Pretty Woman or Pretty Slut? What are we encouraging our daughters to become?
Only 22 years ago young women the world over fell in love with the “Pretty Woman.” A pretty prostitute is rescued by Prince Charming. Richard Gere played the Wall Street tycoon who was redeemed from his company devouring, life destroying ways by helping to “convert” Julia Roberts into the “Pretty Woman.” Sex was the veiled backdrop to the theme of ‘pretty’ redemption.
Fast forward to 2012. Redemption is a theme we see only rarely on current movie and television screens. Sex is no longer in the background. Sex is front and center. Not married sex, but slutty, down and dirty sex. A prime example is one of the top twenty five shows in its second season and already picked up for syndication by TBS (which means it will be around for a long time): 2 Broke Girls. (This is only a prime example of what our children are being bombarded with across all media)
2 Broke Girls
Wikipedia: Set in the Williamsburg neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the series chronicles the lives of two waitresses in their mid twenties—Max (Kat Dennings), who comes from a poor working-class family, and Caroline (Beth Behrs), who was born rich but is now disgraced and penniless due to her father, Martin Channing, getting caught operating a Bernard Madoff-esque Ponzi scheme—working together at a Brooklyn restaurant. The two become friends and build toward their dream of one day opening a cupcake shop.
Television and movies are culture changers. They target younger audiences, and rather than try to reflect the conscience of the day, they push the conscience to the edge of changing morals. Pretty Woman glamorized immorality and glossed it over with a ‘redemption’ theme. Redemption is out the window now, and immorality is being accepted, glamorized and emphasized.
About “2 Broke Girls” – The show has received mixed to positive reviews from critics, earning a score of 66/100 from review aggregator Metacritic, indicating “generally favorable reviews”. The show has been criticized for its racially charged humor and sexual jokes. Despite this, the show has been generally well received by the public, and is one of the most watched shows of 2011-2012.
For example, in the November 18th episode, Caroline, the fallen rich girl, is going out with “Candy Andy.” She wonders why he doesn’t put the “moves” on her. Caroline is wondering if he is gay, but hoping they will “hook up” on their second date. She asks Max how the poor date, what should she expect on the second date. Her ‘broke’ friend indicates sex of a sodomite kind. Laugh, laugh. Max assures Caroline that Andy is not gay. Caroline chooses to go to a very “slutty” bar, hoping Andy will take the hint. However, Andy holds back, even though everyone around them is “Dirty Dancing.” Max (the poorer girl friend) comes to the rescue, and confronts Andy about his lack of aggressive sexual pursuit. He explains that he can’t because he sees Caroline as THE “Caroline Channing, rich princess.” He sees her as a dignified princess, not as a sex object. (What does this say about how we are to see women?)
Max reports back to Caroline and tells her to start acting slutty. Once Andy sees how Caroline really is, he can give way to his passions and they can have sex, even the sodomite kind, ‘laugh laugh.’ Instead of Richard Gere pulling up as a white knight in his expensive limousine, Poor slutty Max comes to the rescue with encouragement for Caroline to demean herself. And so she does. And the young audience gets the message that slutty is good, sex is good, immorality is great and fun and funny!
Gone is redemption.
Andy did not want redemption. Caroline did not want redemption. They are seen as only wanting sex and lots of it. And they must do what they can to get it. Laugh Laugh. And we wonder why 25% of our teenage daughters have sexually transmitted diseases!
Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon is an Old Testament Book about Solomon and one of his wives, his favorite according to the book.
There is plenty of sex here, but it is portrayed with dignity and beauty. It reflects two hearts very much in love with each other, not in lust. Do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with sex and sexual desires. However, God designed them to be the fleshly glue that keeps two hearts racing together in a marriage relationship. Sex is an essential component in a fulfilling marriage relationship. Listen in on this passage from Song of Solomon 5:
The Woman:
(1) I have come to my garden, my sister, my spouse;
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
(2) I sleep, but my heart is awake;
It is the voice of my beloved!
He knocks, saying,
She is asleep, and is awakened by the voice of her beloved. She doesn’t know if she is dreaming or not!
Solomon:
“Open for me, my sister, my love,
My dove, my perfect one;
For my head is covered with dew,
My locks with the drops of the night.”
He is wet from the rain and needs to come in and dry off. He calls to her, his “sister, his dove, his love, his perfect one” There is no demeaning tone or sexual lust in his voice. This is no midnight ‘booty call.’ His heart is filled with love for his perfect one!
But she is half awake, and hesitates to come to the door. She is already in bed, she has washed her feet.
(3) I have taken off my robe;
How can I put it on again?
I have washed my feet;
How can I defile them?
(4) My beloved put his hand
By the latch of the door,
And my heart yearned for him.
Still, her heart longs for him, and she awakes from her dream-like state realizing that it really was his hand upon her door. She jumps from her bed and runs to the door. There is his oil of myrrh on the door handle, and her hands now drip with oil.
(5) I arose to open for my beloved,
And my hands dripped with myrrh,
My fingers with liquid myrrh,
On the handles of the lock.
(6) I opened for my beloved,
But my beloved had turned away and was gone.
My heart leaped up when he spoke.
I sought him, but I could not find him;
I called him, but he gave me no answer.
Sadly, she realized that he had gone. She had delayed too long. She ran after him, calling for him, but he was not to be found. Instead of finder her lover, she was accosted by the men pretending to watch over the city. These men represent the men of the world, corrupted by wrong standards, men apart from God.
