Abriana Chilelli had to drive her children past a lewd strip club advertisement every day on their way home from school in downtown Denver. But instead of taking a fatalistic attitude and a detour, or worse, just accepting it, she got in touch with a city councilman and within days, the pornographic image was gone. We discuss her story and the lessons she learned about how we can still accomplish positive change in our communities, and the importance of teaching children the true meaning of their bodies.

Links

Abriana Chilelli https://twitter.com/AbrianaChilelli

Book mentioned in interview: Good Pictures, Bad Pictures https://goo.gl/XHNJzn

Book reviewed: A Bad Catholic’s Essays on What’s Wrong with the World by Marc Barnes https://amzn.to/2MZhQkl 

Sample essay https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/08/make-hell-hot-again

Marc Barnes’s website https://bad-catholic.com/ 

1979 Wise Blood film adaptation https://amzn.to/2yJjd3N 

Timestamps

00:48 Book review: A Bad Catholic’s Essays on What’s Wrong with the World by Marc Barnes

7:59 John Huston’s film adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood

9:46 Abriana Chilelli interview

10:50 The lewd advertisement on Abriana’s commute home from her children’s school

15:07 Her attempts to get it taken down, and final success with help from a city councilman

19:54 What she learned: Don’t assume nothing can be done; the problem of Catholic fatalism and the need to be in the public square and build relationships

22:00 Thomas’s frustration at lewd public service ads on the NYC subway

24:36 #MeToo and America’s reckoning with the consumption of women’s bodies

26:06 Tact and truth: communicating your complaint in a way that accomplishes something

30:53 Abriana’s work as curriculum director for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Denver; how to teach children about the meaning of their bodies

34:20 How pornography influences gender ideology

36:03 This week’s excerpt: Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, Ch. 4, p. 151 https://goo.gl/yLgtwU