Above is a link to a preview of a short film by Elevation Church called Oversold. It’s billed as a modern version of the life of the Prophet Hosea. Possibly worth checking out.
However, my issue isn’t with the film, but the comments this clip got over on MySpace. You see, the role of the modernized Gomer (Hosea’s wife) is played by former porn star Crissy Moran. While most of the comments were positive, she did get:
Crissy Moran is a failure, she became one when she stopped doing porn.
and
What a complete waste of money. Crissy Moran is nothing more than an extremist fanatic that cares nothing more than herself.
Apparently, there were some other negative comments of a more graphic nature that were removed.
So, is a porn star condemned forever? Once you’ve seen a woman doing unspeakable things on video, is she damned forever? Does having every inch of your nude body available on the internet negate any sort of repentance or desire to move on to something better?
For you Christian folks out there, what about the adult industry worker that hasn’t left the industry? Would she be welcome at your house for dinner after a day of work?
I have no answers for you right now (maybe later), but I’m curious to hear any thoughts.
In Atlanta, my favorite radio station is V103, the “People’s Station.”
It’s a hip hop station that plays mostly rap and R&B. The best part of V103 is their morning show. Everyday when I’m driving to work they do what they call an “Inspirational Vitamin.” They read a Bible verse and play a gospel song or a clip by a charismatic minister from Atlanta. I honestly find it to be an uplifting experience overall. The thing I find most interesting however is how they wedge the Inspirational Vitamin into their normal programming. What often happens is that right before they transition to the spiritual segment of the show they play some sort of booty song. Let’s say, “I’m in love wit a stripper.” Then they do the Bible verse and then they go back to booty music when it’s over. The essentially bookend the Inspirational Vitamin with booty, following a fairly simple formula – Booty, God, Booty.
It’s easy to laugh at how insincere that Inspirational Vitamin seems when it’s sandwiched between hardcore rap songs, but to do so misses the bigger point – we Christians often live our lives the same way. Maybe God is listening to the broadcast of my day and this is what he hears:
Quiet time in the morning. Read the Bible, prayer, give thanks.
Go into work and act completely different and disconnected from God.Come home.
Spend time with wife. Read the Bible, pray.
Chances are, that to many outside listeners, the format of my life is just as out of synch as the people station’s “booty, God, booty.” It might not be as graphic or as neon, but the juxtaposition between who I am when I’m in “God mode” and who I am when I’m in work mode is pretty substantial.
I know you’ve probably heard this a million times before from other Christian writers, but next time you transition between two parts of your day, think to yourself, “Did I just go booty, God, booty?”
If nothing else, it’s a fun phrase to say.
I recently went to see the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, and there’s an atheist who, paraphrased, says that ideally we need to make religion a very minor part of life. At first, I found myself laughing, as this guy obviously doesn’t get how religion works. However, if western Christians are honest with ourselves, it’s obvious how he can think this; it’s how we live our lives!
Following the Almighty of Israel is about obedience (which is the highest form of worship. Disagree? Prove me wrong!), not about an afterlife destination. There is absolutely nothing saying we are to blend into society, clinging to salvation as the sole thing that makes us “set apart.” However, that’s what we do. To quote The Altar Boys:
I’m not talking about religion
I’m not talking about just a belief
I’m not talking about going to church
That’s not Christianity
I’m not talking about science
I’m not talking about politics
I’m not talking about shaving your head
I’m talking about God and
That’s relationship ah yea!
This is the Gospel message — true devotion to God!
I’ve been promising a blog entry dealing with the impact of porn on women in modern society for a very long time now. It’s something that’s been rolling around in my head since I realized there are far more high school and college aged women claiming to be bisexual than there were back in my day (in case you’re wondering, I’m 32 and will be 33 in roughly a month). The 18-year-old bisexual girl I worked with a few years ago that wore her sexuality like some sort of badge of honor is who truly inspired this line of thought.
