What the Bible Says About 50 Shades Of Grey
God has called me into writing and speaking out of a deep love for women that He’s placed in my heart. It’s because I love you so much that I risk writing this post today. I pray you read this through the lens of love from which I write.
I ask one thing, that you read this to the end. I’ve kept it short to keep your attention.
We were created with hearts that desire a love story. We want a rescuer. We want a man to come and sweep us off our feet. We want a protector. We want to be understood. We want to be fully known and deeply loved. We want to be the center of his attention, the apple of his eye. We want him to pursue us, chase us hard. We want to be found when we hide.
We long for a love story, one bathed in passion and excitement.
50 Shades of Grey will promise to deliver a love story full of passion and excitement. It is not a love story. You want a love story? It’s in the Bible. It’s a story unimaginable. A love story no mind could fathom or create.
You want passion? It’s in the Bible, what kind of passion lays one’s life down for another?
You want excitement? It’s in the Bible. When you read the lengths He’s gone to for you, you can’t help but pant for more of him.
Want a story of power who will come and sweep us off our feet? He’s coming on a white horse for us. He’s come and he’s coming again. (Revelation 19:11-16)
God knows these desires, and He has fulfilled and waits to fulfill every longing of our hearts. The very hearts He created, the very lives He breathed life into.
We have an enemy who knows these desires quite well. This enemy sets out to deceive us and destroy us. He takes God’s truths and distorts them. He takes God-given desires and deforms them. He takes what was meant for good, turns it inside out, and uses it against us as a weapon that will lead to death. Death of marriages, families, lives. He is death. God is life.
2 Corinthians 11:14
But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
50 Shades of Grey is nothing but pornography. Erotica is a justified term for porn. A staggering number of christian women are falling victim to pornography. It’s a story of power and dominance, demeaning to women, full of dark and evil.
There are many gray areas in the Bible. And there are black and whites. 50 Shades of Grey is no gray area according to God. It is a black and white issue.
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How do we, as christian women, make any decisions? We look to truth. We look to His Word. We seek wisdom. We pray for discernment.
Women, stand for truth and goodness. Stand for integrity and holiness. Stand for purity and righteousness.
Psalm 101:3 NIV
I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.
When we purchase this book, when we purchase a ticket to watch it, we are funding sex trafficking through the back door. The very evil that outrages us and causes us to stand and fight, we take part in when we give our money to pornography. Pornography funds and fuels little girls and women across the world to be sold for vile sex acts. Pornography funds the selling of bodies to fulfill the lustful desires of evil men.
If you want to fight sex trafficking, do not read, purchase, or watch 50 Shades of Grey.
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I’m pleading with you today on behalf of innocent victims to fight against a culture that is opening the door to pornography and making way for more girls to be sold, abused, and oppressed.
Life is a fight. A constant fight. We prevail. We win in the end, my friends! Praise God, He is coming to put an end to the evil of this world. We will all stand before Him. I long to hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
Love your christian sisters enough to say no to 50 Shades of Grey. Don’t fall into peer pressure. Speak up when others speak as if this book is ok. It’s not. It’s the enemy’s tool to deceive us and steal the joy, excitement, and passion He has for us here and now.
Additional posts in this series:
Are We Being Judgmental? 50 Shades of Grey
Does God Really Care If I Watch 50 Shades of Grey?
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I would hope characterizing this movie as an abomination would be obvious, but sadly I know it is not. I would say one of the biggest idols today is entertainment. We shouldn’t watch everything the world says is “great”. Let us filter everything we watch and listen to, and only hold on to that which lifts us up and brings us closer to Christ.
This is a bunch of bull… There is nothing wrong with 50 shades of grey.. it might not be the best written book but God does not care whether or not I read or watch 50 shades. Reading and watching 50 shades has nothing to do with human trafficking.. it is not porn. clearly you have never read or watched porn if that is what your going to call it.
I agree with this post! I have much more purposeful things to be doing with my time then being tempted by sin. And I do agree that using the word erotica is just a ruse so that people don’t call it pornography. It’s porn plain and simple.
