“How are We Going to Save Your Marriage?”: Exploring How Pastors Discuss Sexualized Media

Abstract

ABSTRACT Media with sexual content is highly prevalent in the current media landscape and demonstrably negatively affects viewers’ mental health. Past research has examined how parental mediation of this type of content can help reduce negative media effects of sexualized media content. This qualitative interview study adds to the understanding of how pastors perceive sexualized media, their experiences with it, and how they recommend their parishioners to engage or not engage with it. The findings are discussed in relation to parental mediation theorizing as well as previous pastor-parishioner communication literature.