Monday, October 15, 2007

A Witness Testifies to What She Sees

My Sunday morning Bible study is about half-way through Revelation, just before the Great Chapter 12 (wait till they get a load of who the Woman crowned with stars is!). We were discussing the Two Witnesses of chapter 11, who they were modeled after, but especially what they indicated.

As the discussion ranged, I offered the interpretation that these two witnesses symbolized the witness of the Church to the world, and what that witnesses is in our day and how the world responds. The answers were almost all about sex. We discussed the recent Billboard in CA, and activists in general. Not to mention one of the effects of promiscuous sex: abortion. I may have offended a few people who were present but don't normally attend. We don't speak that graphically most of the time.

Later that afternoon I was pondering why the discussion was about sex, about why that is such a hot-button sin in most of our minds. If you're going to pick sins, I suppose those sins are more fun than, say, coveting. But we have so many to choose from, and many are much more dangerous to faith than lust. Why is it that Christians seem obsessed with the bedroom?

I wondered this as I watched "Desperate Housewives" later that night. One character (it was revealed) apparently had affairs in the past; two characters, formerly married were having affairs with each other; one character's unmarried daughter was pregnant, and another character may have been abused as a child. Then "Brothers and Sisters" came on, and since I had no book handy, and was too tired to write, I watched it. The gay character met a former lover, but nothing happened. The character running for president was accused of having an affair. Other characters were adulterers, another getting divorced due to adultery, or something like it.

Is it a wonder why Christians talk about sex so much?

5 comments :

  1. Doorman-Priest said...

    But is it art imitating life? I suspect it is if my own life's experience and the people I have met over the years is anything to go by.

    D.P.

  2. Anonymous said...

    Look at the ads on TV -- they talk about things not on TV when it started when I was a boy.

    Medications for herpes, with a cute couple talking about it, ads for Cialis, Viagra and who knows what else -- all not so subtly hinting that folks are always thinking about sex ...

    Ad to that some the of department store ads, the ads for clothing and so on: the climate is saturated with sensuality.

    And then, it would appear that in any good series on TV, someone is having some sort of sexual encounter, most often with someone not their spouse. Homosexuality gets the okey dokey, and it always seems to be assumed that to "date" means to quicly have a romp in the sack.

    It wasn't so blatant five decades ago -- but it certainly is now, isn't it?

    Satan loves it, too -- to war against the passions is difficult, for it may well me cutting off the input of such things, and turning to prayer and fasting as our Savior, the Apostles, and the Holy Fathers direct.

    Where else to turn but to Christ in order to breath in this poison drenched atmosphere?

    Ezekiel

  3. Christopher D. Hall said...

    But art doesn't just imitate life. Art gives us a lens through which to view and understand life as well. That a certain generation was brought up to glorify and worship sex is true, but media not only reflects this, but preaches this "gospel" to themselves and others. We didn't have a sexual revolution in my generation because it was already there, being celebrated and foisted upon us by those my parent's age (sorry if this makes anyone feel old).

  4. Christopher D. Hall said...

    Very nice comment, Ezekiel! That's exactly what I was implying in my post, but you have added the medicine to it.

  5. Anonymous said...

    Traditionally, the two witnesses in Revelation are identified as Enoch and Elijah, who never died, and are sent back to Earth at the end to prophesy and recieve a martyrs' death. This understanding would remove a great burden from Evangelical youth, who could then cease wondering if they, as the appointed ones, should begin to speak words of Doom to strangers on streetcorners.

    Ezekiel's comment reminds me of something David B. Hart wrote, about the spectrum of wit represented on T.V. sitcoms ranging between the pre-coital and post-coital. Check out his essay "The Pornography Culture" at "The New Atlantis".