It is considered virtuous to feel no pangs of conscience as we watch other people disrobe and do their utmost to convince us they are having sex. It is considered legalistic to suggest that perhaps this is unfitting fare for Christians and inconsistent with Scripture. It is considered absurd that perhaps, just perhaps, this is the sign of a hardened rather than a tender conscience.
The more time you spend reading history, the more you see how things that are considered normal by one generation are often considered scandalous by the next. The moral laxity of one age often gives way to the moral clarity of the one that follows. I’m convinced an area of moral laxity among today’s Christians is entertainment, and especially the general apathy toward blatant sexuality and nudity in our movies and television series.
But perhaps “apathy” isn’t quite the right word. At its full bloom, it might actually be closer to “celebration.” Somehow watching nudity and sexuality without pangs of conscience have become downright virtuous for many believers. We carry the expectation that as we grow in grace, we’ll grow in our ability to enjoy sex on the silver screen.
This was brought home to me while reading Nancy Pearcey’s excellent new book Love Thy Body. There she recounts a conversation she had with a woman who experiences same-sex attraction and who, for a time, lived as a lesbian. She has since become a Christian and even married a man, yet there are still times when she battles the temptation of “girl crushes.” And as she describes her growth in grace, she indicates there is still a long way go in her conformity to Christ: “I still can’t watch the lesbian scenes in the television series Orange Is the New Black.”
