Purity and Media

Game of Thrones. One of the most popular TV shows right. now. 6.6 MILLION viewers, making it one of the most watched shows in quite some time. But what makes it so popular? I have to admit, I have been extremely intrigued by the storyline, or the idea of the storyline. I love anything fantastical, dragons, wars, kings and queens. Reading and writing that genre has always been a passion of mine, and any time a good fantasy TV show starts, I'm usually immediately tuning in. But...I haven't watched a single episode of Game of Thrones. Don't get me wrong, the story looks fantastic, and there are a million different politcal, cultural, and social constructs that seem magnificent, but there's one thing I cannot get past...and you know what's coming--the blatant sexually explicit material.

Now, it's hard to breach this topic when to shy away from sexually provocative material can instantly label me as a prude. But I do believe that sex is a wonderful gift from God to create intimacy and yes, pleasure, between a man and a woman within a commited marriage. Growing up in the church, we are encouraged CONSTANTLY to strive for purity, to seek to remain pure until marriage. Too many abandon such a goal by the time they reach their

twneties, and I can't help but wonder how much influence the media has on this outcome. Sexual desire is a STRONG force. And when young, single men and women are surrounded by it day after day, the will to resist just gets beaten down.

So, I will not watch shows that show such graphic, dare I say it, pornography within its sixty-minute time slot. Such images are a perversion of what God intended. And when we fill our minds with images outside of that, are we letting the world dictate what a relationship should be, rather than what God has designed for us to enjoy?

Purity is more than a physical state, act, or concept. It is mental and spiritual as well. And this expands to more than just Game of Thrones, but every movie or television show we choose to expose our hearts and minds to. When we even hear in movies or TV shows such vulgar and sexually explicit talk, not only are we polluting our minds, we are supporting and encouraging the repetition of this aspect of our culture that we criticize amongst our Christian brothers and sisters. We are perpetuating our culture's objectification of women and perversion of the beauty that God intended sex to be. As Christians, aren't we called to a different standard?

I challenge you to think about what you are letting into your minds and, consequently, into your hearts. How can we criticize the oversexualization American society reflects during the day while engaging in 'society-approved' porn at night?

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