An Open Letter to Dana Brunetti, E.L. James, et al

To Dana Brunetti, E.L. James, cast members and supporters of Fifty Shades of Grey, both in print and film:


I am just wondering if you are the same people who responded to the national news when Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were freed from slavery?  Did you shed a tear over the inhumanity or did you pull up a seat, grab the popcorn and take notes for your thriller?  Are you aware that Ariel Castro was addicted to porn and sought to live out his sex fantasies on his victims?  

You represent the moral sewage of this nation, among others, who seek to glorify the dehumanization of our culture, our race.  Are you aware that we have over 200,000 American children being exploited through pornography and prostitution?  Are you aware that your "work" fuels the demand for men who pay to rape women and view children being sexually abused?  *

Perhaps you think the mighty dollar can cushion you from the ill effects of this global crime. Perhaps you do not have children that are "throw-aways", who are preyed upon by your fans.   Maybe you think it's simply giving people what they want -- that, after all, removes any moral conscience from you, eh?  

What a shame, Mr. Brunetti, that along your career path from Covington you chose to prostitute yourself to the world, giving to men what "they want to see" without any regard to those whose lives and spirits you are destroying. 

I hope your efforts fail.  I can only hope that sadism, sexual torture and all the vile images you wish to bring to the big screen will be rejected by people of conscience .... people who wish to bring light into this world.







* Shared Hope International

Women Who Want to be Devoured

All news of Miley Cyrus aside, I’ve devoted a lot of hours reading about women who have been saved from the porn industry and prostitution.  Their stories fascinate me on a psychological level, wondering how it is that they could ever rationalize selling their bodies -  over and over and over -  and the toll that must take on them emotionally and spiritually.  What happens exactly when a person’s spirit is broken?  And how can they be healed?  How do you help a person whose sense of “normal” includes abuse and drugs?  and how can you let them know they are valuable beyond the scope of this fallen world?  I plan to devote future posts exploring these questions.

Their stories fascinate me on a spiritual level because many of these women are now followers of Christ, after encountering His love and holiness for the first time.  Some christian organizations have as their evangelical focus, porn conventions.  And many women are brought to Christ through their efforts.   Shelley Lubben is one such example, a former hard-core porn star now Christian activist speaker.  She  works with her state legislature on measures to tax the porn industry and has spoken to members of the US House & Senate on the brutal effects on the body and mind from her years in the porn and adult entertainment industry.   She describes the making of hard-core porn films as “mechanical and beastly” as men do “degrading acts” to the women.   She reiterates a common theme among others who have former porn-star status:  the industry is rife with drugs, alcohol, porn addictions and suicides. 

So one may ask, what woman would ever do this to herself willingly?

I believe there’s a percentage of women who go into the industry with eyes open, thinking themselves on the road to fame and fortune, only to encounter a prison a short time later.  I can’t help but think of the words of George MacDonald describing the nature of immorality:  “All wickedness tends to destroy individuality and declining natures assimilate as they sink.”    

There’s an even larger percentage of women & children who are coerced into this dark underbelly of American culture.. but that’s a whole other post I plan to write soon.

Brittni Ruiz is another former porn star who has found God.  In several online articles I’ve read, she describes her descent into drugs and alcohol as a way to cope with the personal chaos and emotional emptiness she felt after filming multiple sex scenes per day.  In The Blaze article, Brittni states: 

“I never found love in my life and was looking for it in all the wrong places … I have finally encountered the unconditional love of God, and I will never go back.”

Brittni Ruiz

I have a compassion for these women... I wish they all could encounter Jesus Christ and feel loved and whole.  I hope they can someday know the beauty and worth of their soul.  For all of them desire love - genuine love - and acceptance above all else.  Isn’t that the fiction of fame?  Isn’t a promise of lights and cameras and adoring fans, photo opts and cash that sell these young girls?  They are convinced that their only worth is the dollar their flesh can be traded for.  It’s not too hard to convince young girls of this; the media beast delivers a constant barrage of these messages every second of every hour...on television shows, films, advertising, social media, make-up, fashion/design.. the list goes on ad nauseam.  

Isn’t it truly a yearning for love that makes women want to be devoured by the world?  to give over their body and every intimacy gifted to them by God?

What a grand deception of our enemy!  Isn’t it time for the Church -across the board - to speak up on these issues?  to educate our young generation about love, sex and purity of heart according to Christ, our Saviour?  

Exposure to pornography and the "adult entertainment industry" doesn't just happen "over there" in another location of the village...in a strip club in the red light district.  It's here.  It's IN the church, it's a click away on your child's iphone.    

God have mercy on Christians everywhere who stand against this destruction of humanity and minister to those ensnared by it.

Abandoning Your Inheritance

Why do people, and women in particular, consume chemical laden, twisted plastic when they are given pure, refined, gold?

It’s the question I’m pondering today after reading about Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James, a first-time author and mom of two.  Apparently this new hit about bondage, sadism and masochism is flying off the bookshelves.  Reports of how this tale about sex slavery and pornography say it is adding spark to “everyone’s marriage”.  What a sham.

This book has sold 250,000 copies and flew directly to the number one spot on the NY Times bestseller list for fiction.  Interesting how the number one spot in the non-fiction section is The Vow, by Kim and Krickitt Caarpenter, don’t you think?  A book about everything twisted in sex and relationships contrasted against a tale about the virtue of love and loyalty? Hmm.  Good food for thought there.

It’s been a good reminder to me this morning that we live in such a sex-starved culture.  Yes, starved, as in completely deprived of nutrition, to the point of not recognizing that trash is being consumed, mistaken for filet mignon.  

Wake up women!

You’ve been given an inheritance of gold, of purity ...yes, of love and sex and everything this is beautiful about it.  Throw off the idea you may have that Christian love & marriage is oppressive or all about resentful servitude, or martyrdom.  You couldn’t be more wrong.  God intends the absolute BEST for you in every aspect of your life.  Even in relationships, in marriage and in the ultimate expression of love with your husband.  That bond as God intended is golden, pure, honest, beautiful, exhilarating, and completely fulfilling. It is a gift of God. Inasmuch as you can be stimulated and carried away in fantasy by images of bondage, sadism and masochism, know that you are in the firm grip of the enemy.  An enemy who seeks your destruction in every regard.   Those words and expressions of such a twisting of love and sex will NEVER be beneficial to a healthy  marriage.  Healthy marriages reach every aspect of your being, in body, mind and spirit. Healthy marriages call forth all the beauty that is within you.

Your inheritance is GOLD;  please don’t abandon it.

                                           †   †   †

*More thoughts on marriage and pornography... Memory of Eden