Why haven’t I typed this up sooner? To be 100% honest, I just don’t understand women. Combine that with an overall fear of, well, making a fool of myself, and you’ll understand why I’m typing this up two and a half years down the road from the original piece.
However, I’ve also come to the realization that this issue may be bigger than porn. I’ll try my best to make this easy to follow.
As with pretty much anything I write, this is a work in progress, and I may not agree with it at all in about a week, as I’m always striving to learn more and better understand human motivation.
I have a MySpace friend that recently sent out the following bulletin:
Come to my page and listen to my amazing song. I have the lyrics posted up in the music section so you can read along.
It’s talks about the struggles so many young girls go through today. They are living in a generation where it is normal not to have a father around. LOVE your little girls. Make sure they KNOW they are loved. The first time they hear they are truly beautiful it shouldn’t be from the guy taking them to prom.
Crissy
The song in question:
I’m not going to post the lyrics, but they can be found here.
Based on all that, I’m starting to wonder if all of the sexual issues and screwed up relationships we see today don’t stem from a distortion of Genesis 2:23-24:
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
I once worked with a guy that said marriage is an “outdated institution.” Unfortunately, he may be right. Let me explain…
I believe all of the world’s problems can be boiled down to two universal truths:
1) People are selfish.
2) People are stupid. (for the sake of a simple 3-word rule, I’m defining stupid as “knowing better, but acting anyway.”)
None of us are exempt from either rule.
How does this apply to the modern relationship? Well, what I see happening is a bunch of people trying to fill an inherent desire to “become one flesh” with things they shouldn’t. For men porn is a big issue, though there are other things. While I realize women can be addicted to the same stuff as men, from my observations I see a bunch of young girls conforming to what they think men want them to be. Example: Lots of young men look at porn. In pornography, all women are bisexual. As a result, we see a rise in the number of openly bisexual young women out there (in other words, a girl who is bi is considered pretty darn cool). Probably an oversimplification, but you see my point.
From there, you then have a bunch of dysfunctional people having kids. Where do those kids look for an example of how to be a parent? Thus the circle of life turns into a downward spiral.
What should we do instead? Well, I think the following quote from Maya Angelou sums it up:
A woman’s heart should be so hidden in Christ, that a man should have to seek Him first to find her.
Ultimately, we’re all pursuing personal desires and nothing more. “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all.” (probably a paraphrase, as I never can remember where that’s found in the Gospel of Matthew). Until we can put ourselves aside, marriage is an “outdated institution,” and the pornified society wins.
The above is a paraphrase from a lecture by R. Steven Notley, not to mention a very true statement. It’s the first thing that came to mind when I read the following blog entry over at the Treasures MySpace page:
We have recently been in contact with Crystal (not her real name) a 21-year-old mother of two who has been dancing since she was just 15 years old. She has experienced her fair share of tragedy and heartache. For the sake of confidentiality, I will not share her story, but trust me, it would break your heart to know what she has had to overcome in short her years on this planet.
About two weeks ago, she made the decision to start going to church in her small town where she hoped to develop her relationship with God. She found a church where she received the love and prayers of the pastor and his wife. Unfortunately, not everyone in the congregation shared their heart towards her.
A couple of days ago, two women from the church who found out what she does for a living, showed up on her doorstep and explained that they did not feel comfortable with this young girl putting her children in children’s ministry with their children. Tremendously hurt and devastated, Crystal called her pastor to tell him what happened. He assured her that the women were out of line and that he would speak to them about the matter.
A few hours later, 6 women showed up at her doorstep threatening her, “The next time you go running to the pastor will be your last!”
Crystal was overwhelmed with feelings of anger. It took everything in her to resist the temptation to turn her anger inward and harm herself. She once again called the pastor and his wife who offered their sincere regrets and support.
The next morning, Crystal woke up to find that her car had been vandalized. In the middle of the, someone painted “Whore, Prostitute, Slut” and other names too vile to repeat. The paint was removable, the words are not.
