Doctrine

An Affair with Magic Mike and the Sixth Commandment

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By Christina Hamilton

While browsing around Facebook, I saw that Channing Tatum was on the Ellen Show promoting the new Magic Mike Live show. It will of course be traveling from town to town all across the US of A to entertain screaming women of all ages. Since the first appearance of Magic Mike on the big screen, it has become mainstream, an accepted and welcome part of women’s culture. The more I stopped to think about it, the more concerned I became.

Ladies, before you protest, let’s think back many years ago before Magic Mike amazed and enthralled us and bear with me. Centuries ago, men enjoyed saloon girls’ attentions while the wives stayed home, forced to tolerate it. Fast forward a few years to burlesque shows designed to tantalize men. Now we have the wonderful sleazy strip clubs where lap dances run amok and it is a perfectly acceptable thing, along with hiring strippers for bachelor parties, corporate parties, etc. I know many women might say that is only fair for us to have Magic Mike to even things out. What is good for the goose is good for the gander, right? But let me ask you these questions:

  • Do two wrongs make a right?
  • How did you feel the first time you found out your husband went to a strip club or attended a party where a stripper had been hired?
  • If that has that has not happened, think about it for a second, about how you would feel if he did.

The rationale behind these types of businesses and the like is that it’s harmless and is just for fun, fantasy, relaxation, etc. But is it? Is it really? What does it do to someone to know another person was sexually stimulating their significant other? Does it foster trust in that relationship or create doubt? Does it strengthen the relationship or chip away at it? Does it create feelings of self-worth or feelings of inadequacy and insecurity?

Speaking strictly for myself, IF my husband was frequenting those establishments (which he is not), and we have a plethora of them in our city, I would feel many emotions: betrayed, guilty, abandoned, worthless, unattractive and unwanted. Those feelings would be completely justified. The reason why is because going where there are strippers to interact with them in a way that sexually arouses is infidelity. Period. It always has been.

Plenty of people will want to argue that fact, saying because there is no sex involved, it’s not cheating. Our Lord Jesus would disagree. In Matt. 5:27-29, Jesus says, “You have heard it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

So what is this verse saying, that if we even look at someone with desire, we are committing adultery? Yes, it is. That is exactly what it says. This applies to us watching Magic Mike Live and men putting bills in a G-string. This applies to us women hanging up firemen calendars and men flipping through Playboy. It applies to porn of any kind. It applies to looking another person up and down and staring too long at our favorite regions of the opposite sex.

Granted, we as human beings can appreciate the beauty of God’s creation in others without thinking sexually but if we are truly honest with ourselves, how often do we do that? Any time someone other than your spouse stimulates you sexually, turns you on, you have by Jesus’s own definition committed adultery with them. It does not matter if there was physical contact or not.

Are we all guilty of this? Yes, emphatically yes! Let’s accept that fact and come to repentance. Just as Christ stood between Mary and the riotous horde foaming at the mouth to stone her, He does so for us. Every time we fall, He reaches His hand down to us, lifts us out of the dirt, looks at us with love and says, “Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”

So the next time your gal pals say, “Let’s go to see Magic Mike” or “Chippendale’s is coming to town and I’ve got tickets,” remember that ring on your left hand and the vow you made to keep yourself only for your husband. Encourage your hubby to do the same.

Photo Credit to kenji rossSome rights reserved.

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