On Fifty Shades and Redeeming Love

Before I go further, here are two book reviews on the two novels that affected me so much that I had to write about them…

Fifty Shades of Grey be E.L James Book Review

Fifty Shades of Grey is the story of a college student, Anastasia, who begins a relationship with a 27 year old very successful and powerful businessman, Christian Grey, after interviewing him for her college newspaper. Ana loses her virginity to Christian, and he wants her to sign a non-disclosure agreement and a contract that keeps their relationship purely sexual and defines how their relationship as one of "dominance and submission."

The novel plays on tension over the nature of their relationship and the possibility of romance and love as well as Ana's sexual explorations. 

Fifty Shades of Grey fits into the genre of erotica, but has gained mainstream popularity rather than remaining genre fiction. Many credit the advent of e-readers as allowing women to read books without others knowing what they are reading.

(By Erin Collazo Miller. http://bestsellers.about.com/od/bookclubresources/a/What-Is-Fifty-Shades-Of-Grey.htm )

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers Book Review

“Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers, a more modern telling of the book of Hosea, tells the story of a woman who was born to a single mother as a result of her affair with a married man. At seven years of age Sarah had already learned just how harsh and cruel this world can be. Her father did not want her and her mother, fighting poverty, resorted to prostitution to make ends meet. When Sarah is eight years old, her mother dies, leaving Sarah in the care of her “Uncle Rab” who sells her into prostitution.

Fast forward to age 18. Angel, Sarah’s new name, is living in Pair-A-Dice, California. She has experienced several failed attempts to escape prostitution but has now landed herself in the employ of the Duchess and her bodyguard/enforcer, Magowan. Having been in this profession for 10 years, Angel has become hardened and exhausted. She wishes that she could just end her life, but lacks the courage to do so.

Enter Michael Hosea. One day, during one of Angel’s daily walks, Michael Hosea is selling his produce to the local store and happens to catch a glimpse of this beautiful woman. Immediately he hears in his heart, “This one, beloved.” Knowing that the Lord has spoken, Michael begins asking the merchant questions only to find out that Angel is a prostitute. Surely he has misunderstood the Lord. After a lot of soul searching, Michael Hosea knows that he has heard the Lord and that Angel is to be his bride. Using all the gold he has earned selling his produce, Michael spends several nights trying to talk to Angel and woo her to no avail. Finally frustrated and angry that nothing is working, Michael heads home. For days the Lord will not leave him alone about Angel and Michael fears that something is terribly wrong. Once back in town to sell more produce, Michael finds out that Angel has been beaten almost to death. That night he convinces Angel to marry him and takes her home to nurse her back to health.

During her recovery and for months after, Angel does all she can to push Michael away. He’s getting to close and if she lets him in she’ll fall apart completely. Michael continues to try to plow through her defenses. Though by no means perfect, Michael desperately wants her to see how much he loves her and wants her to be whole and free. Each time Angel runs away, he brings her back. Each time she pushes, he tries desperately to show her love instead of anger. Overall he’s tender and patient and accepting and begins to slowly work to climb the walls in Angel’s heart. But just when Angel’s heart begins to soften, she begins to feel unworthiness and fear and she continues to run. When she is finally able to let go and heal, it is because she finally feels the love of the One who will never let her go no matter what she does. Then, and only then, does she finally accept the love of her husband and is able to let him in completely; once again becoming Sarah, wife to Michael Hosea..
(By April McKinnon. http://peterpollock.com/2010/11/redeeming-love-by-francine-rivers-book-review-by-april-mckinnon ).

My Thoughts

Although I have not read more than two pages of “Fifty Shades of Grey” I have heard about it and I understood a lot from the two pages I read. I am not condemning the novel that has sold more copies than Harry Potter but something recently struck me about the two novels.
They have one big thing in common- Both their central themes are love. However, whilst in “Fifty Shades of Grey” there is a lot of sex and physical love/lust, in “Redeeming Love”, the love presented between man and woman has no explicit sexual content and represents a more pure and unconditional love. A good Christian, virgin man falls in love with a prostitute and does everything to get her to be his wife- unconditional love. Now think about this, in “Fifty Shades”, if Ana was missing an eyeball and had half her face burnt, would My Grey still feel so lustfully towards her?

What I am getting at is that “Fifty Shades of Grey”, sadly, represents a love that today we think is true love, but it is not. It is more like lust and infatuation. Our relationships are based on sexual attractions and lust fueled by social status, economic status and other materialistic things. Sadly, this is what people know and want to read. Can you not see? This type of ‘love’ is all about the gratification of our flesh. The same flesh that remains and decays after we die.

The meaning of love has been watered down and poisoned to the point where when someone says, “I love you” it is like saying “you are attractive enough for me to want to sleep with”. Hard as it may be we need to go back to the true, pure meaning of love.

The love represented in the Bible in the book of Hosea and in 1 Corinthians 13. God is love; let us learn from him, not from man.