"New Moon" Love

Jamie and I saw New Moon last night. I have a Jr. High girl in my house, so the Twilight Saga is a common topic in the Myers house. I have to say that I wasn't that impressed with this movie. It just seemed ridiculous to me. And honestly, some portions were unsettling. I'm not suggesting it's evil and Christians should stay away from it or anything. It just made me wonder if Hollywood is more responsible for the divorce rate in this country than I thought they were.

If you think about it, divorces have become increasingly more common on a similar timeline with the advent and increasing popularity of the film industry. (I don't have any hard research behind that statement; just a general observation.)

This is what I think might be happening. New Moon and similar movies generally portray romantic love in one of two unhealthy ways.

1. Romantic love is equated with sex. The idea of love without sex is completely foreign. Or romantic people are portrayed as seeking one sexual conquest after another. It's carnal and has nothing in common with the Biblical view of love or sex.
2. Romantic love is elevated to worship. (This is New Moon's issue.) Hollywood loves to portray this idea that there's a person out there somewhere who will bring about our highest good. (Jerry McGuire: "You complete me!") There's a person who will be your one and only, bring total happiness to your life, will make your life worth living, whose absence would make your life meaningless, will be worth sacrificing all your morals and standards for, etc... While this idea of love seems more pure, it's actually equally dangerous and unBiblical.

We need to remember (and teach our children) that whenever we put people in a position that only God can realistically fill, it always ends badly.

That Hollywood view of love will almost always end badly, because it can't sustain the weight of our expectations. Only God can carry that weight.