Sex on television can provide the “opportunity...

Sex on television can provide the “opportunity for dialogue” on a subject that most parents find uncomfortable initiating with their children, suggests Sister Elizabeth Thoman, Media & Values editor.

While recognizing that tasteless or demeaning use of sexual images may call for objections to networks and advertisers and monitoring of TV viewing in the home, Thoman’s quarterly magazine, published in Los Angeles with both religious and secular financing, recommended in its spring issue on sex what it called a “creative and positive response.”

What is sexy and suggestive to an adult is not necessarily so to youngsters, Thoman said. “Adults come to the viewing experience with more life experience and thus can ‘read’ more into media plots and scenarios than children can,” she wrote.

The magazine’s pragmatic approach comes at a time when debate has increased on whether a new skittishness about offending viewers evident at TV networks has arisen from efforts of religious boycotts, the wariness of cautious advertisers or a pullback from excess by TV executives.

Thoman discounted the impact of boycotts by “thousands” when viewers are counted in the millions. She also wrote in the magazine that it is “unrealistic” for parents to severely restrict television time for children.

Suggestions on “teachable moments,” written for possible use by church and synagogue groups, were included in the magazine, published by the Media Action Research Center. “In the end, what the media communicate to our kids about sex is less influential than what we communicate to them,” Thoman said, citing studies summarized in the magazine.

MOTHER-SON

A mother and son in Boston who are both Episcopal priests were described as possibly the first such combination in that denomination by a Religious News Service story last Saturday. However, according to the Center for Christian Spirituality-West, that distinction was reached in Los Angeles at least 10 years ago with the ordination of the Rev. Emily Stevens Hall. Daughter of a former Los Angeles Episcopal bishop, she was ordained Jan. 20, 1979, by the late Bishop Robert C. Rusack. Her son, Mark Hall, was ordained three years earlier by the Diocese of Maine and currently serves the Diocese of San Joaquin. Emily Hall, now living in Santa Paula, is president of the center’s board.

PEOPLE

The First Baptist Church of Los Angeles will add a second full-time clergywoman to its five-person ministerial staff on June 1--Mary Jane (Janey) Smith, a widowed former missionary to Zaire and a Fuller Theological Seminary graduate. Admitting that the 760-member congregation was “making an important symbolic statement to our denomination,” Senior Pastor John H. Townsend said only a few women clergy serve American Baptist Churches in Southwestern states. The churches “have been slow to recognize the gifts of women whom God has called into the ministry,” he said. Already on staff is the Rev. Ruth S. Morales, who is preaching Sunday, which happens to be Mother’s Day on the secular calendar and Pentecost Sunday on the Christian calendar.

DATES

Archeologist Carol Meyers of Duke University, co-director of the research team that uncovered a mosaic dating to the 3rd Century AD at ancient Sepphoris in Galilee, will be a featured speaker at the Shabbat weekend, starting Friday, for young adults at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley.