Recently, I finally broke down and read Stephanie Myer’s Twilight. Around the same time I started reading Sex 180: the next revolution by Chip Ingram and Tim Walker. Strangely enough, they combine to show important things about our culture and sex. According to Sex 180, Hollywood’s way of finding love starts with the physical, goes to emotional, next to social, then to psychological, and lastly to the spiritual. In Twilight, Bella and Edward’s relationship starts out with the physical and their chemistry. She can’t keep her eyes off of this mysterious and gorgeous teenager, and ogles him. Even she can sense that this is bad:
“I couldn’t allow him to have this level of influence over me. It was pathetic. More than pathetic, it was unhealthy.” p. 74
Yet, Bella completely ignores all of the warning signs about her infatuation with Edward. He warns her that she should stay away, but she does not listen. She believes that he is “bad”–but not “dangerous.” She doesn’t fear that she is Edward’s “heroin”–her smell matches his exact taste for blood. Moreover, they test their limits by kissing frequently and they sleep together, although they do not have sex. Yet their relationship is very physical, and some of theses actions are very sensuous and would normally lead to “going to far.” You see the emotional in their relationship. She falls “irrevocably” in love with him, even though she barely know him. According to Sex 180, the social is meeting friends and family. Bella meets Edward’s family, all of who accept and love her except for Rosie, and Bella finally reluctantly introduces Edward to her dad. In the psychological stage, they question their relationship and Edward thinks it would be better if they did not see each other. By the end of the book, they’re still together, but this relationship if sure to come up with more serious problems. The Spiritual phase is when God is finally part of their relationship–according the Sex 180–usually the wedding. I read that in the Twilight saga, they will not be married until the fourth book. But, even in the first book, there is a troubling aspect: Bella totally loves Edward and wants to become a vampire like Edward, even if it means losing her soul. Let me repeat: Bella totally loves Edward and wants to become a vampire like Edward, even if it means losing her soul. No one is worth giving up your spiritual life for. It shows how unhealthy such relationships can be. In Sex 180, our relationships should be the opposite–a correct triangle with the largest part (the base) on the bottom. Our relationships should be founded with the spiritual first then the Psychological, social, emotional, and–lastly–the physical. This is God’s intention for our relationships, because if God is not holding our love life together, nothing will. This is meant to show how our culture thinks our relationships should be. If you are a Twilight fan, please don’t be offended, but take a closer look at Bella and Edward’s relationships to evaluate if such a relationship would be pleasing to God. On a second look it might appear that vampires, our culture, and God’s laws do not equal true love and God’s plans for sexuality.
