20-something single woman says 'no thanks' to 50 Shades & Christian Grey
TULSA, Okla. (Christian Examiner) – A "five-foot-sassy-independent-on-occasion-stubborn-twenty-something-woman" decided she deserves something more for Valentine's Day, and wants people to know "Fifty Shades of Grey" is not even close to attracting her to line up at the theater.
Melissa Meredith even tosses the movie's main Christian Grey in the process, declaring she doesn't need him or anyone drawn to "secretly indulging in porn" or "P O R N" she writes, but rather wants to be known as a woman of integrity.
"It's radical, I know."
The single women's ministries leader at Evergreen Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Tulsa,Oklahoma, Meredith was born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. She earned an undergraduate degree in Christian education at Hannibal LaGrange University in Hannibal, Missouri and an M.Div from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Melissa shares her Facebook post with Christian Examiner:
My name is Melissa and I am a twenty-something woman who will not be going to the movie theater to watch "Fifty Shades of Grey" on Valentine's Day or any other day.
I have this radical idea that loveless sex + degradation is not a story worth being written, produced, released, or watched for entertainment. I have this radical idea that love is not dehumanizing or manipulative. I have this radical idea that sexual violence that is glamorized is still sexual violence. And I have this radical idea that girls and boys and women and men who have been abused, are being abused, and will be abused demand an altogether different story be told.
And I have this radical idea that the generations of beautiful, strong young women underneath me demand something more than. Because this isn't love. Fifty Shades of Grey isn't a story, isn't art, isn't freedom of speech. Real love, real art changes us, moves us....for good.
My name is Melissa, and I won't be watching "Fifty Shades of Grey." And I'm praying my future husband won't be either. Because I just have this radical idea that my future marriage is worth more. And it starts now with the choices I make. That just as I don't want him someday secretly indulging in porn, I don't want to publicly indulge in porn and watch this movie. Because this five-foot-sassy-independent-on-occasion-stubborn-twenty-something-woman is calling "Fifty Shades" what it is: P O R N.
And I have this radical idea that's not the woman I want to be known for, a woman who indulges in the lustfulness of her flesh. I want something more, even if it is hard and I have to go against the grain and ask for accountability and rely on strength higher than I and train myself. I want to be a woman of integrity, of character becoming, and passion pure. It's radical, I know.
My name is Melissa, and I won't be watching Christian Grey this Valentine's Day, or ever.
And for my fellow sisters in Christ, here's a little encouragement from one sister to another, in love always (Galatians 5:19, Ephesians, 4:19, I Peter 4:1-3, Matthew 5:28, and 1 Corinthians 13:4).
Melissa Meredith
The movie, "Fifty Shades of Grey" is set to open this Valentine's weekend in theaters. It is based on the New York Times best-selling trilogy "Fifty Shades Darker" and "Fifty Shades Freed" has been hugely criticized by domestic abuse advocates and Christian ministers.
The LifeSiteNew website promotes a boycott of the movie that had been signed by nearly 75,000 Thursday, Feb. 11, with a goal of 100,000. The boycott is addressed to "Executives at Universal Pictures and Focus Features," and expresses "outrage" at a movie it says promotes "misogyny, abuse, and sado-masochism under the guise of "romance."
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