I have heard a lot of buzz lately about the book 50 Shades of Grey. This book has been bought and read by
millions and has lasted at the top of the New
York Times bestseller list for over three months now. I personally know of a number of people who
have read it or have thought about reading it, not to mention a great amount of
buzz in the media and on Facebook about it. As
followers of Jesus, how should we react to a book like this or to other
questionable books, magazines, movies and places? We don’t need to become modern-day Pharisees,
nor do we need to isolate ourselves in a social corner. However, it seems to me that we need to come
to terms about where the Bible’s lines are on this subject.
Commenting on the book, sermoncentral.com writer Karen
Yates writes:
As a mother of three children, I'm likely raising my sons
to be someone's lover, husband, father, and best friend. My daughter too, is
learning how to be her husband's wife. And all around them are compromised,
loosened sexual content. It's on the TV, on the radio, in bookstores, on the
baseball field and next to the Trident at the grocery store check out. A few months
ago, when I was face-painting for our city, an 11-year-old asked to have 'Sexy and I Know It' etched on her
cheek (goodbye unicorns). Turn on a baseball game and you'll enjoy the
not-so-pleasant duty of educating your child about Cialis.
Sex sells, and while we can take steps as parents to guard what comes into our
homes, we cannot, unfortunately, completely isolate our children from the avid
sexual images around them.
Fifty is only going to make this
worse.
We need to be prepared.
The rulebook that navigates my life as a Jesus-follower is that of the
Holy Bible. For most of my readers, you too also have that
compass. Yet I understand there are many people who do not live their life
under that constitution, and I have many amazing friends who are of no faith or
of a different faith. I must be ready to take a stand in
this conversation. We (you and me) must be wise, educated, and engaged to speak
into the movement, and we need to have more than Bible verses under our belt.
We need to be able to discuss, dialogue, and challenge our culture as to why we
think these books and what they stand for negatively impact our
communities. We need to be able to explain why this book is not good for
the soul, why it will harm your marriage instead of help it, why a carnal
pleasure for a moment is not worth the lasting psychological harm.
Here is what Jesus says:
You
have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But
I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already
committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you
to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of
your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes
you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of
your members than that your whole body go into hell. (Matthew 5:27-30)
God designed us to pour all of our sexual energies into one
person, our husband or our wife. When we
don’t do that it inevitably leads us away from the design of God, wounding and
destroying the healthy sexual relationship we should have. As a pastor I know personally of many cases
where this very thing HAS happened . . . always to people who never expected
it! The effects of these things are
always subtle, so subtle most people deny having any trouble until it’s too
late.
What do you think about this important
subject, not just the book, but the important issue of fully honoring Jesus
with our hearts and minds in this area?