The thing about today’s culture is that moral relativism is so a part of it. Anything goes and you are close minded and judgmental if you speak the truth. And to pass off immoral ideas they are culturally labeled as positives to deceive. We need only look to the Bible to see what happened to cultures who reverted back to pagan beliefs and lost sight of God’s ways… I’m not spending a dime on something that isn’t intrinsically good. There is an option for another viewpoint on what constitutes a love story on Valentines day… tell your friends. ….oldfashionedmovie.com
There’s a lot of things we should or should not do. Erotica is very different from porn. The porn you see online are women who are coerced into being submissive and taking it. These porn stars don’t have a love connection or have any type of intimate connection whatsoever besides sex. These women will be on drugs sometimes to withstand the pain or crazy stuff they HAVE to do to earn money.
Now, erotica, like Fifty Shades of Grey is about two people who love each other and just happen to talk about their sex lives in more detail. Please explain to me why it is a bad thing to read or watch a love story that has a natural thing that two people who are in love do? Married couples have sex, and I don’t think talking about it is a sin. If so, just listening to your friend’s sex story is just as wrong as reading or watching 50 shades of grey.
Anything that mentions “fisting” of someone and all of the bondage and such is porn. Just because it isn’t coming in through the eye doesn’t make it ok. Women think they are so superior to men nowadays morally… I’ve got news for you, we are all fallen. just because TV now makes Everybody loves Raymond and all men look like bungling idiots doesn’t mean that is GODs idea of how it should be. Men are called to love their wives even if they are unlovable….. Women need to respect their men even when they aren’t respectable. Try it sometime. Love her. Respect him. Don’t look into this junk for answers anymore than a man should look into visual porn for the answers. it’s a hollow descent into darkness and death.
I think you’re condusing quite a lot here. 50 shades of gray is a fictional work, and it’s a best seller as it appeals obviously to the sexual phantasies of quite a lot of people.
This has nothing to do whatsoever with sex trafficing.
The expression of these phantasies is called BDSM (if you don*t know this abbreviation, you should familiarize yourself with it) has one important rule: SSC: Safe, sane, consensual.
Sexual slavery happens all over the world, but not watching or reading 50 shades will definitely not end it.
Obviously, you have not read these books. I read a lot of books for entertainment. The books I’ve read have not caused me to want to steal, commit murder, or any of the other things I read about. Also, going to a movie or reading a book where the characters do drugs does not support the drug industry. I am an adult, Christian, happily married (20+ years). I read the first book because I wanted to see what all the Chritian women were warning others against when they hadn’t read it. I read the other two books because I was interested in seeing where this love story ended.
I wouldn’t have been interested in reading 50 Shades without all of the publicity against it.
Well, I have wondered what it wqs about, as I’ve been hearing people mention it a lot on tv, but after reading this article, no I won’t read the book or see the movie.
It sounds like trash unfit for a Christian to be reading.
Paying two actors to have actual sex on the set is not porn then what is? Having sex for profit is prostitution. How natural or lovely is it to have two people agree to have sex filmed so that the masses can be entertained by that? Porn corrupts the heart and poisons the mind and does not honor God. God gave humanity the gift of sex and the gift is being abused and misused for profit and entertainment.
The book isn’t worth any hype. As someone who actually knows about the subject let me say this….what is consensual between a loving couple is none of our business. I’ll keep the bedroom info to myself and my husband and I have no desire to see the movie….mostly because I felt the book was dumb and inaccurate….misleading regarding that particular lifestyle but please don’t give it hype…and bad hype is as effective as good….its just plain boring as a book and I suspect even more lame in movie form.
Seriously…? God doesn’t care? You and so many others are either truly deceived or you are trying to justify your sin. Make no mistake— God DOES care. He is holy and just and perfect. And no matter how much the world wants to act like He is careless and permissive and passive…. the truth remains.
Why waste your time and money. Sex and love are not always the same thing – love is what makes it special. We have to make choices in what we want in our brain and heart. Please choose carefully.
