My first encounter with the E. L. James’ best seller, Fifty Shades of Grey, came on a flight home from my honeymoon with my wife. There was a middle-aged woman sitting beside us on the plane and my wife struck up a conversation with her. She was an elementary school teacher and a professing Christian who had been on an all-ladies trip with some of the other teachers from her school. At one point my wife noticed a book that she had been reading and asked her what it was. With her face as red as could be, she told us that it was probably not a good book to be reading, but she just couldn’t put it down. I had never heard of the book and neither had my wife, so we didn’t really understand what she was talking about. But we knew that there was obviously something wrong with it, as we saw her conviction setting in.
To get an idea of what the book is, without having to read the raunchy tale, look no further than the secular critics of the book. As Dave Barry of Time magazine writes, “So what kind of book is Fifty Shades of Grey? I would describe it, literary genre–wise, as ‘a porno book’.” It has even been given the title of “Mommy Porn” by some of its critics. But it doesn’t stop there. Fifty Shades of Grey promotes the perverse act of sadomasochism or BDSM: (bondage & discipline, dominance & submission). The book was so over-the-top that even practicing dominatrixes say it was out of line, even claiming that Christian Grey uses his authority over Anastasia Steele to perform sex acts that the main character would not choose by her own free will to be in. In 2013 Amy E. Bonomi, PhD, MPH, did a study where they assessed the book for characteristics of intimate partner violence, or IPV, using the CDC’s standards for emotional abuse and sexual violence. The study was titled “‘Double Crap!’ Abuse and Harmed Identity in Fifty Shades of Grey”. Their findings ended up revealing that nearly every interaction between Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey (the main characters in the books/movie) were emotionally abusive in nature, including stalking, intimidation, and isolation. The study group also observed pervasive sexual violence within the CDC’s definition, including Christian Grey’s use of alcohol to circumvent Ana’s ability to consent, and that Ana exhibits classic signs of an abused woman, including “constant perceived threat, stressful managing, and altered identity.” (Source)
With all of these strikes against it, you must be thinking that the book’s literary prowess must have led to the book’s success, right? Not according to most critics.
When speaking about the book from a literary point of view, writer Salman Rushdie stated, “I’ve never read anything so badly written that got published. It made Twilight look like War and Peace.” (Source)
Zoe Williams of The Guardian writes, “James writes as though she’s late for a meeting…” (Source) and Dave Berry stated, “If Jane Austen (another bestselling female British author) came back to life and read this book, she would kill herself.” (Source)
So what would draw women to read a book that, by all intents and purposes, is a poorly written, BDSM (bondage & discipline, dominance & submission), sadomasochist porno?
This can best be explained by looking at the erotic genre as a whole. Fifty Shades of Grey is not the only erotic novel that is selling like hotcakes. According to an article by Forbes Magazine, the entire genre is seeing a radical increase of sales because of new technology:
“Liate Stehlik, SVP and publisher of William Morrow and Avon Books says sales of erotic fiction have been growing over the last five years because readers are able to download titles electronically, easing embarrassment of shopping the adult section in book stores, having to look a cashier in the eye or exposing the book jacket in public. More discreet e-readers, like Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad, allow women to venture into genres they may have previously dismissed as “that kind of book” they’d never read. “The e-book is the great equalizer,” says Stehlik.” (Source)
So it seems that with the advent of digital book reading, there has been a sense of false security of hiding under the veil. The problem is, “…there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.” (Luke 12:2). You may be able to sneak around with your iPad or Kindle Fire, but there is nothing that will get by our omniscient Creator!
But Fifty Shades of Grey has been able to make it appear “ok” or even “cool” for ladies to read this lascivious novel. It has been portrayed as a romance novel over the erotic fantasy book that it truly is. The very thing that was once hidden in shame is now being flaunted about as a badge of honor among women. This is a book that completely got its launch from word-of-mouth. Women are exclaiming how amazing they feel reading this book. The sort of smut that would have been embarrassing to discuss openly just a few years ago is now being bragged about on subways and talked about all over the world.
While men are usually the ones being considered when talking about the problem of lust and pornography, there are a growing number of women who are falling victim to this as well. In fact, researcher Diana Parry interviewed 28 women ranging in age from 20 to 50+ who had read Fifty Shades of Grey, and asked about their pornography habits. She discovered that women in the group increased their consumption of sexually explicit content after reading the book. “So many of the women [we interviewed] were hopping in for the first time to pornography or sexually explicit material that was written by women for women,” Parry told Salon in an interview. (Source)
This small study should cause us to wonder what kind of affect this sadomasochist porn will have on the over 100 million people that bought the book. You read that right! Well OVER 100 million copies of this book have now been sold. Even landing into the hands of many professing Christians.
