After reading through a review of the new movie “Magic Mike,” I feel I needed to weigh in on the conversation. We live in a society that glamorizes infidelity, publicizes friends with benefits, and minimizes the consequences of both. In our society, sexual curiosity and immorality have slowly replaced spiritual maturity and passion for a holy God. This decline started like a drip from a faucet, but has become a stream of endless images and words that adversely affect our minds and potentially pull us into a place of addiction. We rationalize by saying, “I can handle it,” or “I’m an adult, I can filter it all,” or “I’m just curious,” or “there is no way it can hurt me.” No matter how adult we claim to be, or how much we think we can handle, what we see and hear does affect us. Forever-etched impure images begin to clutter our minds and septic words become commonplace language. We become sterile to a disease-filled environment. God becomes less to us and we, secretly at first, replace a holy God with a very cheap imitation of fulfillment. This cheap imitation is just that….cheap. Enough with the rant, huh? If you’re still reading this far, please don’t stop reading.
I guess what caused me to begin thinking about this was the number of younger people between 29 and 47 who proudly advertise their movie selections through social media. Yes, if you are 47, I consider you to be young! If you find yourself in this age group, you are considered part of the “Buster” generation. You can find some significant information about the Buster generation from Barna.org, but for now, I just want to address a few in light of “Magic Mike.”
According to a Barna study, Busters were twice as likely to have viewed sexually explicit movies or videos; two and a half times more likely to report having had a sexual encounter outside of marriage; and three times more likely to have viewed sexually graphic content online than those who were older http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/144-a-new-generation-of-adults-bends-moral-and-sexual-rules-to-their-liking?q=sexual+sin. If these statistics are not a surprise to you, you are probably a Buster. If they are a surprise to you, you may be a little older. Who has sexual encounters outside of marriage? Why? Is it because we become discontented? Maybe it is because we buy the lie that the other man or woman really will fulfill all our desires to be happy and satisfied. Guess what? Probably not.
I suppose the most alarming thought about this is that there seems to be no moral compass within the bounds of marriage anymore. Some just don’t appear to care about protecting their minds from the ever-deteriorating leaking faucet of sexual sin, enticement, and curiosity. Do you feel the same way? Do you substitute a hot, good-looking, ab-cut, muscle built, and physically perfect actor on a movie screen for your spouse? Oooops…..that one was for the women. How about the guys…..do you substitute the media’s idea of a perfect woman for your spouse? You might say, “No, it’s just a movie.” Is it? Sometimes we become very defensive when questioned about our personal choices when it comes to movies, videos, and other types of media we view. Now, I’m certainly not a legalist, but I do wonder why we make excuses for our own choices? I mean, if we make the conscious choice to view certain things, we should expect certain outcomes. Here are a few.
Defiles our Marriages
First, viewing sexually explicit images defiles God’s intention for marriage. God never intended that we substitute something else for our spouses. This is what happens when we view movies, videos, or pictures that are sexually explicit. Full nudity is not necessary to be called sexually explicit.
Destroys us Spiritually
Second, viewing sexually explicit images is spiritually unhealthy. For a body to properly grow, it must be fed the correct types of foods. The same thing is true for our spiritual lives. We need to be fed the appropriate food to grow.
In this case, Paul speaks of the food our minds need to be healthy. In Philippians 4:8-9, Paul says,
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Think about those verses. Read them again very slowly and deliberately. Paul gives us a list of 8 different things we need to do to protect our minds from the onslaught of impurity. We should think or meditate on those things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and anything worthy of praise. Do we? During a typical day, could you say that you meditate on those things? I’m not perfect, and I certainly struggle with my thoughts as well. But do we intentionally put things in our minds that could cause us and those around us great harm?
Defames our Christ
Third, viewing sexually explicit images is damaging to the reputation of Christ. Our own reputation and character is at stake as well. Our character is who we are and our reputation is who others think we are. In this case, who we are to others is determined by what we do. As Jesus said, “A tree will be known by its fruit.” (Matthew 7:20) I think a good question to ask is, “What difference do my decisions make to others who are lost and need Christ?” “Am I leading people to purity and holiness, or am I leading people to a lifestyle of leisurely following Christ when it’s convenient or when it lines up with my personal ‘whatever I want to do’ theology?”
I say all that to say this. Our choices do matter and people are looking. Our lives are an open book and others are checking us out to see if this Christianity thing is authentically different and if we are authentically living differently. Let’s not substitute a movie like “Magic Mike” with over 150 “F” words and many other nude scenes for our pursuit of spiritual maturity and marital fidelity. I hope not.