Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Love is not Grey

It's everywhere!  This 50 Shades of Grey...

Commercials, talk shows, blogs, and facebook.  I really don't want to add to the barrage but there are a few things that have been burning in my heart regarding this phenom book and movie that I would like to talk about.

The most disturbing comments that I have read are the ones that say, "it's just fantasy" or the one that completely blew my mind, "it is a fictional book and a movie, it's not real, why is everyone getting so upset."  While at face value those statements are true, they are not reality.

I have sat in a brothel sharing the gospel with the women who prostitute themselves for their lively hood. I have seen the "fantasy rooms".  Trust me when I say, the sixteen year old that had to lead a man back to that room, it was not a fantasy to her.   I have stood outside a construction site and viewed two small shacks that were about the size of a 8X8 square, watching as man after man came and left.  These shacks were where the "kept" women lived.  The women that stay in them are slaves. They were sold to the man who runs the construction site for the sole purpose to keep the men happy. The women are used, abused, and usually killed.  Then they are discarded like trash, only for another to take her place.

Please forgive me for being so brash.  My southern girl inside of me is screaming that the words I have already typed are so harsh... graphic.... that I need to soften it or just be quiet.

But, the tears rolling down my face say, I can not.

What might seem like fantasy to you is very much a reality around the world.  Women being kept and used for sexual pleasure is not a harmless, fictional book or movie, it is a fact.  So that is why there are so many questions in my mind regarding  50 Shades of Grey. Questions that I think any responsible woman must ask herself;

Do I/you have to actually see the act of sex for it to be pornographic?
Can a movie/song/ or anything, lead me/ you to a place in our minds that can cause us can finish the story?
Why would any woman endorse another woman being tracked, kept, and hurt for sexual pleasure, no matter the setting?

Fact: 50 Shades of Grey contains a man tracking a woman because she is his possession,  bondage, dominance, forced sexual and emotional submission, sadism and masochism.

I have also read the comments by Christian women that have said that they are free in Christ to watch anything they want and that there should be no judgment or condemnation for their choice.

 My concern with statements like that is that they are really a scapegoat for us to further feed our flesh.  But those types of statements are wrapped so neatly in passionate and spiritual lingo, who can disagree. Everyone of us have desires and appetites in us that we want to feed, but does that mean we do? And then say, no one better judge me for it because I'm "free" to do whatever I want?
We are ask us to come out and be separate (2 Corinthians 6:17) and to not use our freedom as an opportunity for our flesh. (Galatians 5:13)

Fact: I have no power to pass ultimate judgement on anyone and God help anyone who thinks they can condemn another.

As a woman who is always talking to other women, I'm concerned with the damage that is done to women and their souls by this world we live in. I really want to ask you to ask yourself the questions above.  And then I want you to guard your heart and soul, my dear Christian sister.  We talk so little in the church about personal holiness, it's time...in fact it's way past time. God forgive us!  Let's start talking about being women who are marked by a relationship with Jesus.  Women who think from a gospel-centered perspective.  Not women who are marked by what we do or don't do!

No comments:

Post a Comment