Maybe this is the lawyer in me but let me give a little
disclaimer before I say all of this:
I am not
writing this to condemn anybody who genuinely sees this as just another movie
and will be watching it. I am not judging anyone for going to watch it, or for
reading the book, as a matter of fact, I have friends and family of my own who
have read the book and plan on watching the movie. I AM NOT BEING JUDGEMENTAL!
Please do not think that, however if you do think that, that will have to be
alright because the Holy Spirit laid this on my heart and if I do not write it,
I will regret it. If I’ve learned anything in my short twenty-three years on
the Earth, it is that I cannot ignore God and what he asks of me. So, here goes
nothing…
Now, if I
am being honest, I attempted to read the book when it first came out. I wanted
to see what all the hype was about, but I was about fifty pages in and it
didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Also, again, if I am truly being honest with
you, I was a little convicted by it, so I stopped reading. I will also admit
that I watched Magic Mike and was convicted by that too. Now that I have been
honest with you about my convictions and lapses in judgment, let me give you the
reasoning behind these convictions.
Reason #1: It is pornography. PERIOD. But, it isn’t just
sex, it is bondage, domination, and abuse. Yes, you can still have those things
in a consensual relationship. From my understanding there are even times when
Anastasia, the main female character, talks of feeling threatened. That is
scary stuff! And if I watch it, I feel
like I will be supporting it. I don’t want to support that. God doesn’t want me
to support that. Pornography is a big enough problem in our culture, much less
the kind of pornography portrayed in this book and movie.
Reason #2: I have a serious problem with the fact that this
movie is being released where teenagers will be able to go out and watch it on
their date night! I know it is rated R but in my town teenagers get into rated
R movies all the time. What do you think
will happen after they leave the movies? I personally feel like the movie will
encourage them to attempt to experience the feelings they saw portrayed in the
movie on their way home from their date, maybe even in the backseat of a car? I
was a teenager once. I remember how it worked (again, I am being blatantly
honest). This movie may encourage them to lose the most sacred part of
themselves. The part of themselves that God has given them to carry into their
marriage. A huge part of themselves, which I personally believe, the
significance of which has been so lost in our culture that it has caused
divorce rates to skyrocket, families to break apart and marriages to be treated
like a temporary deal that means no more than a big party (the wedding), with
an awesome vacation afterwards (the honeymoon). I don’t want to support that.
I have several other reasons but for sake of time and how
long this blog post will be, I am only going to offer one more.
Reason #3: Christians are already viewed as hypocrites.
Statistics show that one of the biggest reasons non-believers want nothing to
do with the church is because of how hypocritical believers, Christ followers,
or people who call themselves Christ followers are. I do not want someone who I
am supposed to be leading to Christ, to view me as hypocritical because I am at
church on Sunday, lifting my hands and my eyes to the Lord and singing my heart
out to Him but on Saturday, with those same eyes, I am at the movies watching
something that promotes everything that is the exact opposite of Christ and his
love and what his model for love and sex in marriage is.
This is his model: “Wives,
submit to you own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of
the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself it’s
Savior. Now as the church submits to
Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands,
love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with
the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.
In the same way husbands should love
their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no
one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ
does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall
leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become
one flesh.” The mystery is profound, and
I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of
you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her
husband.” Ephesians 5:22-33
How would I not be sending mixed
messages to non-believers by supporting this? How is Ephesians 5:22-33 and Fifty
Shades of Grey not contradictory to Christ’s message of love? Does Ephesians 5:22-33
sound like Christian Grey and Anastasia?
How is it
okay to judge people for what they say and wear and how they act towards the
church when we as the church are going out and supporting a movie and book that
are the antithesis of who Christ is? Sin
is sin.
I could go on and on for hours
but I won’t. As I said earlier, this is between you and God and the bible says
to “work out your own souls salvation, with fear and trembling.” Philippians
2:12 If this does not honestly convict you then that is fine. It is between you
and Jesus. I am just being honest about my convictions and writing this because
the Holy Spirit laid it on my heart. I would rather please the Lord and make
some people upset with me than please people and hurt the Lord.
I love all of you guys!
xoxo,
Em
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