I enjoyed this, and I agree with you. I think it’s an affront to my husband for me to read the book or watch the movie. My arousal for my spouse comes strictly from him, and isn’t perverted by outside influence. I had a marriage destroyed due to pornography. Why would I even “innocently” let something in between my current husband and I?
You brought tears to my eyes with your perfect description of the beautiful love story in the Bible. Good job.
Seriously…they had actual sex on the set? You people are out of control. This movie is not about pornography. It is this absurd desire to judge that pushes people away from religion. Fearmongering is rampant among many here. If you didn’t read the book, what right do you have to judge it? I’m not saying everyone should go see this movie but I am sick of the judgment I see. God is the judge. What people do is between them and God – not you people who choose to sit in judgment. Some day you will stand in judgment of God and if your fearmongering turns one person away from God, you will be called to task.
Totally agree Beth. The judgment on this site, the superiority makes me sick. I too am a Christian woman. I loved the books. I understand they are a work of fiction but I also understand there are adults that prefer this type of sex. I’m not one of them but I enjoyed the books and quickly realized it was a love story about acceptance and understanding. Not true of those professing to love God.
I would love to have the authorexplain how this book is attributing to sex trafficking. Also I see no proble being submissive. Not all women are coerced into submission I have a naturally submissive attitude when it comes to my marriage in all aspects
As christians we are to guard our hearts and minds. Whatsoever things are lovelyn pure of good reproach, and so forth, think on these things. I have seen the hype and as a man this type of love/sex CAN set a couple up for failure in their marriage.
Sex inside a marriage is wonderful, sex outside of marriage is a sin. Why is it that christians have allowed hollywood or anything else influence and water down what the word of God says. The word of God will stand true, bottom line. We can all have our own interpretation of what fits our own needs at the time but that does not make it right.
So…. instead of getting angry or upset at someone else for their thoughts, why dont we hold our thoughts in the shadow of Gods word and see what He has to say about it. I pray that the Men and Women of Faith in this nation will take a stand and follow Gods plan for sex in a marriage. God bless.
I have to disagree but understand I am no fan of this book or movie.
The book, being poorly written and self published, is not a good example of what it hints toward.
The movie, I won’t even see.
The topic of the book, BDSM is not against God. The bible says as women we should submit to our husbands, Yes?
That in submitting, we do so in full knowledge and trust of that other person, knowing they have our best interest at heart and proper communication is needed is not gotten across. Research how a proper BDSM relationship should work before judging. This is not how it would go…
Hi N, Thanks for commenting. The Bible in no way EVER affirms BDSM. Yes, it is VERY much the opposite of what God stands for. Bondage? No, He came to set the sinner free. Domination? No, He could dominate, but He offers us free will….we can choose Him or the world. Sadism? “the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others.” Yeah, not our God. He is the God of love, healing, hope. Pretty sure He doesn’t encourage us to derive pleasure by inflicting pain on another.Masochism…same definition, so ditto. To know God is to know truth. To know God is to know love. Please don’t distort God’s word. Submit to our husbands has never meant to submit to being dominated, humiliated, and violated (even when it’s agreed upon). To know God is to know that God would never affirm these practices. To submit to one’s husband is to submit to his spiritual leadership. To get under his mission. That mission should always lead to Christ. Blessings!
Hi Tracie, I will be posting this week the information on the links to pornography and sex trafficking. It’s easy to explain. I hope you will check back. Submissive isn’t to be dominated and humiliated. Submissive in the Biblical sense is to support our husband’s spiritual leadership. This post is directed to only the christian community. It doesn’t apply to anyone outside of that.
For argument’s sake, let’s say that seeing the movie or reading the book are wrong. The problem here isn’t that you can’t find biblical reasons to support that argument. You clearly have.
I will challenge you however, to find an instance in scripture where Jesus used shame to bring people closer to his kingdom. Your February 5th post was absolutely full of shaming language, from the numerous implications that a Christian woman need not look anywhere but scripture for excitement and passion…to the absolute falsehood that watching a movie is the same as funding sex trafficking. Shame is never helpful if inspiring real change. It actually works against real change, building walls of defensiveness and cementing people’s current stance on any issue (as we’ve all seen in the comments from your last post). As a fellow Christian sister, I feel hurt and embarrassed when your brand of divisive, shaming faith gets viral Internet attention.
