Reflections on a YA Novel

I borrowed a book from the library because someone I love likes it. Loves it. The novel was labeled as young adult and it left me heartbroken. Heartbroken for the youth and young adults who have read and will read it and love it. Who will take the worldview in it and let it form their definitions and viewpoints. The most concerning one being the shaping of how they see love and sex.

The book was full of violence and soft porn. The main character knew she loved someone because of how their sexual encounter made her feel. Physical pleasure is what defined love. Sex was portrayed as an escape from hard life, as a pleasurable animal instinct. My heart tore as I thought of how many girls would be drawn to the main two characters. His strength and beauty. Protectiveness and danger. Her strength and bravery. Her owning who she was and coming out on top.

You will notice that I haven’t given you the title of this novel. And I won’t. For two reasons: 1) To protect the someone I love. 2) Because banning another book is not the answer. We need to teach what it means to think on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Youth and young adults are at the brink of being their own person. Independent. Making their own choices. They need to know what truth is so that when they see the world’s cheap imitation they will put it aside for what is greater.

Church, we need to be better. The silence on what God has created sex to be has allowed the world’s definition of it to stand. Our fear and awkwardness of discussing the sacred has robbed both the church and world of the true beauty of sex. Our mantra needs to go beyond “save yourself for marriage” and “homosexuality is wrong”. I have only started to scratch the surface in the last couple of years of what beauty and mystery there is to discover. Of seeing the place of both singles and marrieds in the body of Christ. For far too long men and women belonging to Christ have been held captive by the lies of the world that have seeped into the church. Now is the time to stand up and fight.