Before anyone should rage and call me out as a supporter of male domineering and abusive behavior; let me preface this by saying, that any person who uses another for sordid gain or to arouse a sick and pervasive sexual depravity, or any pervasive behavior is a wicked person. They deserve punishment to the fullest extent of the law if they are guilty.
However, we must call out Hollywood for its blatant hypocrisy. America I’ll be right with you. Hollywood, you purport a #metoo movement that calls out sexual predatory behavior but your source of income reaps in millions from peddling smut on the silver screen. Just recently a second 50 shades movie was released and it glorifies and promotes the very depraved, disgusting and rancid behavior the entire industry is being called out on and in some sense shaming. It’s not a male or female problem, it’s not an ego or power Trip problem, those are mere symptoms of a sinister sickness lurking beneath.
It’s a sin problem. That’s right sin! When you go to the doctor and tell him/her that you have a cough, a fever, sore body and aches and pains; the doctor does not respond with, “you know what I have seen this before, you have a coughing problem I know a great rehabilitation routine that will help!” or “here are some self-help books that should do the trick.” No! The doctor responds by telling you the difficult truth. There is an illness, a bacteria or virus that has taken up residence deep inside your body and in some sense will kill you unless you take the medicine. I heard it said before, no one likes to take their medicine, but the medication is prescribed out of necessity not desire.
Sin is like that illness, even worse it is like stage 4 “I’m sorry there is not hope” cancer deep within the heart of the human soul. It will kill you, and along the way it will destroy others; because, sin feeds egos and power hungry self-centered people. It convinces of lies, it manifest wicked fleshy entitlement and breeds hate, contempt and all manner of depravity. How long will this notion of a simple illness be paraded around like it is a mere fever one can fix with starvation. This sickness is rooted deep down in all of us and the more one allows themselves to spiral down that darkness of wickedness and depravity the worse the soul gets. Sin has so wrought the inside of humanity it is hobbling along broken and battered looking for help and light in the darkness. But it looks in all the wrong places.
The #metoo movement is merely a waving banner in the winds of societal change. That is to say, like the aforementioned symptoms of an illness it only masks the real problem, it does not and will not solve it. Again, let me clarify that all manner of abuse is utterly wrong and those guilty of it should be punished by the law, because they have hurt others and this is unequivocally without a doubt wrong in the sight of God. When someone is abused they lose a sense of self-worth and are forever hurt. No amount of rehabilitation or behavioral change will ever cure the sickness, nor will any amount of therapy and self-help exercises fix the shame and guilt those that have been hurt have to carry. Every person was created in the Image of God and therefore has inherent value. For those suffering, Jesus Christ is the only hope. He is the Way, He is the Truth and He is the Life. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28…
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28
But wait, enter America; who also by and large denounce this detestable behavior, and we as a people rightly should. However, if we feel so strongly about depraved sexual behavior and abuse of power, riddle me this? Why then did the second 50 shades movie rank #2 opening weekend? Consider the amount it took in domestically: $114,581,250. Lest any forget place value that is over one-hundred ten million. At $10 a ticket that is over 11 million theater goers. But with the average ticket cost at a mere $7.96 you have over 14 million who paid to see the very acts of sexual depravity they are calling foul against. Let’s consider another older movie for comparison. The Wolf of Wall street when released in 2013 ranked number 5 and pulled in $116,900,694 domestically. This movie was rife with depraved sexual behavior, slander, racketeering and more curse words than you can count; with 506 F-words in its two-hour, 59-minute running time, The Wolf of Wall Street uses profanity approximately 2.81 times a minute breaking the first record of its kind.
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9
But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
Matthew 15:19
The heart of the people is sick, desperately sick and no movement, no amount of foul calling, no amount of screaming will fix that. Only Christ can do that. For Christ, the perfect son of God, truly man and truly God lived a sinless life and gave His life on the bloody cross of Calvary as an atoning sacrifice in place of each of us. On the third day was resurrected bodily so that whosoever would put their faith and truth in Him and Him alone would not perish but have eternal life. He is the satisfier of our thirsty soul. He is the strength when we are weak, He is the healing when we are sick and the soul of humanity is rife with sickness. No amount of self-help, meditation, or idol worship will change the very sick heart of society. Society’s soul is aching, writhing in pain from the illness that has so plagued it and there is no hope but to come to Jesus. God makes this promise when He gives a vision to the prophet Ezekiel a little of 400 years before Christ.
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26
God changes the human heart through the atoning work of His Son Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. No person can fix themselves, its not like exercise. It is a super natural work of the Creator of the universe. Humanity apart from our creator is like a fish out of water. We can flop around, pretend we can breathe and go at life without our source of life; but eventually we will die, and when we die in our sins we will go to a hell of eternal punishment. For hell is God’s prison. You would expect a serial rapist or murderer to face prison time and in some sense death, why would you not expect this for a sinful humanity that consistently goes against a Holy and Perfect Creator?
Lest you think you are good enough to get into heaven ask yourself; if you commit a heinous crime and stand before a judge who says “Guilty, I sentence you to death!” will you be able to circumvent punishment in light of your good? Any good moral judge must by their nature uphold justice irrespective of how much good a person does, how much more will a Perfect and Holy Judge (God) do when we leave this earth?