Brace yourselves, here’s come another opinion! The thing that amazes me, is all of the people that comment on this article try so desperately to throw up a compelling argument to justify that watching a movie with so much “sexual content and sexual violence” to make themselves feel and sound okay that they are actually watching it. You know what, yes, it’s fiction, however the way this endorses pornography is that when people watch the movie, a multitude of people will be inspired to look this up on the internet, watching these videos, paying money to see certain ones. And then they will actually be inspired to perform these acts on themselves going to sex stores to buy these “toys”.
And since the market will be over saturated with this demand on these toys and videos, the porn industry will in fact up the ante and make more videos, probably even a parody to it that shows even more that can’t be censored. And believe it or not women and guys too will fall to sin from this film. They will be excited and I’m sure sexually aroused and will, what the bible describes, as stumbling. I’m talking about masturbation and sexual immoral acts. Jesus talked about this as well. YES JESUS TALKED ABOUT MASTURBATION AND SEX! You see your eyes are the gateway to your soul, as the bible describes. Once you see something your brain processes it and pretty much files it away. I still remember my first day of kindergarten in my mind. The sights, the smells. Your mind is a computer. Yes, it’s fiction. But so is pornography. But let’s call it what it is, instead of justifying it so you can feel better about yourself watching it, YOU’RE ONLY WATCHING IT TO BE TURNED ON!!!!
And don’t deny it. Women claim to not care for looks as much as guys do but I doubt they’ll go see Magic Mike or 50 Shades or Gray if it starred Steve Buscemi and Seth Rogen. Ummmm, doubtful.
Now on another note, books can be dangerous; that’s why they get banned. The following findings are not, in any way, meant to endorse book-banning, but rather to make the point that fiction really is powerful, as librarians are wont to say: A new study in the Journal of Women’s Health finds that young adult women who read “Fifty Shades of Grey” were more likely than non-readers to exhibit signs of eating disorders and to have relationships with verbally abusive partners.
What’s more, women who read all three books in the series also proved to be at an increased risk of binge drinking regularly and of having multiple sex partners. Whether women started showing signs of these behaviors before or after they read the book was not distinguished in the study. But, according to lead researcher Amy Bonomi, a professor at Michigan State University, it doesn’t matter when participants experienced these behaviors; the link is problematic either way.
“If women experienced adverse health behaviors such as disordered eating first, reading ‘Fifty Shades’ might reaffirm those experiences and potentially aggravate related trauma,” Bonomi said in a statement. “Likewise, if they read ‘Fifty Shades before experiencing the health behaviors seen in our study, it’s possible the book influences the onset of these behaviors.”
Bonomi and her colleagues polled more than 650 women between the ages of 18 and 24, and found that participants who had read “Fifty Shades” were significantly more likely to show similar signs of troubling behavior to one another:
Compared to participants who didn’t read the book, those who read the first “Fifty Shades” novel were 25 percent more likely to have a partner who yelled or swore at them; 34 percent more likely to have a partner who demonstrated stalking tendencies; and more than 75 percent more likely to have used diet aids or fasted for more than 24 hours.
Those who read all three books in the series were 65 percent more likely than nonreaders to binge drink — or drink five or more drinks on a single occasion on six or more days per month — and 63 percent more likely to have five or more intercourse partners during their lifetime.
“We recognize that the depiction of violence against women in and of itself is not problematic, especially if the depiction attempts to shed serious light on the problem,” Bonomi said. “The problem comes when the depiction reinforces the acceptance of the status quo, rather than challenging it.”
Have nice day ya’ll. 🙂 *thumbs up*
MATT’s comment above can be read on the following websie: http://www.msutoday.msu.edu/news/2014/reading-fifty-shades-linked-to-unhealthy-behaviours/
Which of course is plagerisized fromjournal of women’s health. It doeant correlate to how many were college students or business women. So the study seems a bit inaccurate, as most statistics have a tendency to be.