Tragically, the fact that professing Christians are tearing these books off the shelves comes as no surprise to those watching the spiritual climate of the so-called “church” today. There has been a sad display of sexual atheism that has been plaguing the church for a long time. As the latest “State of Dating in America” report has shown, Christian Mingle has turned into the local hookup scene you might see at your local bar! (According to the study, if a prospective partner gets drunk on the first date, 72% of men would look past it and go out with her again, while 41% of women would go out with a drunk date again).
The study, done by ChristanMingle®.com in conjunction with JDate.com, has shown that a spiritual malaise has certainly happened in the Christian dating realm.
While not all of the results from the survey came from professing Christians (JDate.com is a Jewish dating site), many of them did. The questions ranged from “Would you break up with someone because of their pet?” to “Would you have sex before marriage?” Here are some of the staggering results:
92% of Men said that they would have sex before married
81% of Women say they would have sex before marriage
93% of Men say they would move in before marriage
82% of Women say they would move in before marriage
(Source – PDF)
With these grotesque numbers on display, one cannot help but think of the verse in Luke 6:46 in which Jesus asks “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not the things I say?” Or Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
With over 100 million copies of the book sold and $85 million made from the film adaptation on its Valentine’s Day and President’s Day weekend debut, there is little doubt that there are many professing believers that can be included in the record breaking numbers. But just how dirty is it? The star of the film, Jamie Dornan (who plays Christian Grey), was so repulsed by his encounter with a BDSM practitioner, that he thought a shower was needed before touching his loved ones:
”I saw a dominant with one of his two submissives, [..] It was an interesting evening. Then going back to my wife and newborn baby afterwards… I had a long shower before touching either of them.” –Jamie Dornan (Source)
Yes, the star of the film is completely disgusted by the very thing he is selling to his audience! But many professing Christians will not even bat an eye as they entertain themselves with utter filth. The film reportedly features over 20 full minutes of sex scenes, leaving no doubt as to what a lascivious movie it is. Are we really going to be entertaining ourselves with a movie celebrating sexual deviancy? To do so is to go against the very words of Jesus Himself. For He warned in Luke 11:34-35 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Thats right, according to Jesus, viewers will not be turning to Grey, but to black. When we subject our minds to such filth, we become darker and darker. As we suppress the truth of God’s word and leave the armor of God behind, we allow the enemy to grab a foothold in our life. As God’s word states, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience” (Colossians 3:5-6). We are to put that rotten filth to death! Render it DEAD.
Let the words of James, the brother of Jesus, bring a warning to us as well:
“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” –James 1:14-15
This is what Satan wants to birth in you. He would love to have you meditating and day-dreaming of Christian Grey rather than your spouse. He would love to have you falling for someone that is going to lead you away from Christ and into sexual perversion. We are warned that it is not merely the sexual act of adultery that a person is found guilty of in God’s eyes, but the very thought of being in bed with someone you are not married to. It is of this very sin that Christ tells us “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29).
This article is not written to condemn someone if they have fallen victim to Satan and his schemes. Jesus came to bring us victory in this area, just as any other area of our life. This is written to warn of the darkness that this movie and book series can create in one’s heart. We need to realize that God wants our whole heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). He wants us to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). If you have fallen victim and have allowed this pornography to enter into your household, get rid of it! Don’t wait another minute! In the book of Acts chapter 19, we read of a myriad of sorcerers who, upon realizing their sinful state and falling before God in repentance, took all of their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone (Acts 19:19). We are told that the approximate value of the books burned was around 50,000 days of labor! According to Amazon, Fifty Shades of Grey goes for about $8.97 in paperback. Not that money should make a difference, but that should help us to realize that this is a small price to pay when we know what is right in our hearts.
It is my prayer that the many women who made the mistake of reading this book or watching this movie will come to the realization that this is not what God wants us participating in for the purposes of entertainment. We are to “Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather, expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). We are to do as the Psalmist did and “set no wicked thing before mine eyes” (Psalm 101:3). Cling to Jesus and have your mind renewed. Dig into the scriptures and let the Lord wash you in His word.
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God […] For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.” –1 Thessalonians 4:3-8
