Skip to main content

Fifty Shades: Merging the "black-and-white" in "Grey"

By now you are probably familiar with the book series that is polarizing social media. I am, of course, talking about 50 Shades of Grey. But that is not really what I am talking about.

I am not going to weigh in on the book (if you want a good opinion, here is one that I enjoyed). I want to look beyond the book at a phenomenon that is overtaking our culture.

For so long we have understood simple things to be “black and white” issues. Remember when your word and a handshake served as a binding agreement? Now high priced lawyers are experts at finding loopholes in written documents. They call these loopholes “gray areas.”

You were probably raised on the fact that lying is wrong. Now we want to debate if lying is ok in some instances (we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, for example). I could go on, but I think I made my point.

Whether it is an erotic book, a crude sitcom, a steamy cinema, a “fun” song, or anything else, ask yourself if you have to create a gray area for your conscience in order to enjoy it. When you do, that is called compromise.

Let’s go a step further and forget the black and white; let’s focus on the red letters.

“You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone that looks at a woman with lustful intent has committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Jesus
Matthew 5:27-28

(this also applies to a woman having lustful thoughts from a man in a book, like Christian Grey)

The natural response becomes, “Don’t judge me!” So before someone uses that line let me remind the reader that the same rebuttal was used by the wicked men in Sodom the night that it was destroyed in Genesis 19:8-9.

“[Lot said] ‘I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.’ But they said, ‘Stand back! This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!’”

It seems that sexual sin has a way of making people feel conviction and cry “Judge!” Then they hide in the gray of night and carry on.

Christian brother and sister, come out of the gray and into the light. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To Save a Life

(Like my blog about the peace symbol, this blog was written as a default response to all the parents, students, and other people who are asking my opinion of To Save a Life.) By now you have probably heard of the movie To Save a Life, which opened nation-wide in theaters on January 22nd. The movie deals with so many issues that teens face today, like suicide, cutting, drinking, drugs, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, and abortion. At first glance this movie looks like an awesome resource that we should recommend for our teens, parents, youth pastors, and youth workers. But a closer look at the movie reveals a few disturbing things. For starters, according to pluggedin.com, there are 2 uses of the “A” word, 5 uses of hell (used as a curse word), and once the “D” word is used. There are other crude terms used to describe a girl, and crude terms for referring to sexual activity. There is also a bedroom scene that shows a girl removing a boy’s shirt, then afterwards the girl putting he

Evangelism

“Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” St. Francis of Assisi is given credit for this famous quote (although that exact phrasing does not appear in any of his writings), and a lot of people would think that this is a great philosophy. His actual quote was that everyone should “preach by their deeds.” Preaching with our deeds is not just a strategy, it is a necessity. We are commanded all through the Scriptures to let our light shine and be a peculiar people. People should be able to look at our lives and see that we are Christians. They should see the love of Christ readily on display, and thus feel compelled to live their lives in the same way. The sermon that we should preach with our lives is a sermon of love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, forgiveness, conviction, etc. But this idea that has emerged that says we should ONLY preach with our deeds is a heresy straight from the devil himself. Think about it: who is the one that does not want you t

What is a Curse Word?

I know. Stupid question, right? But lately I have heard Christians begin to debate what actually makes a word a curse word. Since the Bible never says, “Thou shalt not say the ‘s’ word,” how do we know that a word is bad? Because of this I have heard Christians justify cursing. The Bible gives a broad command for Christians to adhere to: let no corrupt word come out of your mouth (Ephesians 4:29). The word corrupt means rotten; therefore, we should never say a rotten word, whether it is on the list of curse words or not. First, we have to realize that there are curse words. On the night of Jesus’ arrest Peter was found guilty of using one himself. Matthew 26:74 tells us that when Peter denied knowing Jesus that he began “to curse and to swear.” This verse shows that there are curse words, and that they are wrong to use. I’m sure whatever words Peter said were not the same curse words that we have in our culture today. Here is the point: a curse word (or rotten word) is any wo