Lets make this simple… my wife read about 1/3 to half way thru the book and put it down. “Inseen enough of that growning up…. I dont need it to fill my mind again.”
The media has supported this because its perverted and it makes money. Nuff said?
https://cindybiondigobrecht.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/is-america-love-anorexic/
Very inspirational and enlightening! You should write 50 shades of prey!
#trollololololol
Im sorry i totally disagree with Christians that want to bash this book , all everyone looks at is the sex and have any of u read this book? I doubt it and thats saying lets point at one thing you dont like but lets have a tv n cable and watch what we think is good. Im a oneess Pentecostal and ive read and plan on seeing this movie cause unlike most Christians i dont let this affect my walk with god. So before you start saying oh read this dont read this cause its evil why dont u keep your own convictions to yourself and stop trying to speak for everyone!
Thank you, Nadia for your comment. Tomorrow I will be posting on how this affects our walk with God. I hope you will join us. This post is written for the christian only and does not instruct people outside of followers of Christ in what they should or shouldn’t do. As a follower of Christ, we are given clear scripture in how to live a holy life. This blog space is for women who desire encouragement in their spiritual walks. If anyone doesn’t want to read it, they are free to close the window and never look back. Blessings!
Well why is this JUST addressed to “Christian” women. Christian men including preachers, deacons and elders of the church have watched read and looked at phonography for years. They have committed adultery, left, wives and children, not to mention beaten them and the church has said nothing or little if anything about it. Women have finally began to wise up to this lopsided crap. Wonder why your churches are pretty much empty on Sunday’s???? It’s because women finally starting useing their brain and stopped buying into this male dominated religious crap. It’s always been the women that have taken the children to church while their lazy so called christian husbands sat at home and watched football or went hunting. I find it disgusting that you say don’t read this book or see the movie. We are free to make our own decisions whether we be Christian or not. And until the church addresses the issues like rape incest, adultery , child molestion and rape, just to mention a few that no one wants to speak of, it’s opinion on fifty shades of grey is worthless. I will be glad when women like you quit fueling such hogwas, stop acting like men are gods, and stand up and speak up for your sisters. We are all capable of deciding for ourselves what to read or watch, and just because you said god told you to say this crap doesn’t make it do.
I find it very interesting that you would warn others of the dangers within this book/ movie but yourself use the most perverted version of HIS WORD to reference to. The NIV “not bible” has removed the words CHRIST and BLOOD too many times to count. It’s not a good source IMHO. Try the KJV Holy Bible. Then you could support the argument or view with true conviction and not a perverted version of truth. Remember this. Rat poison is 99% corn and 1% and it’s very effective. Imagine a “bible” that contains less than 100% truth and imagine then the amount of people who are being fed POISON.
THANK YOU. for speaking up and out, not in judgment, but in obvious concern and care for women—- concern that not even one woman would be sucked in by the lie of “it’s not real” or “it won’t lead to anything bad” …..
we have a REAL adversary, the deceiver and destroyer, and to dismiss him is to give him a free pass to the destruction.
We are all truly valuable and loved by our Creator and need to know that in the depths of our souls.
to believe the lie that this kind of reading/movie is “empowering” is really just tarnishing our created value.
