Unpop Culture

With the publication of my essay “When Art Becomes Sinful” in the book Cultural Engagement (Zondervan, 7/9/19), I am now working to further promote an often-overlooked message that seems to hit a nerve every time I write about it. Toward that end, I am creating an online course that will help people find greater clarity and freedom in addressing entertainment choices with hypersexual content (nudity, sex scenes, etc.). This material will enable Christians to better understand, evaluate, and engage with sexualized media. Some content from previous blog posts and articles will be repurposed, but a large portion of the material in this course will be completely new. Beta testing of the course will commence in a month or two, during which a select and generous group of authors, pastors, and artists have agreed to provide me with feedback. As it now stands, this material will be divided into 12 lessons. Each lesson will include the following components: 1) Video content ...

It’s true that some actors perform nude and/or sex scenes without any form of coercion. Indeed, there are those who almost seem to relish the opportunity to undress for the camera. As Christian patrons, that shouldn’t provide us with any comfort. When we financially support films with degrading sex and nudity, we support a subculture that abuses those actors who do have a problem with publicly disrobing and sexually acting out. Maybe it would help to look at it in this way. Consider, if you will, two pertinent groups in this discussion. In the first group are plenty of actors—many of whom are not professing Christians—who experience serious reservations about exposing themselves to the public at large. It’s not because they are trying to glorify God with their bodies, their words, or their actions. It’s not necessarily because they subscribe to a Christian sexual ethic. Still, their consciences bother them when it comes to nudity and sex scenes. That’s the first group of p...

I’m not quite sure what it was that teed me off initially. Our Sunday morning started innocently enough: we woke up and began the process of getting ready for church—something that involves more gymnastics these days, now that we have a newborn daughter. (I’ve never had to deal with projectile poop before.) I was finishing changing my daughter’s diaper when she spat up, ruining the outfit I had just wrestled her back into. Seeds of impatience sprouted out of my mouth: “Your timing sucks,” I told my uncomprehending daughter. After switching out her clothes, I brought her out of the room, only to encounter our cat in front of me, seemingly determined to get tangled up in my legs as I walked. Juggling a baby and dribbling a cat aren’t activities you want to combine. “You’re really stupid, you know that?” I barked at the cat. (Huh. Pun not intended.) In response, my wife Shannon put out her arms and asked for the baby, advising me to take my shower so I could be alone for a while...