Fifty Shades...

While the weather has taken over the number one news spot in my area, there's still much buzz about the Valentine's Day release of the film "Fifty Shades of Grey."  (Google it if you're unaware of the sensation it's creating.)  I don't hear many neutral reactions to the movie.  As is often the case, social media thoughts and pronouncements seem to move to the extremes.  For some, "Fifty Shades" has evoked a moral outcry.  They see at as representative of a perceived "ethical decline" in American culture.  "It's just mainstream pornography," is one sentiment I've heard.  Others express outrage on behalf of women.  They believe the film glories a sexual approach toward women that is demeaning, objectifying, and violent.  And there are those people who defend the film and/or the right of filmakers and production companies to create and market such a cinematic product.  Many of these folks are frustrated with people who critique the film without seeing it or reading the book.  They say the behaviors within involve two consenting adults and point out that we live in a land that values free expression.  They believe that other films are more violent and graphic, sexually.  "If you don't like it, don't go see it," they suggest.  I admit, I leaned hard to one of these extremes, initially.

I most likely won't see the movie or read the book.  This more about simple disinterest than it is about moral outrage.  While I'm suspicious of the message sent regarding treatment of women, I'm not in a position to judge the books, the movie, the filmmakers, those who see it, or those who promote it; nor do I want to do so.  And I'm painfully aware that too often followers of Jesus in North America tend to be known more by what we stand against that for which we stand positively.  Still, this is a significant social phenomenon in our land, and silence is itself a message.

The truth is that we all have specific lenses through which we view human relationships and the role of sexual expression in relationships, whether by design or by default.  Those lenses will impact how we view and evaluate "Fifty Shades of Grey,"  or anything else in our culture that focuses on sexuality.  So rather than say anything one way or another about the movie, let me simply explain my lens.

I believe all human beings are of sacred worth, period.   It's not a worth that we have earned or achieved.  It is a value given us by a God who has imparted the image of that very God to each of us. It makes each of us worth pursuing by this God, as much as we have tarnished the image of  God within us and between us.  I believe this rescuing, liberating pursuit is known in the life, death, resurrection, and promised return of the one called Jesus - God with us.  Because of the God-given, God-pursing value we each carry, how we treat each other matters.  Part of this God-given value includes the gift of human sexuality.  I personally believe this gift is most fully celebrated in the singular commitment of a marriage.  Regardless, though, sexual expression at its best is mutual, assuming equality in identity and power in the partners, and is as much or more focused on the fulfillment of the other as of oneself.  My tribe (United Methodism) expresses it this way:  "Violent, disrespectful, or abusive sexual expressions do not confirm sexuality as God's good gift...where one or both partners are exploitative, abusive, promiscuous...are ultimately destructive..."  (THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH-2012, Paragraph 161.H.)

So that's what I'm for.  That's my lens.  I'm not saying that has to be your lens; I'm just sharing mine.  Maybe the benefit of a cultural event such as "Fifty Shades of Grey" is that each of us can pause and consider the interpretive lens that informs and forms our views.

So don't tell me what you think about the "Fifty Shades" buzz.   I'm hearing plenty of that.  Tell me the lens that determines what you think.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river...