Recently a young woman posed the following question to Pastor John Piper: “Pastor John, do you believe there is a difference between film nudity versus pornography? I know many Christians who are against porn, but they have no issue watching movies or TV shows that show graphic nudity.”
TV shows like HBO’s Game of Thrones are hugely popular, and their casual treatment of nudity, as well as graphic sex scenes that include rape and other depictions of violence against women, is unquestioned and accepted.
As believers, what is our responsibility to the culture around us? Are we to engage society by participating in it? Or are we called to be different, to be alien, or to use an Old Testament word, to be holy?
Here is a portion of Pastor John’s response, as he discusses the pursuit of greater purity of heart and mind:
In our day, when entertainment media is virtually the lingua franca [common language] of the world, this is an invitation to be an alien. And I believe with all my heart that what the world needs is radically bold, sacrificially loving, God-besotted, “freaks” and aliens. In other words, I am inviting you to say no to the world for the sake of the world.
The world does not need more cool, hip, culturally savvy, irrelevant copies of itself. That is a hoax that has duped thousands of young Christians. They think they have to be hip, cool, savvy, culturally aware, watching everything in order not to be freakish. And that is undoing them morally and undoing their witness.
Please take the time to read Pastor John’s entire response to this important question. You can read the article here.