(7) The watchmen who went about the city found me.
They struck me, they wounded me;
The keepers of the walls
Took my veil away from me.
The men of the world, instead of offering protection, beat and injured the woman. They sexually demeaned and abused her. This is what is meant by taking the veil away. Their actions brought shame upon her life. She is a picture of what this world wants to do (and is doing) to the daughters of God. This world wants to turn them into sexual objects, demeaned, objectified and sluttified. Exactly as 2 Broke Girls pictures them (albeit in the form of ‘comedy.’)
This woman represents a redeemed woman. Her feet have been washed, she is perfect in the sight of God and her lover. She is esteemed, respected and regarded with dignity and honor. This is the way Christ said we are to treat our wives, our daughters-with dignity and honor. We are not to see them as slutty sex objects, demeaned and de-humanized.
Jesus Christ is calling out to us to join Him, to experience his redeeming love. He wants us to escape the corruption that is in this world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4)
If we hesitate to open the door, we will miss Him, and we will fall prey to the media moguls who frame our thinking with the corruption of lust and demeaning desires. We will be abused and walk in shame as we cast off the dignity and protection of our Savior!
Sick of Love
(8) I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
if ye find my beloved,
that ye tell him,
that I am sick of love.
She commands her sisters not to tell her beloved about her injuries or shame, but rather that she is “sick of love.” Scripture indicates this is one of the signs of the end times. “Because iniquity abounds the love of many will wax cold.” (Matt 24:12).
What this means for our children and grandchildren is a society with greater acceptance of immorality and even perverted behavior, and more and more broken marriages as our concept of “love” becomes sicker and sicker. We will continue to see pornography increase because society will be ‘sick of love.’
I am genuinely concerned about what my grand daughters will face in Middle and High School. What can we do to combat the corrupted “watchmen” who are exposing our children to immorality and demeaning behavior?
What is the solution? We need the cleansing oil of our redeeming Savior! We need to wake out of our slumber and run to the door to let our Savior back into our homes and lives. We need to have His cleansing oil wash the filth from our hearts and minds. We need a return to the morality of Scriptures, a morality that stresses our creation in the “image of God,” the dignity of men and women whom God is mindful of, even in pursuit of!
We need to embrace dignity and honor in our lives and relationships. We need to reject the lust and immorality that is so prevalent on television and in the movies! God’s warned us to protect our daughters from the corruption of lust and immorality. If we fail to do s, the land will become depraved and wicked!
Leviticus 19:29 “Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity.
Wake Up!
Are you sick of love? Is your heart struggling with lust and immorality? Are you a Christian who has been asleep and not diligent in your quest to follow Jesus? Time to wake up and sound the alarm! Time to say no to the abusers and those that would force shame on our society, our daughters and granddaughters! We need to embrace the true lover of our souls, Jesus Christ!
If we truly love Jesus Christ, we will make the necessary sacrifices to keep Him as Lord over our life and loves. In Him is perfect love! In Him is genuine love. Lust and immorality are degrading substitutes!
Jude 1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Why did you get married? Why do you want to get married? Answers are varied, but usually focus on love, completeness, happiness, maybe even hotness…, lust, some people even throw in God.
In the 21st Century we have come to regard marriage as a “me” thing. It must make “me” happy. It must have romance, it must have spontenaity, it must meet “me” needs. Books are written on how to compromise so that both me’s in the marriage are kept happy. Gone are the books about subjection and submission and pleasing the husband. Gone are the books about ruling your home and discipline and leadership. They have all been replaced with books about tolerance, sensitivity, freedom, acceptance and sharing responsibilities.
Children are raised with the idea that life is all about them and what they want, and so they go into marriage expecting the same. Most have experienced their parents divorcing, so they have this pre-programed attitude that if their spouse fails to meet their needs, they leave and move on to someone else. We have even come to accept the reality of “starter marriages” and how they can be beneficial in opening our eyes to the hardships and struggles that marriages often have.
So most couples who survive the turmoils of learning to live with a person of the opposite sex and opposite thinking, trade the romantic “Me-Marriage” for realistic “Mature-Marriage”. Instead of leaving the marriage because of selfish expectations, they stay in the marriage and learn to settle for or tolerate each other. The marriage becomes “livable” and “convenient”. 
Marriage was designed to be full of Life and to Subdue this World for God! Marriages are to Conquer, to Win, to be Victorious! God designed Marriage to generate energy and LIFE, not just energy to survive each other, but to subdue the world! God’s marriage generated energy to Overcome and have LIFE!
And if Marriages are about Victory and Conquering, they shouldn’t be boring or lifeless or settling and mature. They should be about Life! The life that God gives.
I imagined Lydia would make a great pastor’s wife. I could see her faithfully by my side as I preached to admiring audiences. But somewhere along the line my dreams of saving the world turned into the nightmare of feeding six children, of Chuck E Cheese, of braces, and fighting about watching Terminator instead of Pretty Woman for the 30th time. Seemingly overnight we went from 
God Designed Marriage to Please Him!
Marriage is all about relationships and is the most strenuous “relational exercise” you will ever have. Marriage is a stress-test for our heart.
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2 Corinthians 5:16-19 (NIV) So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Pictured is a 700 year old tree in the Northern Cascade National Park. These trees grow so old in the Northern Cascades because the constant rain and wetness ofthe forest minimizes fire from lightning strikes.
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Loving the Word with the MudPreacher 