Crystal told me that she doesn’t want to see anything come in the way of her love of God and her desire to know Him. But she is beginning to wonder if she has the guts to go to church and face the judgment she has been experiencing. And I don’t blame her. Even as she was telling me what happened, I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs in frustration!
Where is the love? Where is the heart of Jesus in all of this? Have we forgotten that he is the same Jesus that extended compassion and mercy to an adulterous woman that the religious people of his day wanted to stone? He is the same Jesus that challenged, “If anyone of you is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”
NOBODY COULD! None of us can today either. They all walked away. Every single one of them. And Jesus looked at the woman in her shame and showed her love and mercy.
We are His ambassadors. We are His hands and feet. How people know that He is a God of love and grace if WE do not show them? It is the goodness of God that leads us to change our ways….not the condemnation of people.
My heart aches over what this young woman has been going through. I wonder if most of us would have the guts to go to church after experiencing something like she has. Would you? Could you?
I know that there are many churches, many leaders, many people throughout this world that are representing the heart of God in a sincere way. This gives me hope because we have a job to do. There are hurting Crystal’s all around us. People who have felt isolated and rejected. People who WANT to come to church, but they are afraid…not of God, but of US.
Let us never forget that our greatest command is to love God with all of our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Mark 12:29-31)
Are you up for it?
PS. As I am writing this I just received a call from Crystal who just had a “chance” encounter with a woman who pastors a church with her husband in Crystal’s area. Knowing nothing about what Crystal has been through this week, the woman invited Crystal to church and encouraged her that it was a safe place for people to come regardless of their lifestyle. She mentioned that many of the people have come from backgrounds of addiction and prostitution. His love never fails!
“Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)
I think the man genuinely cares about his congregation, but I also think he and other prosperity preachers have missed out on the fact that we aren’t called to follow Jesus simply to help ourselves. Christianity is a communal religion, and Jesus taught to help the poor and needy, not to seek personal prosperity.
Last week, CBS’s Sixty Minutes did a profile on American mega-pastor Joel Osteen and his prosperity theology. His sermons focus on how worship of God brings material blessing.That is a positive message, and I salute him. But it can easily spill over into ungodly superstition, and it explains the great conundrum of modern religion: that our faith is not necessarily making us into better people. How could it, seeing that religion is no longer about righteousness but success, no longer about God but about us, no longer about selflessness but our own material needs?
To inversely paraphrase John F. Kennedy, what so many religious leaders today are essentially saying is, “Ask not what you can do for God; ask what God can do for you.”
For at least part of this article, Shmuley and I are on the same page (I’m sure you can easily figure out where he loses me). Christianity, as I’ve long complained, has become a self-help religion. That was never its intent, and it’s about time for an authentic Christian voice to say so!
I found this article, and I think it really speaks to the heart of the issue:
In the fourth century A.D., the Catholic church made a big mistake. Acceding to the popular tradition that Jesus Christ had been born on December 25 and wishing to keep Christians from participating in the infamous orgies of the year-end pagan festival of Saturnalia, the Church established December 25 as the feast of the birth of Christ. Thus, for seventeen centuries, Christmas and Saturnalia have competed for the attention of the public. By now, I think we must admit that Saturnalia has won and that Christmas has been thoroughly de-Christianized.
Okay, so I told a friend that I eventually hoped to do something that either supported Israel or opposed porn, and jokingly stated I’d be impressed with myself if I could tie the two together.
Well, I just registered PornandZionism.com. It may turn out to be a waste of $20, but I figured I should at least give it a try.
Okay, I want to start by saying that my last entry came across a LOT more harsh than intended. I like xxxchurch, I think they’re actually radical enough to truly get a message across, and I even regret an older entry here criticizing their trips to porn shows, as I now realize it’s more of an outreach to the industry than to the show patrons.
As for my last entry, I should’ve mentioned:
1) anyone who’s hungry is probably grumpy.
2) being grumpy and trapped in an RV for 40 days (with little kids part of the time!) won’t help the grumpiness go away.