Thank you again
K. So here’s my opinion. Ha! Where to start?? First off.. I can see where this movie/book can be sexually immoral with the influence on unmarried couples. Disagree 100% with selling of movie/book but a MARRIAGE counselor also recommended us to get it to help our marriage as she previously saw a positive affect it had on another married couple. I do not agree its being made into a movie. However. It was. No matter if millions go see it or not its already out there. Perversion is already out there. Perversion has been out even in biblical days otherwise there wouldn’t be stuff in the Bible about it.. Is 50 Shades perverted? Idk. Haven’t read it. It is sexually immoral in the sense they have sex out of wedlock but hey thats on just about every movie now!! So lets not just jump in on 50Shades. Start on the other movies that are immoral as well. Another thing that gets me is of your gonna stand up for Gods word stand up for all of it. Not just bits and pieces. I don’t see anything wrong with a married couple performing whatever sexual act (as long as between them only) if it keeps their marriage alive. And as far as the Bible being a love story.. I agree 100% but I do not wanna have sex while thinking about God bc He is my Father.. js
50 shades of grey is a love story at its core. Christian Grey is a screwed up man who was sexually abused himself. This made him the person he is. However, when he meets Ana he tries his best to change. He stops making excuses for his behavior and starts to become an adult. I’m 26 and I am engaged. My fiance and I are waiting til marraige. This book didn’t make me have sex or binge drink. If you haven’t read it you have no right to judge.
Thank you, Kate. You are an exception. Congrats on waiting til marriage! That is wonderful! Clearly, you have a strong will. However, there are many women who aren’t quite as strong. Let’s be honest, there have been amazing love stories written that didn’t generate controversy nor sell millions of copies. We have to be honest…we know what is selling this book. Women are giddy over a love story. That is the cover women are using to justify reading and seeing it. And if the author truly wanted to tell a story about a messed up man who became a better person, she could’ve done it with some taste in a way that doesn’t degrade women or romanticize violence and abuse (regardless if the abuse was agreed upon). I respectfully disagree that I do have a right to judge without reading the graphic details of this book. I don’t have to read the details of a murder to know I disagree with murder. I can know about it to make the statements I’m making. I’m taking a Biblical stance on this, outside of a moral stance, which is much different.
Thanks for your comment. You are right, perversion is nothing new, but that doesn’t make it ok. And we are becoming desensitized, which is never a good thing. I find it sad a marriage counselor would suggest pornography to enhance a married couple’s sex life. If you read the studies on the long term effects on couples, it’s very sad. There are other ways than turning to fantasy and porn. 50 Shades is beyond just the immoral aspect of sex outside of marriage. That is not the issue here. It’s a new level of immorality that we as a society are eating up. This is abuse, manipulation, physical pain at one’s expense for the pleasure of another, it’s unnatural. This is porn for women. If the tables were reversed, women would be in an uproar. This post isn’t a stance on morality in general and it’s not a stance on the Bible as a whole. I’m not taking only bits and pieces of it. I’m taking what applies to this topic. I’m showing what the Bible has to say about this very topic. Sex is a gift from God. This movie takes a good gift and distorts it. Blessings!
So celebrating holidays set in place to honor pagan gods is ok? The only holidays that need to be celebrated are the Jewish ones that Jesus would have celebrated. Satan is the greatest liar! Do the research and be like Christ!
You seem fun.
Thank you, Susan, I think so. Violence and abuse are not my fun of choice, nor controlling, stalking, and manipulation. But we do have lots of fun around here! Blessings!
Sounds a lot like nazi germany. Or the crusades. People should be making there own decisions.
Agreed, Polly. Absolutely people should make their own decisions. I’m so grateful for a free country and a faith that is based on free will. What a blessing! These posts never said we shouldn’t have the right to choose. Blessings!
my questions as this….where in the scripture does the Bible talk about masterbation?? Also, in a loving , spiritual, marriage what if the two people decide to use “toys and other things” to make their sex life better. Do you consider this to be an abomination to God or that as Christians we are sinning by adding these things in the privacy of our own home??
I agree that the books / movie constitute porn. I did read the books, will not see the movie. I knew when I read them it was wrong. Part of the story spoke to me. I am a submissive wife, married 30 years in August. My husband leads the household, with my blessing. He makes all major decisions, but not without my input. He leads, doesn’t boss. My point is, besides the day to day details of life, Oh the sex. It is very sweet and loving. But frequently, I prefer rough. He does not humiliate me, he does not abuse me, I am never belittled. But he knows I like my hair pulled, a hand at my neck, etc. If I ask, he will spank me, and I love it. There are no outside influences on these activities, we enjoyed them before the book. So if it’s just the two of us, and we are both willing, is it wrong?