I picked up the latest edition of one of my favourite mags this weekend. Sandwiched in between articles on how to renovate my apartment, I see this ad:
(go ahead, click on it...I'll wait.)
To say I was "insulted" betrays the real issue. You see, after the fact, I looked into this thing - I guess eHarmony.com and Chemistry.com have some kind of freakish rivalry over who can get who to hook up or whatever. I could seriously care less.
What insults me is that the people that made this ad, whether intentionally or not, have shamed everyone who doesn't believe "like they do". They are not just attacking one man who believes a certain way; they are attacking everyone that shares this "archaic" belief that sex before marriage is best avoided. And that it, in fact, might just be harmful and fundamentally poised against God's redemptive purposes.
Wow, this world pisses me off. It latches onto Christians with serrated teeth and accuses them of being judgmental. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they do try and force people into their way of doing things, when those things may not have a whole lot to do with Christ and His redemptive purposes.
But SEX...(got your attention?)...SEX, this world has it covered. Sex isn't "holy". Sex is completely fine outside of marriage. Especially if you're in a "relationship" - after all, we're not monks and nuns here. We have needs. This isn't 1952. Right?
Maybe.
Or maybe the topic of sex is so positively shame-laden because both Christians and the world have lost their way. Maybe we should not suppress it, or let it run rampantly uncontrolled. Christians and the world have done both, at different times, in different ways.
Maybe sex and holiness are indistinguishably intertwined. Maybe sexuality doesn't have a whole lot to do with a penis and a vagina, and a lot more to do with connection. Vulnerability. Integrity, within myself, and with others.
Commitment.
How dare some bulls**t advertising agency suggest otherwise. They are allowed to state their opinion, as they should be. And I am allowed to be pissed, and to take them to task.
This post probably makes me seem a little more conservative than I really am (okay, maybe a lot...I don't feel very post-modern right now. I feel more Dobson-ish..). I'm just pissed off. It's a very present struggle to be a Christian, and I wrestle daily against discouragement and temptations that would so easily derail me.
I'm a single Christian. I've been single longer than I thought I'd be. And I am PISSED OFF that some ad agency would come along and would try to add to the shame that was so hard to give to the Father. I'm pissed that they would want to make it harder for me.
But they have failed. Christ's blood flows in my veins.
"Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard time are inevitable, but you don't have to make it worse - and it's doomsday to you if you do." Mt 18:7, The Message
That is all. Next time we shall talk about Peeps and more pleasant things.
1 comment:
...my my, and that is without any Guinness flowing in your veins!! I am in league with you on this difficult path we men of our faith must trod without as you said "that some ad agency would come along and would try to add to the shame that was so hard to give to the Father. I'm pissed that they would want to make it harder for me" Imagine the darkness they must walk in to most likely not realize what shame they have created. Life from behind their lenses gives them no choice in the matter - forgiveness is not an option. So conscience is their only guide and you know as well as I that history teaches us that one's conscience can be compromised by repeated shame... so I am not surprized by their actions, but as you say it hurts and it's real and it can piss one off... nuff said c.S.
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