So, they were fighting a losing battle on the “looking like a happy Christian” front.
This is the complete Starving Jesus documentary from the folks at xxxchurch. While I like the concept, the actual documentary doesn’t reflect well on them; they come across as whiny and immature.
I always enjoy comedic sarcasm, and this piece rate pretty high in that genre (albeit a bit geeky):
We’ve all heard the “official conspiracy theory” of the Death Star attack. We all know about Luke Skywalker and his ragtag bunch of rebels, how they mounted a foolhardy attack on the most powerful, well-defended battle station ever built. And we’ve all seen the video over, and over, and over, of the one-in-a-million shot that resulted in a massive chain reaction that not just damaged, but completely obliterated that massive technological wonder.
Like many, I was fed this story when I was growing up. But as I watched the video, I began to realize that all was not as it seemed. And the more I questioned the official story, the deeper into the rabbit hole I went.
Presented here are some of the results of my soul-searching regarding this painful event. Like many citizens, I have many questions that I would like answered: was the mighty Imperial government really too incompetent to prevent a handful of untrained nerf-herders from destroying one of their most prized assets? Or are they hiding something from us? Who was really behind the attack? Why did they want the Death Star destroyed? No matter what the answers, we have a problem.
If you know me, you now my disdain for the 9/11 “Truth” movement. Well, while a bit of an amateur production, this kid does an excellent job mocking the truthers!
Well, not entirely. That title makes it sound like I’ve been working on it for two years, when I`ve only been promising it for that long. Anyway, I think I’m pretty close to mashing the following entries:
as well as some information from the book Sex, Men & God by Doug Weiss into a complete statement on my view of the impact of pornography on our society. Possibly this week, but I’ll promise nothing.
As many as 10 percent of Internet surfers are pathologically addicted to the Web, and although it can disrupt their lives, many doctors and mental health practitioners are unaware of the dangers, according to an article by psychiatrists at the Be’er Ya’acov Mental Health Center and Tel Aviv University.
Writing in the latest issue of Harefuah, the Hebrew-langauge journal of the Israel Medical Association, Drs. Pinhas Dannon and Iulian Iancu note that Internet addiction is very similar to other addictions, such as pathological gambling, kleptomania (the uncontrollable urge to steal objects), trichotillomania (pulling out one’s one hair), sex addiction and pyromania (the urge to set and watch fires).
“Role models” like amateur porn star Paris Hilton and her underwear-challenged cohorts Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are prompting more and more young girls to “go wild,” but with negative consequences.
Mental health experts say more and more youngsters are being influenced by the “sexualization of girls,” a term coined in a report released earlier this year by the American Psychological Association.
The research analyzed the content and effects of virtually every form of media, including television, music videos, music lyrics, magazines, movies, video games and the Internet. It also examined recent advertising campaigns and merchandising of products aimed toward girls.
What they found was a sort of “Girls Gone Wild” effect in which young girls are succumbing to the pressure of sexualization by posting nude pictures of themselves on the Internet, allowing boyfriends to photograph them in the nude and making their own amateur porn videos.
“The consequences of the sexualization of girls in media today are very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls’ healthy development,” said Eileen L. Zurbriggen, PhD, chairwoman of the APA Task Force and associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, earlier this year in reference to the report.
As a result of an over-sexed society, young girls are reaping the following mental health issues:
Cognitive and Emotional Consequences: Sexualization and objectification undermine a person’s confidence in and comfort with her own body, leading to emotional and self-image problems, such as shame and anxiety.
Mental and Physical Health: Research links sexualization with three of the most common mental health problems diagnosed in girls and women—eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression or depressed mood.
Sexual Development: Research suggests that the sexualization of girls has negative consequences on girls’ ability to develop a healthy sexual self-image.
“As a society, we need to replace all of these sexualized images with ones showing girls in positive settings—ones that show the uniqueness and competence of girls,” said Zurbriggen. “The goal should be to deliver messages to all adolescents—boys and girls—that lead to healthy sexual development.”
