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Bishop: "Fifty Shades Of Grey" Is A Sin

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  I’m not going to tell you that you may not go to see the movie, Fifty Shades of Grey.  I’m just going to tell you to do so would be a sin. To sin is to deliberately go against God’s plan and His will for us; to expose ourselves to something that denigrates sexuality and glorifies the abuse of this gift.  All sins appear good and even pleasant from the outside or people would not choose to commit them. Take for example, the fruit on the tree in the Garden of Eden. But a deeper inspection reveals rotten fruit which only harms us and others.  It is sad to see pornography mainstreamed to a new level in our society and women, who through the centuries have been the victims of men’s use as sexual objects, now glorifying the abuse. 

 

What is pornography and why is it wrong?  The Catechism explains this well: “Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.” (CCC, par 2354)

 

Pornography perverts the true purpose of sexual expression.  God created sex as a life-giving expression of mutual self-donation of husband and wife.  Sexual expression is the language of this unique and Godlike love in which each says to the other, “I give myself to you wholly and completely and without reservations.”  By its nature as the highest physical expression of human love, this love is unconditional and lifelong.  This essence of the meaning of sexual expression is confirmed in its potential to be the context in which new life is engendered.  The child then becomes the living, breathing confirmation of the couple’s love. 

 

Whereas the true nature of this gift is to allow a person to give himself or herself for the sake of the other, in pornography and in practically every other misuse of this gift the end becomes, not self-donation, but self-gratification—the opposite of its intended purpose.  This is not in any way to say that sexual expression is not intended by God to be enjoyed, but it is to realize that the greatest joy comes in the act of self-giving, not in self-seeking.

 

It is true that in our frail and fallen human nature, it can be a struggle to allow our sexuality to find its proper expression in our lives.  Not only in matters of sex, but in all that we do our lives are filled with challenges to truly love the other rather than to seek our own benefit.  We must always struggle to control our appetites so that they don’t control us.  The fact that our appetite for food can lead us to overeat or, to eat unhealthy food, should not lead us to glorify overeating or obesity.  We sympathize with those who do have problems with this and we seek to help them. 

 

The problem with “Fifty Shades of Grey” is that it glorifies sexual gluttony.