A Response to Anti-Biblical Remarks of Jennifer Lawrence
Dear reader,
Today’s culture is teeming with young women many of us aspire to be like and even idolize. Jennifer Lawrence, known as “the girl on fire” in the wildly popular Hunger Games franchise, is one such celebrity. Not only is she an attractive and gifted actress, but she isn’t afraid to speak her mind, a trait which, in and of itself, is admirable.
Ms. Lawrence’s talent has brought not only wealth, coveted roles and critical acclaim, but an enormous platform from which to broadcast her opinions to millions of devoted fans. Recently, in an in-depth interview with Glamour magazine, she was outspoken about Planned Parenthood and its distribution of contraceptives, insinuating that the organization even had a part in her success as an actress. Here she is in her own words:
“But seriously. What harm comes from supplying people with birth control, condoms, Pap smears and cancer screenings?”
Editor-in-Chief Cindy Leive asked Ms. Lawrence if she had gone to Planned Parenthood for the things she mentioned. The actress replied that she had and that “now I am a successful woman who has not had a pregnancy.”
Ms. Lawrence was raised in a Christian home, or what she calls, a “Jesus house.” Condoms and birth control were “things [she] needed as a normal teenager.”
For reasons unknown, the actress has abandoned the morality that presumably accompanied her Christian upbringing and has instead subscribed to the fashionable postmodern worldview that decries absolutes, distrusts dogma and writes off godly principles as personal preferences.
According to postmodernism, everyone creates their own reality. And if God exists, He has no say on how we should live our lives or what we should believe. Want to have sex? Postmodernism says someone can certainly do so whenever and with whomever they like. Want to have unprotected sex? Postmodernism says no problem: Abortions are available to suit someone’s needs should they have an unwanted pregnancy.
There’s no doubt why so many people consume postmodern views like candy, especially when that candy is served by a vivacious starlet like Jennifer Lawrence. Postmodern and New Age beliefs hold that every person is either one with God or is a god. Such people supposedly decide their own morality, become the center of their own universe, and no one has the right to tell them any different. Looks sweet, sounds sweet, tastes sweet, but these are among the bitterest precepts one can swallow.
In his letter to Timothy, Paul warned of a time “when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.”
This is exactly what is happening today as moral relativism is being propagated and displayed by Hollywood “teachers.” Teachers who, like Jennifer Lawrence, view premarital sex as a “normal” and acceptable activity for teenagers.
Questioning God’s design and minimizing His Word is nothing new. In fact, the very first example of postmodernism rearing its deadly head is in the book of Genesis when Satan said to Eve, “‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'” He tempted Adam and Eve to question propositional truth, leading them to fuse their own meaning into God’s command against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve assumed authority for themselves, playing God, as it were. Isn’t that what we see in the modern pleasure-crazed, if-it-feels-good-do-it culture? Like Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun.”
I encourage you today, dear reader, to proactively guard your heart, “the wellspring of life”; to mind what you take in with your eyes, the “lamp of the body”; and to honor God with your body. While there has always been evil in the world and all manner of predators who either blatantly or subtly seek to corrupt our hearts, we live in an age in which it easy to be ensnared by negative influences. The Internet, TV shows, movies and magazines bombard us daily with ideas and images of what the world has labeled “beautiful,” “desirable,” “healthy” and “cool.” (Just check out the trending hashtags on Twitter or Instagram to see an example.) Most of the time, what’s deemed beautiful, desirable, healthy and cool flies in the face of biblical teaching and rewards rebellion against God while discouraging a relationship with Him.
In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul exhorts us not to “copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” We can’t defend against being polluted by postmodernism alone. It is only through Christ that we can have victory and, indeed, be “more than conquerors.” As Jesus said so beautifully, He is the vine, we are the branches, and apart from Him we can do nothing.
The media and the majority of its shining stars promote an atheistic narrative that sounds appealing, looks attractive and even sometimes appears to bring greater happiness than what Christianity offers. We would be wise to remember the words of King Solomon, the wisest king to ever rule, who said this:
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12).
It’s my prayer that we as Christian women would embrace this time of increasing moral depravity and sweet-tasting deception as an opportunity to shine ever brighter with the light of Jesus Christ. The world needs us to speak up for the truth and hold firm to the inerrant and infallible Word of God. I also pray that the Holy Spirit would grant us the wisdom and discernment necessary to recognize false teaching when we hear it, prideful secular humanism when we see it, and to “build ourselves up in the most holy faith” as we “keep [ourselves] in the love of God.” I pray that Ms. Lawrence would open her heart to Christ so she might know the One who loved her enough to die on a cross for her. He has an amazing plan for her life, as well as yours and mine, that not even Hollywood could dream up!
Thank you so much,
Diana Tyler {eoa}
Diana Anderson-Tyler is the author of multiple books on Faith and Fitness and she is a co-owner and coach at CrossFit 925. Diana can be found on Twitter here.
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This article originally appeared on movieguide.org.
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