"Magic Mike" and "50 Shades of Perversion": Why Christians should steer clear of this kind of “Entertainment”

There’s an epic battle waging for our souls; it is and always will be the Enemy’s desire to get between us and the Almighty, and he is using the entertainment industry to sneak his way in. Satan is as alive now as he was in the Garden of Eden; tempting, lying and seducing. He is the Author and Father of Lies, and he is getting away with a whopper, by letting most of us think the movie Magic Mike and and the book 50 Shades of Grey are OK for us.

Too many of us so called “Christians” today buy into the perversion that is prevalent in entertainment, simply because it’s there, it’s being promoted and we read or hear good reviews. The popularity of such genre does not make it acceptable for us, as Christians, to take part in it. If anything, we should be speaking out against it.

We’re adults, you say, and should be able to see what we want. Yes, you have free will, which is God-given. But God gave us a set of rules, clearly laid out in His Word. The viewing or reading of inappropriate sexual content is not something we should be taking part in.

If you’re a Christian, Magic Mike and 50 Shades of Grey, (personally I like my title better) this is “entertainment” you should run and not walk away from, at the theater/library/bookstore.

Christian movie review site, http://www.movieguide.org/ holds nothing back in a portion of their scathing review of Magic Mike. (I have not seen the movie.)

"Very strong, vile pagan worldview with the major characters promoting the pursuit of sexual arousal as entertainment; at least 178 obscenities (primarily the “f” word) and five profanities, plus one blasphemous scene where a strip club manager thanks God for blessing his vile business; large fight in a sorority house when fraternity boys tire of seeing strippers paid to “entertain” their sorority girlfriends; very strong sexual content includes massive amounts of sexually suggestive stage performances, strippers (dressed as policemen) strip in a sorority house, male performers repeatedly pretend to be simulating sex with women from their audience, and strippers bring home women for acts of fornication; silhouette of male private parts, upper female nudity, full rear male and female nudity, extended and detailed presentations of men performing on stage wearing g-strings and skimpy outfits, and sexual device demonstrated for enlarging male private parts; heavy alcohol and drug use with scenes of drunkenness and drug induced stupors, in one scene a drugged man appears dead lying in his own vomit, and illegal drug sales and distribution; and rebellion and horrible role models.”

Now that’s what I call first-class viewing for the soul! We as Christians all need to be seeing and hearing this kind of graphic sexual sordidness, shouldn’t we? After all, it has to be OK if its not rated X? Right? Wrong!

In the case of Fifty Shades: I have not read the book, but like everyone else have heard about it and I’m quite surprised at its popularity. Recently one hotel owner in the UK even removed copies of the Bible from nightstands and replaced them with copies of the book; a very telling action in our society.

What we have is mass marketed erotica in book form, being touted as suitable for everyday reading. Women who would never think of going into an adult store or reading porn or watching porn, are suddenly “seduced” by this book. I find it disgusting.

50 Shades has become something of a phenomenon; it is highly eroticized, containing scenes of bondage and discipline, submission, dominance and sadomasochism. The term “mommy porn” has been used widely on the Internet when it comes to this book. It refers to women of child-rearing age, perhaps bored with their lives, and in between diaper duty and loads of laundry, are immersing themselves in the book.

This my friends, is Satan’s sneaky way of getting porn to be popular, mainstream and acceptable. Score one for the Enemy. And with Magic Mike a hit movie, score two.

When the Bible was written, there were no movies or mass produced books. But we can heed its warnings concerning the matter of sex. Let’s take a look at some Bible verses:

1 Peter 2:11

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

Watching men onscreen stripping off their clothes, yes, I’d say that falls into the category of sinful desires. Reading about explicit, disturbing sexual encounters – ditto.

Romans 13:13

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

You don’t just have to be having a lurid affair to fall into sexual immorality. Debauchery can also be defined as corruption, or wickedness. That’s what these forms of entertainment are.

1 Corinthians 6:13

The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Ephesians 5:3

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here to say that the book and the movie have more than a hint of sexual immorality in them.

Jude 1:7

In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

We all know what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. And much of the popular culture today is a mirror reflection of that sorry place. It didn’t end well for them.

Romans 1:28-30

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things…”

So you see, God will give you over to an impure mind, which is synonymous to the word debased. At some point, when you continue to violate His Word with what you are filling your mind with, you will no longer have that little voice in your conscience, which tells you, “This isn’t right.”

Make no mistake; just as you are what you eat, as a Christian, you are what you see and what you read. Don’t fall for the lie.