I went to the Yahoo home
page this morning to sign into my email when a top news story caught my eye.
Box Office Report: 'Ted' Earns Record
$54.1 Mil; 'Magic Mike' Sizzles With $39.2 Mil
I clicked on to read
about the record breaking numbers and found the article reporting, "It's the first time in history that two R-rated movies opened
north of $20 million on the same weekend" (Yahoo! Movies). In
fact, the top 3 movies in the box office right now are 'Ted' at number one,
followed by 'Magic Mike' in place two, and THEN Pixar's 'Brave'. Not to
mention 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' is currently holding the sixth spot
on the list.
Let's take a look at books while we're at it.
I'm sure we've all been made aware of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy
that is still holding position one on the New York Best Seller's List for
Fiction. This is erotic fiction, and it only took a week for 856,000
copies of the trilogy to be sold. The surge of sales is being compared to
that of Harry Potter books. The first book was only
released last year, and already it has swept across the nation, making its name
known, and has been translated into over 30 other languages. Oh, and get
this, Universal and Focus Features have already bought the movie rights.
Back to the box office. I can't even
imagine the weekend that this film will be released. How will it not be
put straight into adult movie stores??
You know, the entertainment industry only
supplies to the popular demand. I don't think it is fair to put all the
blame on them. Really, America? It is our participation and our
money that supports this kind of pop culture. I cannot say I am
completely innocent...there are plenty of sitcoms or movies that have some
suggestive material in them that I've simply dismissed because I still like the
show. However, seeing things blow up to this level of crude humor and
sexual innuendos makes me realize how just how slippery the slope is.
Maybe I'm not one to support 'Ted', 'Magic Mike', or Fifty Shades,
but what about the people that do? I've heard some of my own friends and
people I love and respect mention some of these titles
and nonchalantly admit to reading or seeing something that reserves
some shock factor for me. They didn't start there. It has gradually
become more and more "okay" and perhaps more addicting to be
entertained by raunchy themes and erotic elements.
So what's next? What is going to be on the
screens 5 - 10 years from now? What will we keep allowing to ooze into
our culture that will break new records and might have our great-grandparents
rolling in their graves? Come on America, let's stop and use our brains
for a second. Where is all this leading? Is it really
fulfilling?
What are we here for? What is the bigger picture?
For all that we have done we are condemned, but we have been offered such an
amazing gift. It defies all odds - there is a God who loves and offers
not just immediate, but ETERNAL salvation! Love. Love that defies
all odds. Love that will completely enrapture your heart if you let it.
Love that redeems, that saves, that is pure and healthy. In light
of that, are we willing to mess around at the peak of the slippery slope?
Romans 1
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the
truth by their wickedness, 19 since
what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to
them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s
invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen,
being understood from what has been made, so that people are without
excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither
glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile
and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although
they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a
mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them
over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for
the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They
exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created
things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to
shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for
unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men
also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one
another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves
the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they
did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them
over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have
become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They
are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers,
God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil;
they disobey their parents; 31 they have
no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although
they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve
death, they not only continue to do these very things but also
approve of those who practice them.
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