Purity and Justice

written December 9, 2006

I apologize for writing so much, but school has slowed down at least a little, so you will have to put up with the free time I have to write. I want to address an issue that I have seen in my life and the Lord has been challenging me on. It is in the area of the movies that I watch. I think we all know that the scripture calls us to be careful at what we put before our eyes. And we all know that watching nudity or a sexual scene is wrong and sinful. I know most of us if watching a movie with a scene like that would turn away at that part or skip over it while watching the movie. Perhaps that keeps us from lusting, I am not totally convinced on that, I know I have seen otherwise in people who would espouse that, but I won’t argue about that, now. I will, however, say that I do not think it is the proper response, regardless. I do not think it is the response that Christ would have, nor even us, if Christ were physically present watching the movie with us.

Several months ago, I was watching a movie that was great, except an unexpected scene where for a moment where there was a woman naked. In this movie, it was very discrete and you could not see anything, but the Lord stirred something in me and started challenging me. Lust is not the only issue; we must also capture God’s heart for justice. After watching the movie, God asked me if I should watch a movie that asked a woman to perform naked, regardless of how discretely they did it or whether I turned my head during the scene. Is this honoring to women? Yes, maybe, I doubt it, but maybe, I could get away from that with out having a seed of lust, but what about justice for the woman, who was asked to dishonor herself for the sake of a movie. For a woman to be asked to perform naked, to be put in a sex scene, to be dressed inappropriately, or to be dishonored in any way is wrong and unjust, and as men we need to stand up and be a covering for our women and stand up against this injustice. Let me put it this way, how would I respond if that woman were my daughter or my wife. I would be angry, and not just a little so, but intensely angry. That anger is righteousness and it is how we ought to respond when we see these things in the world. Why are we willing to put up with a woman being dishonored for the sake of mere entertainment, why not, act as men of God instead?

Since pursuing this stand (I say pursuing, because I am still growing), I have been accused of being legalistic and a weaker brother and more, which is a perversion of the scripture. It is not legalistic to believe in the beauty, the sweetness, and goodness of the scripture, nor is it weak to honor and to protect women and to value them above your desire for entertainment. On the contrary, I think it is scary when we take a scripture like “But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be not filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” and we “strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel” like the Pharisees so that we can have an excuse to watch a movie. We legalistically say that we are not committing adultery or lusting, but disobey the heart of God in justice and honor. We seek to shape the scripture to our image in stead of obeying Romans 12:1,2 in becoming conformed to the image of Christ. This verse says there should not even be a hint of sexual immorality, and yet we are willing to put up with movies that have course jokes about sex and are lude and disgraceful, which the scripture elsewhere, as well, speaks directly and sternly against.

What do I feel like the Lord is asking of us? Love honor. Love justice. Do not put up with such things. Do not watch movies that dishonor women. If you are watching a movie and these things are in it, do not just turn your head, but get angry with the things that anger the Lord and turn it off. Why would you want to watch a movie that dishonors women that should instead be cherished? Why not instead, make a stand against such things? Men, stop being the weaker brother, and be men who honor the Word and make a stand for honoring women. I am writing this mainly for men, because we ought to not be put to shame in this, but instead we ought to lead out in this and be the first to act, but, women, also to you, I say do not put up with this. Do not watch these things. Also do not watch things that dishonor men. And I would say also do not let a man pursue you, if he is not willing to make a stand on this. If he does not know how to honor women, then how will he honor you? I will also ask for you as women to pray for us, because our culture has really pushed these things and we often need the Lord to take us aside and show us His heart and teach us how to be men. I know I need prayer. Also encourage us to be men in this.

This letter has been mostly about watching movies that dishonor women, but I think this is, obviously, not the only movies we need to stay away from. I want to challenge us to look at the scriptures and see what it says about the movies that we watch and to seek justice and to not put up with immorality for the sake of entertainment. And I want to challenge, especially the men, to be men and to have convictions, to be first in this, and to start taking a stand.

Also, I want to say that I am not saying that I am there yet, but that is not an excuse for us not to encourage each other in the Lord to live life to the fullness. Let us be men in challenging each other to grow in our pursuit of joy and beauty and honor and abundant life.