The Positive & Healthy Alternative to 50 Shades

Catholic journalist Patti Maguire Armstrong wrote an article containing an interview with an exorcist and his deliverance team about the dangers of 50 Shades of Grey. One member of the deliverance team even said that the character of Christian Grey is a mockery of Christianity. 

Warning people of the dangers of things is fine and good. But merely discouraging people from acting on distorted attractions and desires by laying out the consequences only works so far. Clucking at them will not help.  If anything, it will only send them racing back to the bookstore or the library for more 50 Shades. If you give them wholesome Theology of the Body romance novels or wholesome romance movies with good Christian male protagonists, the attraction to unhealthy romance stories like 50 Shades will fade with time. Just like St. John Vianney did with the Devil's antics, you and others around you will see 50 Shades for what it really is: boring, childish, silly, and harmful to our dignity and the dignity of the actors. When we do that, the next time we see 50 Shades on the bookshelf at the library or bookstore or see 50 Shades as a listing on a streaming platform, we'll say, "Oh, it's you, horca,"* and continue our search for a story that's true, good, and beautiful.

Seeing an abusive man with the name Christian Grey end up in a permanent relationship with the woman he abused won't be as impressive after reading a book about a decent and Godly man wooing a virtuous young lady while protecting her purity and chastity by not sleeping with her until marriage. Seeing a woman have her distorted desire for vulnerable and submission to a man satisfied by being dominated by a man won't be as apealling after you've been exposed to some good and wholesome romantic fiction in which the woman's desire to submit to a man and be vulnerable is expressed and satisfied in a healthy way. 

A man who waits to sleep with his lady until marriage is a desirable man. A man who protects his lady from the sin of lust is a man worth keeping. A lady who expresses a desire to be vulnerable and submit to her man in a healthy way is a desirable lady. 

*Horca is Spanish for pitchfork.