Tag: Telenovelas

What the Bible Teaches but Telenovelas Don’t

In the previous post, I mentioned how much I disliked telenovelas but focused more on The Empire television show. In this post, I would like to focus a little bit more on the telenovelas that are so common here in Ghana.

Telenovelas are serial dramas which has its origination from Spain. The level of viewership for these soap operas have soared recently since a number of television stations are translating them into our local language.

Although I do not remember the last time I watched one, I know they have very similar story lines – the lead role is played by either a beautiful woman whose love is being competed for by two men or a handsome man whose love is being fought for by two beautiful women.

Why the dislike for Telenovelas?

  1. They have the power to influence your judgement – Before I became emotionally matured I thought love was all about what I saw in telenovelas – falling in love with a handsome guy or lady, walking on the beach and sipping a drink or going horseback riding and when you got tired with whoever you were with, you switched to another one who made your heart skip faster. That is what most of these story lines portrayed, but in reality love is way more than that. One of my favourite verses in the Bible is 1 Corinthians 13 which provides you with a vivid description of what love ought to be. Proclaiming you love someone is more of an action than emotional. Before anyone proclaims he/she is in love with anyone, they should have a look at what the Bible says before they do so. Sadly, most of these women and children who watch these serials begin to develop certain fantasies about what their love life should be – expecting roses from their men and other romantic gestures which are not too familiar in the Ghanaian culture, causing drifts in their relationships and marriages.
  2. They are addictive – Yes, when you miss one episode, you feel your life is about to end therefore, whenever it’s time for that particular programme, you would want to leave whatever you are doing to see what is happening to “Camilla” or “Paloma.” If you are going through that remember the Bible mentions in Romans 6:16 … Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Let us be mindful of whatever we choose to become slaves to.
  3. They teach the wrong things (morally) – This is one of the reasons I stopped watching them. Telenovelas have a beautiful way of making evil people seem so strong and powerful and got away with the sin they committed but sin is something the Bible strongly condemns… Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? …1 Corinthians 9:10

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up,” and that is according to I Corinthians 10:23, so my question today is what have you been spending your time on?

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3 Reasons I Dislike “The Empire” Series

I stopped watching telenovelas years ago mainly because I hated all the twists, turns and the nature of love they portrayed. I do not like to watch any series either and this because they are long, play with ones’ emotions and portrays lies as real life. I read an interview with Taraji Henson of ‘The Empire” fame and I decided to watch the Empire series to understand what has made this particular American series so popular.

The series was filled with so many nice things including people wearing attractive clothes, good music, very handsome and beautiful people but I still take my stance that these television programmes are simply not a thing for me. I know they are just acting for the money and may not exhibit these characters in real life some viewers may be influenced to adopt some of their lifestyles.

My observations while watching the series include-

  1. The actors and actresses did not portray the character of Christ – The fruit of the Spirit which is the character of Christ include love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, kindness, meekness, faithfulness and self-control and that is according to Galatians 22 but what do we see in these series? People scrambling for a share of rich man’s “empire” and stopping at nothing. They did not mind killing each other to get a share of the riches and not forgetting the owner of the Empire himself who stopped at nothing including hurting his family to get rich. No wonder the Bible says it will be much easier for a donkey to enter into the eye of a needle than for rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God – Matthew 19:24
  2. It is filled with sexual perversity – The Bible, especially in the New Testament mentioned severally that believers should abstain from sexual immorality (Acts 15:20, 1 Corinthians 5) but these series had a very nice way of justifying sexual immorality. What did we see? Family members laying with one another, friends having fun with sex as if sex was like having a drink. And the homosexuals in Empire, they had a field day. I had a discussion with a friend who drew my attention to the fact that, the empire series had really packaged homosexuality in a very nice way which will make it acceptable even for believers. How? Because the gays in the series were handsome, patient, very loving and talented and it was so easy to accept them and their ways but the Bible made us understand in 1 Corinthians 6:9, that homosexuals among other people will not enter into the Kingdom of God.
  3. They swore and blasphemed – There were scenes in the series where the lead actor likened himself to Jesus for coming back to life, as God for he had to be immortalised but the Bible also mentions that blasphemy was one of the evils that came from within a man which had the high risk of defiling him. Mark 7:22

Have you watched any of these series? What are your views? Are there series or movies that are helpful for believers? Share them with us!