment.