Theater-Going | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 2, 1882

Theater-Going.

WHY is theater-going sinful? The evil here is quite sufficiently marked to prevent one who wishes to lead a consistent Christian life from becoming a habitue of theaters. 1. The stage always caters to the lascivious and immoral classes of our cities—not in every play—but always in a sufficient number of them to attract those classes. We need not specify how this is done. Every habitual theater-goer knows how it is done. 2. The stage always, though not in every play, makes flings at religion. It is popular with the immoral classes who are to be attracted. 3. The stage teaches a maudlin and often a false system of morality. It sometimes teaches a pure and lofty morality, but the rule is the other way. 4. It gives false views of life, just as the sensational French novel does. Persons who have no prejudice against theaters from churchly education, know and admit that these objections are well founded. Therefore it is not well for Christians to give encouragement to such institutions, nor, by their example, to lead others into them.—Interior.