Fifty Shades of Grey: Practicing Love

In the bookish community, E. L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey had women rushing to their local bookstores to buy and devour the three books in this series.  In the Christian community, this erotic series also struck a nerve, only this time women ran to the pulpit and warned fellow Christians that by reading these books you were essentially committing adultery against your husbands.  Now, I would almost never read romance novels, let alone those classified as erotica.  But as a Christian living in a secular world, I yearn to practice acceptance and unconditional love, to show the love of Jesus to the world.  Unfortunately, outright condemnation of books does not accomplish this goal.   And so I, along with my husband (he’s pretty amazing!), set out to discern the real meaning of Fifty Shades of Grey.

We were surprised.  Pleasantly surprised.

While the vivid intimate scenes were, um . . . .interesting and not for innocent virgin eyes, the book encompasses so much more than sex.  And so, to dwell on the sexual content of the book would be doing EL James a disservice.   In my perspective, the BDSM aspect of the novel adds a layer of complexity to an already intriguing story that ultimately captured me. 

Fifty Shades of Grey tells a love story.  And both participants are believable, unsuspecting and innocent in their own way.  On the one side we have the incredibly gorgeous and wealthy Christian Grey.  On the outside he appears to be an arrogant and entitled man.  Yet, on the inside, he is broken.  This brokenness fosters his apparent need for domineering relationships.  But this brokenness also draws in the young and innocent Ana.  Ana’s innocence is tangible.  Having never been involved in a serious relationship, she has a lot to learn from Christian.  But, like most women, she is indecisive.   Throughout the novel, she is confronted by her two inner voices: her subconscious counterpoised against her inner goddess.   Her subconscious will not allow herself to believe that plain, yet intelligent Ana, could be in love with the fifty shades of messed up Grey.  But her inner goddess rejoices in the way he makes her feel.  This push and pull is familiar and relatable.

This first novel of the trilogy centers on the need for “more”.  Both characters long for something: Christian for his contract relationship and Ana for a man to love her and treat her with respect.  Isn't life always about wanting more?

I’m a sucker for a good love story.  E. L. James tells a moving, albeit unrealistic, story of two people who cannot seem to imagine life without each other.  I might not recommend Fifty Shades of Grey to all my friends, but we, in the Christian community, should not condemn a novel merely because it involves sexual material.  Instead, let us practice love, not the romantic love we’re reading about, but the love God shares for all of humanity, broken and all.