by Nancy Linenkugel
Contributor
News reports this week announced that the film, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” rocketed to Number 1 as the box office draw for Valentine’s Day weekend 2015. Is anyone surprised at that? I’m not. After all, when the Catholic church specifically singles out this movie as something not to go see, isn’t that all the more reason to go see it?
Our bishops may be lacking social credibility when it comes to matters involving marriage, having sex, and relationship counseling only because our bishops are celibate men. However, our bishops are certainly respected teachers and holy men.
I’m just wondering if reaction from the public would have been different if the bishops took a different approach regarding this movie. Instead of issuing a strong directive that no one should go see this movie (akin to God telling Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree) – which just makes everyone more interested in seeing it – what if the church’s message was something like this:
The film “Fifty Shades of Grey” is being released with much hype and expectation, especially since it’s based on a best-selling novel. Should you choose to see this film, we trust that you will use your maturity and strong upbringing to critically evaluate the contents and make choices in keeping with what you know strengthens the blessing of marriage and positive relationships.
That doesn’t sound like a gray area to me.
[Sr. Nancy Linenkugel is a Sylvania Franciscan sister and chair of the department of Health Services Administration at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio.]